UFLI Phonics Lessons 94 & 95: June 9-13

This week's focus has been learning additional vowel teams. Vowel teams are two or more letters that work together to make one sound. 

Lesson 94: ea - short /e/ & a - short /o/ 

This week we learned there are some unique ways to make short vowel sounds of /e/ and /o/. These patterns are not very common and they only happen in a few words. We would really recognize these as heart words but it helps to know the pattern. 

ea - short /e/: We know ea spells the long /e/ like in mean and team. In some words, ea spells the short /e/ sound like in head, read, thread and bread. We just have to recognize that it could be both when we read (and write) and see which one sounds correct in our word to make it make sense. 

a - short /o/ - and there is this letter a that wants to make the short /o/ in some words. Again, we just have to recognize that it can do that as a heart word but is not as common. This usually happens when a follows w. some words like this are watch, water, father, wash and swamp.  

In this week's text called, Surprise on the Track, students are looking for words that have one of our special vowel patterns listed above. They are looking to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern). Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that include those letters that do not make the same sound as our vowel team we are looking for. This week we have Grade 1's continuing to illustrate the story while the Grade 2's are answering some comprehension questions about the story. Please use complete sentences to answer the questions and checked with COPPSS. 

Lesson 95: oi, oy - /oi/

Also this week, we learned about a new sound called a diphthong. This is a kind of vowel sound that glides which means our mouths move a little bit to as we make the sound.  

oi /oi/: The letters oi together spell the sound /oi/ and is usually in the middle of a word, such as the words point and coin. It can also come at the beginning of the word, such as the word oil.  

oy /oi/: The letters oy together can also spell the sound /oi/ and usually comes at the end of a word like boy and toy. 

To make the /oi/ sound, start with your lips gently rounded and your tongue low and toward the front, then pull your lips back and pull the back of your tongue toward the roof of your mouth. Be sure your voice is on. Like all vowels, /oi/ is a continuous sound that can be stretched out. 

In this week's text called, The Right Choice, students are looking for words that have one of our diphthong vowel patterns listed above. They are looking to highlight (the whole word that has that spelling pattern). Be careful for spelling patterns that are included in the story that include those letters that do not make the same sound as our vowel team we are looking for. This week we have Grade 1's continuing to illustrate the story while the Grade 2's are answering some comprehension questions about the story. Please use complete sentences to answer the questions and checked with COPPSS. 

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:

• won (vs one)
• son (vs sun)
• month
• hour
• minute

And we are introducing as new words:

• Monday
• Wednesday
• February

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. 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 acts as 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.**

Homework Reminders 

Students have been working on stories in their UFLI Stories book that comes home on Friday. At school, they work with a partner to complete their fluency grid, read with someone their story and highlight the focus words. The Grade 1's are illustrating a picture for the text to show their understanding. The Grade 2's are now working on written comprehension questions to respond to reading. At home, students are to finish the above tasks and read to an expert. After completing, parents are to initial at the indicated spot at the top. You are welcome to still record this reading on student reading logs in their Snuggle Up & Read. And also welcome to go back and read any other stories in the UFLI book as well that have been completed (within the clipped page). We want to reward all the practice students are doing!

Happy reading!