This week's focus has been continuing to review r-controlled vowels. We have started with ar /ar/ and or, ore /or/ last week and this week, we have been looking at the three spelling combinations that make the /er/ sound as er, ir, ur spelling patterns. When we put the /r/ sound after a vowel, it completely changes the way the vowel sounds. It makes what we call an ‘r-controlled’ vowel but does have to include the vowel or some words would be missing a vowel and therefore, not a real word!
er /er/
This sound is usually represented using the letters er and is the most common spelling if the /er/ sound. The er spelling can come in the middle of a word, such as verb or fern. It can also come at the end of the word such as sister, her.
In this week's text called, My Sister's Fern, students are looking for all the words that have the /er/ sound based on the er spelling patterns to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern), followed up illustrating a picture of the story. Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that are re and not making the /er/ sound.
ur, ir /er/
Two other ways to make the /er/ sound is with the spelling patterns ir and ur. With the ir spelling, the /er/ sound can come in the middle of a word, such as girl and bird. It can also come at the end of the word such as sir and stir.
With the ur spelling, the /er/ sound can come at the beginning of the word such as urge and urn, in the middle of a word, such as turn and hurt but also it can also come at the end of the word such as fur and blur.
NOTE: students are confusing the /er/ sound with the /r/ sound. These are two different sounds and are tricky to differentiate.
To make the /er/ sound, your mouth is open slightly, teeth are apart and your lips are pushed outward slightly. Your tongue is in the middle of your mouth, touching your top teeth.
The /r/ sound is a super tricky sound to make. To make the /r/ sound, your tongue is up and pulled back. Your tongue is wide in your mouth and strong.
So when we read these words, we need to know that er, ir and ur all make the /er/ sound for when we are decoding. However, when we are spelling, this is when it gets tricky! How do we know which one to use!? We have shared this general chart with the students this week but in Grade 1/2, we are going to be generally happy with using one of them and learning as we go!
In this week's text called A Turtle Can Surf, students are looking for all the words that have the /er/ sound using the spelling patterns of ir, ur in the words to highlight, followed up illustrating a picture of the story.
Heart (Irregular) Words of the Week
Heart words are words that do not decode or follow the spelling rules that we have been learning. We have to know them by 'heart'. However, once we learn more spelling rules, they may be only temporary heart words and the rules will come along later! In the meantime, we have been focusing on reviewing and learning the words below.
This week we are reviewing:
- because
- people
- pretty
- nothing
- of
And we are introducing as new words:- other
- another
- mother
- brother
Fluency Grids
With each story, there is a fluency grid with the lesson focus that is intended to help students recognize the phonics rule and assist in reading it with accuracy and automaticity. We have created a little game in the classroom with this activity but at home, challenge your young reader to read the word (aim is to decode/read each word within 3 seconds) and then recall it each time they see it within the grid of mixed up, repeated words. A couple minutes of practice is all they need. This is going to be a little bit of a warm up before reading the text that also applies the same skill while building on all the previous skills as well. Each week we are building on the previous week to become more fluent readers so we can focus on what the text is sharing rather than spending all the time decoding the words.
**If this is too much at home with all the other things you are busy with, we totally understand! We will be using it in the classroom and saving paper to keep them all together in one spot. Thank you in advance if you do give it a whirl as another way to support your little reader based on the Science of Reading.**
Happy reading!
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