Multisyllabic Words Part I: What is a syllable?

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When children begin to read they learn to read one syllable words-cat, hop, bit. As they become more advanced readers they encounter Multisyllabic Words such as: habitat, -words like these can give your child a deer in headlights kind of look to them. As students develop in reading they need to know how to identify chunks/syllables in words. For some children this comes naturally to them where others need some more assistance in this area. 

Lets pause for a moment and talk about what a syllable actually is. A syllable is a chunk or word part that contains at least one vowel and is pronounced with one push of breath. 

Here are some activities you can do to help your child understand what a syllable is;

Oral Activities:

• Place your hand under your chin, say a multisyllabic word and count how many times your feel your jaw drop.
• Look into a mirror and watch your mouth move as you say words. 
• Clap out syllable parts-begin with their name or the names of objects meaningful to them
• Have your child repeat a word but ask them to say it without the first syllable. Start with a compound word; you say:snowman      child says:man

Visual Activities:

• Make a list of short words and long words. Look at how many letters there are-more letters=more syllables. 

Teaching Vowel Sounds

Learning short vowel sounds can be difficult for early readers.  Some children find it difficult to discriminate between the  short i sound (like in the word, inch) and short e sound (like in the word, elephant). In school I teach using a program called Fundations.  http://www.wilsonlanguage.com/programs/fundations/

What I like about this program is that you teach students to practice reading a letter, saying a key word/picture clue and then saying the sound the letter makes. For the most part the program uses short one syllable words that are not difficult to pronounce as their key words.

With the vowel sounds in particular I have a story and hand motion to go along with the picture clue to further reach that multi-sensory approach we talked about a few weeks ago. 

I would like to share my silly stories with you in hopes that you can use them with your children.

A-Apple-/a/

The letter a is one scaredy cat.  He is afraid of little kids trying to scare him.  If a kids sneaks up behind him and yells "boo" he will make his sound which is /a/. 

I would lift up both of my hands as if I was scared when I make the /a/ sound.  Kids enjoy scaring the letter and yelling the sound.  Play it up and hide the letter and sneak it out so the kids can scare him. 

E-Edd-/e/

(you can show kids a picture of a character named Ed or a picture of an elephant for this one.  But which every you choice I use that picture in the story.

Here is a Ed the Elephant and he has a big problem.  He doesn't hear very well.  Let's try saying hi to Ed-have your child say hi .  When the child says hi he doesn't hear them and he says /eh/? Hold you hand up to your ear while saying the sound

Again play up the story and have the kids say hi louder and louder each time.

I-Itch-/i/

The Fundation cards have a picture of a monkey scratching.  You can have a picture of an inchworm or an insect.

I use the character on the card and tell the class that this monkey has fleas.  The fleas make the monkey very itchy.  Scratch your head of arm and make the /i/ sound.  The monkey makes the /i/ sound because being itchy is very icky.

O-Octopus-/o/

This octopus is going to the doctor.  When she goes to the doctor, the doctor asks her to open open her mouth and say /o/. I point around my mouth and show my kids how my mouth even looks like the letter o while I say that sound. 

While reviewing the letter I ask my kids to open up and say /o/ (seriously just like at the doctor's office)

U-up-/u/

I tell my students a story about when I was younger-true story too :)

When I was little, my brothers and I used to jump up and down on our beds have a pillow fight.  Well, this one time my big brother hit me pretty hard in the stomach with a pillow and the sound that I made was /u/.  I hold my stomach and double over.  I also show my students that the shape of my doubled over stomach is just like the letter u, it curves in. 

I hope this helps you with another way to teach your kiddos their vowel sounds. 

Vowel Power

The Power of Vowels! Yesterday I got on the topic of vowels with my son, how we got on this topic I have no idea.  I started to talk to him about R-Controlled vowels and how vowels are very special and can sound differently. After our conversation it got me thinking about sharing why and how we teach vowels-besides just their sounds. 



Here's a little background information for you;

The alphabet contains 26 letters, 5 of these letters are vowels (a,e,i,o,u) and the rest are consonants, except y which can be both.

A vowel sound is a sound that is made by allowing one breath of air to flow out of the mouth without closing the mouth or throat.

A consonant sound is made by blocking air from flowing out of the mouth with your teeth, lips, tongue or palate.

Y is a consonant when it is found at the beginning of a word (yellow) and a vowel when it is at the end of a word. 

Y makes the long i sound when it is at the end of a one syllable word (by, my, cry)
Y makes the long e sound when it is found at the end of a two syllable word (baby, crazy)

When children begin to learn their letters and sounds short vowel sounds are typically taught first. (cat, met, hut, hot, hit)

Now, on to teaching what the vowels are-it is important for children to be able to identify which letters are the vowels for a number of reasons.

• Every word in the English language has at least one vowel in it
• Every syllable has a vowel in it
• Children will learn to identify syllables in words in order to decode and spell-all by knowing where the vowels are located in the word. 
• Children will learn that vowels can come as teams (ai, oa, ee ...)
• Children will learn that vowels can be controlled by other letters (ar, or, ir..)

A song to help learn the names of the vowels;

The Vowel Song

(song to the tune of BINGO)

There are 5 vowels in the alphabet let's sing them all together

A-E-I-O-U

A-E-I-O-U

A-E-I-O-U

and sometimes Y's a vowel too.

Tips

·        Hold the sounds and blend

Mmmmmmaaaaaaap

·        Letter/Word/Picture clues

·        Use hand signs for the long and short sounds.

Stretch out arms long for the long sound and bring hands in quick and together for the short sound. 

·        Look for patterns and sort (word families-at, it, on, up, en). 

·        Use a mirror to show mouth position

Use symbols to show long and short vowel sounds