All About: LOGIC (Part 2) The Six Syllable Types

Words are made up of syllables.  Once children learn the different syllable types, they are able to correctly read words by using the rules that go along with the syllables.  This takes the place of memorizing words or just plain guessing.

There are six syllable types:  closed, open, vowel pair, r-controlled, silent e, and consonant le.  In first grade, we learn five syllable types.  In this blog post, I will explain each syllable type and some of the rules that go along with them. 

Closed 

 Closed syllable words are the most common syllable type.  A closed syllable is when a consonant or consonants are closing in one vowel and the vowel sound is short.
Ex:  dog, rush, cat, past, get, Tim

We have this example of a closed syllable word on our classroom door.

Open 

An open syllable is when a word ends in one vowel and the vowel sound is long. 
Ex:  go, hi, a, I, me, my, he
When our door is open, the word becomes an open syllable.

Vowel Pair
A vowel pair syllable is when there are two vowels together to make one sound.  Some vowel pair syllable types also have rules.  In first grade we will learn the vowel pairs ai and ay.  The children will learn that ai is found in the middle of a word or syllable and ay found at the end of a word or syllable.  That is the same rule for the vowel pairs oa and ow:  oa is found in the middle of a word or syllable and ow is found at the end of word or syllable. 
Ex:  boat, play, show, stain, steam, teen, see, 

R-Controlled
R-controlled syllables are when the r controls the sound of the vowel.  We learn three different r-controlled vowel syllable types in first grade: ar, or, and er
Ex:  star, fern, corn

Silent e
The silent e syllable type is the last one we learn in first grade.  Children must look at the ending of a word first to determine the sound of the vowel.  A silent e syllable type is when there is a vowel, consonant, and then a silent e, the vowel is usually long. 
Ex:  make, bike, joke


Those are the five syllable types we learn in first grade.  Once a child knows the syllable types, they are able to read words more successfully!