Teach Closed Syllables with Your LeapDesk™ Word Cards

When children understand the six basic syllable types and how they work, they can read anything that's written in English. Find out how with this creative lesson.

Word Box

By Ruth Nathan, Ph.D, Executive Educational Advisor and Sara Shenkan, MS

Grades: K - 2

Objective

When children understand the six basic syllable types and how they work, they can read anything they pick up that's written in English! Below is a lesson to introduce the closed syllable. Closed syllables alone make up 43% of syllables in English words! You'll use your LeapDesk™ Word Cards, Levels 1 and 2. A syllable is "closed" when the vowel consists of just one letter and is followed by a consonant, as in the closed syllables cat and bus.

Background Knowledge

The major types of syllables are (1) closed, as in bat; (2) open, as in hi, he; (3) vowel-consonant-e, as in bake; (4) complex vowels (digraphs), as in boat; (5) consonant-le, as in the second syllable of the word little; and (6) r-controlled, as in fur. (Moats, 2000)

Materials

• Class set of "closed box" blackline masters
• A closed box (a shoebox tapped shut)
• Your LeapDesk Word Cards—a mixture of 8 -10 closed syllables from Levels 1 and 3 complex vowel syllables from Level 5.
• A chart/chalkboard
• A class set of red and black crayons
• One black and red marker
• Sentence strips with the words cat and dog written on them, with vowels written in red.

Opening

Show the closed box to the class. Say, Class, I have a special box to share with you today. It's a word box and only special words can decorate it on its sides. Do you see how it's closed on all sides? This box only likes closed syllable words. Closed syllable words have short vowel sounds, like the short a that you hear in the word bat. Do you hear the short a in bat? (Say /b/ /aaaaa/ /t/.) Today, you and a friend are going to make your own word boxes, and you are going to decorate your box only with closed-syllable words.

Model (Instruction)

A closed syllable is a group of letters that has one vowel letter and a consonant after it. When we see this pattern in a word, a vowel followed by a consonant, the vowel sound is always short. Let's review our short vowel sounds!

You might write each of the vowels as you say their short sound, and then include each vowel in a real word: /a/ as in bat; /e/ as in bet; /i/ as in bit, /o/ as in pot; and /u/ as in cut. Use the plastic, LeapDesk vowels as children say the sounds. This will help them make the connection between their red crayon, the LeapDesk vowels, and your red marker.

To check and see if a word is a closed syllable, we want to look for just ONE vowel letter and one consonant after it. If this is what we see, the vowel sound will be short!! [Note: Closed syllables can begin or end with consonant blends, letter pairs, or digraph, but that's for another lesson.]

Guided Practice

Let's try it together now. Choose a student to help you model Say, _____and I are partners. We want to decide if this (hold up one of the word cards) is a closed-syllable word. If it is, the vowel sound will be short.

1) Let's find the vowel and make sure that there is only one (partner does this). Teacher writes on chart paper: "Step 1: Look for ONE vowel." (2) Now, let's look at the letter after the vowel. Teacher writes, "Step 2: Look for a consonant after the vowel." If the letter after the vowel is a consonant, then we know to say the short vowel sound when we say the word aloud! Say the word sound by sound together. Say it slow, and then say it fast. Next, choose a Level 1 Word Card and let the partner see if he/she has pronounced the word correctly, with a short vowel sound. Teacher writes, "Step 3: Check the answers using the LeapDesk."

Now, let's each write this word on one side of our own box. We're going to write our vowel in red; you should, too. Do the same thing with a Level 5 word card. Because there is more than one vowel in each of these words, your partner will say "NO," after Step 1 and the card will be discarded.

Independent Practice

Working in pairs, the students should use the word cards and see if they are closed syllable words using the three steps outlined above. Remind students to check to see if it is a closed syllable using the LeapDesk. If a word is a closed syllable, the word needs to be written on the student's word box.

Closing and Assessment

Have the children share the words that they chose to decorate their word boxes. You may want to make a list of all the closed syllable words they found for a bulletin board. Finally, they can decorate their boxes.

Extension

An extension to this activity would have kids build compound words using only closed syllable words. At this time, children could be told that some closed syllables start or end with consonant blends, letter pairs, or digraphs, such as sw as in swim, ck in truck, or mp as in blimp. The teacher could make some closed-syllable word cards and the kids could, with a partner, read the closed syllable word cards and then build compound words. Teachers, in our opinion, would really love this extension for their high learners, who are often frustrated by simple lessons. If you want to try this extension, here are some closed syllable words that could form compound words.

back/pack, flash/back, cock/pit, check/up, ship/wreck, lip/stick, sun/set, up/set, cat/nap, egg/shell, cat/fish, wind/mill, up/set, with/in

Reference: Moats, L.C. (2000) Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers. Baltimore: Paul Brookes Publishing.

Back to Teacher Tips >