Help kids lean about open syllables with this hands-on open syllable games. This open syllable words activity is great for helping continue your phonics study with kindergarten and first grade students while having fun with a free printable!
Open Syllable
Teaching a child to recognize syllables in words is a wonderful way to help them read and spell. My little girl has been working hard on her reading, and this week we have learned a new syllable type. We have already learned quite a few, and this one was just a stepping stone to becoming a better reader. Here are the syllable types we have learned so far.
Closed door – Basically this is just having a consonsant after the vowel. The consonant “closes” in the vowel and the vowel makes the short sond.
Magic e vowel – This is when you have a vowel, consonant, and an e. The e is “magic” and makes the vowel long. (cake, kite, and Pete)
R-Controlled Vowels – these are vowels that are follwed by an r. You don’t normally hear the vowel sound. (car, or, girl, her, and curl) are example of these types of syllables.
Vowel Teams – This syllabel occurs when two-vowels are togther and make a different sound. SOmetimes they make the long vowel sound like in tree. Or they can make a totally different sound like the “oi” in soil.
And this week we worked on open door syllables. And this activity was a perfect way to practice breaking words into syllables and reading open door syllables.
Open Syllable Words
Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >>_____<<. The ed endings pdf file will open in a new window for you to save your freebie.
What is an open syllable
An open door is when the syllable ends with a vowel. The vowel is not closed in by a consonant and therefore it says its name….makes a long vowel sound. (be, he, she)
Many people teach this has the tiger/camel rule. When you have a word that has a consonant between two vowels, you divide after the vowel. This works about 70% of the time (the ti/ger is stronger than the camel), and the vowel will then make the long vowel sound like in (ti/ger). For the other 30%, you would divide after the consonant, and you have a closed-door (cam/el).
Check out some of these examples:
Tiger – You will divide after the vowel i, and the i becomes long (ti/ger)
humid – You divide after the u, and the u is long (hu/mid)
paper – You divide after the a, and the a is long (pa/per)
Open and closed syllables activities
This activity is simple but gets our sweet little ones working on dividing words up into syllables.
First, print off the eggs and worksheets that go with them.
Next, cut out the eggs.
Then give your little ones some scissors and a pencil.
Look at the worksheet, and find the eggs that correpsond with the sheet.
Now, have your little ones find the VCV and cut the egg apart after the first vowel.
Once they cut it apart they can sound out each syllable. It is great to remind them that when a syllable ends in a vowel, the vowel says its name.
Finally, have them write the word broken up into syllables on the paper. Once again have them read it using the syllable rules to help them.
And that is how easy this open door syllable activity is. With some fun hands-on cutting, our little ones can easily see which syllables end in a vowel and practice making that long vowel sound.
Working With Syllables
These activities will help your kids practice working with syllables.
Rachel is a homeschool mom to four little ones, ages 2 to 6. She is a former public elementary teacher, and has recently began blogging at her page You’ve Got This.
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