Phonics Lesson 70 dge /j/ & Phonics Lesson 72 Long vcc Words: Feb 9-13 (Reading Practice Book)

Phonics Lessons - Feb 9-13

Lesson 70: dge /j/

We have learned that the consonant digraph j spells /j/ like at the beginning of the word jar. The consonant g also spells /j/ when followed by a silent e, such as in the word cage.  

The grapheme dge is another way to spell /j/. This is a trigraph which means it is three letters that make one sound. The trigraph dge only comes at the end of the word and follows after a short vowel sound, as in the words dodge and bridge. 

We spent some time realizing the difference of when to use dge and ge. That gets confusing when there are choices to spell the same sound. We found that dge is used only at the end of words and only after short vowel sounds. However, ge is used when after a consonant or long vowel like in cage or charge. 

 

In this week's text called, The Lodge, students are looking for words with the trigraph dge to make the /j/ sound. They are looking to highlight the whole word with this spelling pattern. Students are also asked to illustrate the story to demonstrate their understanding of the text.

Lesson 72: Lon vcc Words

There are some tricky word endings that change the sound of the vowel ins words. It happens with the vowel and then followed by two specific consonant letter combinations on o and i words: 

ild - has a long i sound like in the word wild

ind - often, but not always, has the long i sound like in the word mind

old - with a long o sound like in the word told

olt - with a long o sound like in the word bolt

ost - often, but not always, has the long o sound like in the word host

We use our decoding strategy 'vowel owl' to know that vowels can sometimes say the other sound and we need to try both if the word doesn't sound right or make sense in our sentence. 

In this week's text called, The Gold Rush, students are looking for those words that follow these vcc (-ild, -old, -ind, -olt, -ost) spelling patterns that have the two consonants following the vowel change the vowel to a long vowel sound. They are looking to highlight the whole word. Students are also looking to illustrate the story to demonstrate their understanding of the text.

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 with focused in class practice. These will eventually (if not already) be on spelling word lists or word rings. 

This week we are reviewing:

• there
• where
• friend
• because
• woman
• women

This week's new words:

• move
• both

Fluency Grids
With each lesson, 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.

Homework Reminders
Students have been working on the story or stories in their Reading Practice book this week that will come home each weekend. At school, they work with a partner to complete their fluency grid, read with someone their story and highlight the focus words. Following, they are illustrating a picture for the text to show their understanding. 

At home, students are to finish the above tasks and read to an expert the week's lesson(s). After completing, parents are to initial at the indicated spot at the top. 

This week, we are have completed two lessons so there will be two stories to complete in their white Reading Practice booklet after the clip. Please see the information letter in the front of the book for more, detailed information about this weekend practice book coming home. Please return on Monday (or Tuesday if there is a no school day on Monday).

Happy reading!