ce ci cy fun reading help



The swans have left their babies in the
warm nest. A baby swan is called a cygnet.
Say cygnet: sig nit.

Letter teams ce, ci, cy always say s: cents, cider, spicy. The word soccer is a special slang word made up by British boys.

Ask your child to point to each word as you read the lists below several times. Let your child read the words when he can.

Even if your child does not become able to read the words on his own, he can learn the rule that ce and ci always work as a team that says s.  This is a  basic phonics lesson, not an exception.

face             lace           race          space   

  
brace           grace         place        trace

Look: ce and ci teams inside a word says s. 

A word, like cancel, has two sounds for c.

cent       center      cell          pencil      excite      decide     city 

cents     central     cereal     cancel     except     circle       citizen

Quiz below: Ask your child to say aloud the letters in each word, then ask your child to tell you whether the c will say the s sound or the k sound. After your child has tried to sound out the word, you tell him the word. These words are intended to be too hard for your child to easily read. Your goal is helping your child become good at seeing ce, ci within a word and knowing it will say the s sound. You are not teaching this list of words, you are using it for a goal.

Have fun with this exercise.

1. nicely     does c say s or k?

2. necessary      does c say s or k?

3. merciful    does c say s or k?

4. excitement    does c say s or k?

5. decision   does c say s or k?

6. fascinate    does c say s or k?

7. cascade    does the 1st c say s or k?  does the 2nd c say s or k?

8. knock   does c say s or k?

Answers for the quiz; only 7 and 8 have c as the k sound. 

My books put these tricky letter teams in bold in the words of my teaching stories so your child can see that they are a special team. I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop for you. No grade level is marked on any of my books; included is my contact info; email or call for help.   Have fun with words,  Mary Maisner