Digraphs: two consonants side by side that make one sound. We mark these digraphs by underlining.

               wh- we only know this sound to come at the beginning of words (when, what, whistle, whip)

               th- this sound is made by putting your tongue under your teeth (this, that, think, the)

               sh- this sound is made by clenching your teeth and puckering your lips (ship, shut, she)

               ch- this sound is made by clenching your teeth and pushing out a short breath (chip, chat)

               ck- we refer to this as the "strong sound" where c and k come together. This sound is                            only in the middle of words or at the end of words. (duck, quack, buckle, lucky) 

Bonus letters: two consonants side by side that are the same letter. We mark these bonus letters by drawing a small star above the second consonant.

              *                 *             *              *

        mess            puff         will          buzz

 Glued sounds: a group of two or three letters that make a special sound. These letters are glued and can not be broken apart, because then the sounds of the letters would change. We mark these by drawing a rectangle around the glued sounds. (The colored box here represents the rectangle.)

am , an- These two glued sounds make a nasal a sound. Hold your nose and say the glued sounds. You should be able to distinguish that this is NOT the short a sound as in c-a-t.

ham   jam    Pam    van    tan    Dan 

                all- This glued sound is similar to a short o followed by the bonus letters ll.   

                   * *                *

               wall                fall            mall

bank pink honk dunk

hang sing long lung

 Plurals: By adding the magic s to the end of a noun, we can make the noun plural (or more than one). We call the original noun the "baseword." We mark this sound by underlining the baseword and circling the magic s. (The colored boxes represent the circles.)

     *Please note: magic s does not apply to irregular verbs. We will address this in coming months. 

          pens         socks           rugs

 Suffixes: Beginning with a baseword, we add an ending to form a new word. We mark this by underlining the baseword and circling the suffix (much like magic s). The colored boxes represent the circles.

     * So far, we know the suffix of -ing. Next up: s  and  ed  on the end of verbs.

looking walking eating

 Blends: two consonants that blend together to make one sounds are called blends. These can be in the beginning, middle, or end of a word. Currently, we are marking blends that either begin or end a word. A blend is marked with two mini-underlines.

f i r s t j u m p n e x t 

f l y s p o t  b r u s h    (others include: tr,cr,cl,bl,sw,sl,sp,gr,fr,dr)

 Blended Digraphs: a common digraph with a single consonant. We have seen these in the beginning and the ending of words. We mark the blended digraph with a full underline for the digraph and a mini underline for the consonant.

          t h r e e  s h r i n k          l u n c h

 Three Letter Blends: three consonants blending together to make one sound. We mark this with three mini underlines, under each consonant.

s  p  l  a s h             s  p  r  a y           s  t  r  e e t