This morning, we began our first phonics and spelling lessons. Starting with a read aloud, The War Between the Vowels and Consonants, we reviewed the difference between vowels and consonants. We defined vowels as special letters which include a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. We described consonants as all of the other letters. After our review, students were introduced to the CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) spelling pattern and phonetic rule which indicates CVC words will have a short vowel sound. Familiarizing students with CVC words, we played a game of CVC bingo and reviewed each of the short vowel sounds found in these words. Together, we generated a list of CVC words for students to select for their first list of spelling words. Be sure to discuss the following with your child at home tonight:
- What is a vowel?
- What is a consonant?
- What sound does each short vowel make?
- How can you remember what each short vowel sound says?
- What does CVC mean?
