Next week begins "the letter e tells the vowel before it to say it's name" - LONG VOWELS. Any great teaching techniques, activities, skills you have tried that were successful?
I make little speech bubbles as a write word. I also will put little hats on the vowel that does the talking. Just something small that makes it memorable for some of them. Example: ca(speech bubble saying "A!", and a little hat on the a)ke
We talk a lot about silent e in my class. I like to tell little stories about the phonics rules, such as bossy r, wacky y, 2 vowels go walking, etc. Maybe you can make up a little story about silent e: quiet, but encouraging, often hanging out at the end of a word, lending the vowel friend before him a helpful hand and encouraging them to say their own name....
I just introduced cvce (a) this week. I made a big deal about the e being bossy and making the vowel say it's name. We practiced saying what e says in this position... "YOU say your name and I'll be quiet!". The kids really got into it and did a beautiful job. We also sang a song that goes to If You're Happy and You Know It that I made up on a whim. Bossy e makes the a say it's name (clap clap) Bossy e makes the a say it's name (clap clap) Bossy e makes the a say it's name like A, Bossy e makes the a say it's name (clap clap)
I do the speech bubble over the long vowel, too. Inside the speech bubble I write, "Hi, my name is __." And I also draw ears on the silent e and tell the students that the e is listening to the other vowel introduce itself. When we come across a word with a long vowel/silent e I ask the students what the vowel is saying and they respond, "Hi, my name is __."
This is a song we do in my kindergarten class. I do some hand motions to go along with the song words. When we are decoding, after we sing the song, we give the first vowel a long hat, because he says his name (a line over the vowel) then we draw a line through the walking vowel and draw two feet because he walks away without talking. Here is the song-it's not original! I see two vowels I see two vowels I hear one I hear one First one does the talking Second one does the walking Now we blend Now we blend.
I teach second grade and one of my students said that the silent e at the end of the word has super powers that it gives to the vowel that help the vowel say its name. Then, the super e doesn't have enough super powers left to make a noise. I loved that and use it all the time now!
Saxon phonics introduces the e as a silent ghost. He sneaks up on the vowel and scares the vowel into saying it's name. My kids really thought it was funny and now as a prompt I remind them of the ghost e.
Saxon Phonics says the sneaky e sneaks up on the the first vowel and says boo! The first vowel says AAAAAA or OOOOO (depending on the vowel). We act it out and put hand gestures with it. It does seem to help.
I do it the saxon phonics way too, with sneaky e silently sneaking up and scaring the vowel into saying its name.
I LOVE the fun tricks that you can teach kids regarding long vowel rules!!! I use the "Mean Mr. E" strategy too and the kids really remember it! I teach them that "Mean Mr.E" makes the vowel say it's name because he's really mean and bossy! I teach the vowel digraphs as "The Vowel Buddies" and go into the whole thing about the first vowel being the talkative buddy as the second vowel being the shy buddy. I told this story about the two vowels and the kids got a kick out of it!! Does anyone have any other cool tricks to teach kids?? I make charts around the room to help them so I would really love to steal some!!
Wacky y (so wacky because he says so many different sounds), bossy r (makes some vowels go silent so he can only talk- ar in car, far, etc.)
