Spellbound By Syllables 

by Caryn Azer

Syllables are words or parts of a word. Students learn about syllables in early childhood as part of our early reading and spelling lessons. Each syllable has one vowel sound. Students are taught that we can clap to count syllables. They can also put our hand under our chin to count each time our mouth opens. Try it…

Learning to count, identify, and manipulate syllables are foundational skills of early literacy education. After rhyming, students learn about syllables. This phonological awareness skill will help students with decoding and encoding words from single syllable words to multisyllabic words. 

There are different, multisensory activities you can do at home or in the classroom so that students can practice listening for syllables while having fun. 

  • Clap or tap hands for each syllable. 
  • Put your hand under your chin. 
  • Listen for and count the medial (vowel sounds) sounds. 
  • Use instruments like a tambourine to tap out syllables. 
  • Snap your fingers. 
  • Jump up for each syllable. 
  • Stomp your feet for each syllable. 
  • Tap each box on an Elkonin (sound) Box. 
  • Tap syllables out on puck lights. (Shown below.)

Once your students are writing words with two and three letters, and words with consonant blends, it’s a great idea to do some extra long and short vowel practice, as many have a difficult time once the first written syllable lesson begins. 

There are six different types of syllables: open, closed, r-controlled vowel, silent e, vowel team, and consonant-le (-cle). 


Open and Closed Syllables 

Open and closed syllables are very important. Closed syllables are the most common syllable in the English language. Open tends to follow along, especially because of its tricky vowel sounds. I teach both open and closed syllables together. It’s important to be able to identify them in order to read and spell words with suffixes such as, -ing, -ed, -y, to name a few. An open syllable is described as a word or part of a word that ends in a long vowel sound. A closed syllable is a word or part of a word that ends with at least one consonant and the vowel sound is short. For example: the word be is an open syllable word. It ends in a long e sound. The word bed is a closed syllable word. It ends with a consonant and has a short e vowel sound. If you look at the houses below, which are commonly used as a visual, you can see that the house with the word be, has its door open allowing the vowel sound to be long. The house that says bed, has a closed door. The d acts like a door and closes the sound in, making it a short vowel.  

Students can learn different syllable types to help with reading and spelling fluency. Students learn how to label and divide multisyllabic words to aid students in becoming fluent. 

Closed Syllables:

VC/CV

When two consonants are in between two vowels, label the consonants with a"C" and the two vowels with a "V". Use a line to divide between the two consonants. This word has two closed syllables.

             vc/cv

            muf/fin

Open Syllables:

V/CV

If there's one consonant between two vowels, try to divide after the first vowel. The first vowel should make a long vowel sound and be an open syllable.

            v/cv

           ro/bot 

 

☘️ CLOVER ☘️ 

The clover graphic, shows the six syllable types. Some of the other syllable types also contain open and closed first syllables. Examples of syllable types include:

  1. Closed - pup/pet (less frequent - rob/in)
  2. L CLE - bub/ble (closed), ta/ble (open)
  3. Open - ha/ven
  4. Vowel Team (compound words) - rain/bow
  5. E Silent-e - lone/some
  6. R-Controlled Vowel - mar/ket 

For kids working on multisyllabic words, some multisensory activities can help keep learning fun. 

  • Students can write in sand or dirt. Students can write with sidewalk chalk. 
  • They can then use sticks, yarn, or Wikki Sticks to practice syllable division rules. 
  • Write word parts on index cards to match or match by playing the Concentration/Memory Game