3rd Grade reading skills

My rabbit hopped up here from the lake.

By 3rd Grade, be sure your child is instant with the 1st 300 sight words. (In my books or download.)

Also, help your child get control of adding endings called suffixes: ed, ing, able, en, er  // s, ly, ful, less, ness.

(This page explains how to add suffixes but for a quick book search eBay: Instant Reading Help.)

Step One: A child must see the difference between short vowel words and long vowel words.  

The vowels each have a short sound and a long sound. The vowels are: a, e, i, o, u, y.   All other letters in the ABCs are called consonants.          

Short vowel rules: when a word has only one vowel, that vowel will say its short sound: bat, bet, bit, bot, but, myth.  And, when there is more than one consonant between vowels: father, catcher, better, little, whisper, bother, monster, cluster. 

Long vowel rules: when there are two vowels side-by-side (dream)   or   with only one consonant between the vowels (ripe) the 1st vowel says its letter name. Hear the e in dream? Hear the i in ripe?  Long y sounds like long i: type.

When you hear the vowel say its letter name, we say the vowel is making its long sound.  

The 1st vowel says its long sound, the 2nd vowel of the pattern is usually silent or short: dial, chaos.

Look: ed, ing, er, y, en, able start with a vowel. When you add vowel suffix to a short vowel word, protect the short vowel from changing into a long vowel by doubling the final consonant.

hop: vowel o is short, to protect short o, double the consonant p > hopped, hopper, hopping.

See the difference:  1) The rabbit hopped over the fence.   2) The rabbit hoped over the fence.

But, when the suffix does not start with a vowel, there is no need to protect the short vowel, just add the ending > hops  My rabbit often hops over to see me.

Short vowel words like stick,  ask, luck already end with two consonants, so just hook on any ending:  sticky, sticking, sticks     asked, asking, asks   lucky, unlucky  (un is called a prefix. 

Always just hook on the prefix at the front of the word, so easy, never a problem: unneeded, reenter, disservice, misspell and misuse, unused, recharged, etc.

When adding an ending to a long vowel word, trade one vowel for another vowel:

escape > escaped > escaping > inescapable > inescapably (trade vowel e for vowel y)

escapes (s is not a vowel, just hook it on)  Look: care, caring, cares, careful, carefully

Or, two vowels side-by-side, just hook it on: rain > rained > raining > rainy > rains

Or, the word ends with two vowels: stay > staying > stayed > stays    

If you would like a book, I now use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help. All of my books will pop up for you. All are brand new and full of help. Books include my contact info. so you can email or call me.

Help your child have fun reading. Best wishes, Mary Maisner