Peachy Teachy

When your little one is learning to read, they will come across words that are trickier to sound out than others. For words that are harder to “bubblegum” or sound out, i’ve made a list of tips to help with learning these words. If you want to teach your child how to read, but haven’t started yet, read part 3.

• Runaway Vowel Words
• Tricky S Words
• Red Words
• Consonant Blends
• The Word ‘have’
• Words That End With ‘ck’
• Magic E Fairy Words
• Vowel Team Words
• Sam Likes Fried Zebras
• H Brother Words
• Bossy R Words
• Sneaky Sly Y Words
• Words With ‘ow’
• Words With ‘all’
• Words With ‘qu’
• Multi-Syllable Words
• Words With ‘oo’
• Words With ‘tch’
• The Word ‘where’
• Soft C Words
• Soft G Words
• Words with ‘dge’

These tips were a life saver when I was teaching my students and my own children to read. When we encountered a word that was hard to sound out, I would say, “Oh, look a magic e fairy word” or “I see a runaway vowel word”. Once we came across one of these words, I would teach them the trick to learn how to sound the word out. My kids enjoyed spotting these special words and using the trick I taught them.

The list below is tailored to the Frontline Phonics Readers I used to teach reading. I have the tips organized in the order of how they appear in the readers. However, this list can be used with any books your child is reading, as this list includes the most common word types your little one will come across when learning to read.

Blue Book Level

Runaway Vowel Words

The words ‘a’ and ‘I’ and other words or syllables that end with a vowel like ‘no‘ or ‘pa-per’

When a word ends with a vowel you say the vowel’s name instead of its sound. It is called a runaway vowel, the vowel has nothing blocking it (like a consonant), so it runs away while it shouts its name “aaaaaaaaaa!”

Tricky S Words

Words that end with ‘s’ like ‘taps‘ or ‘sings‘

Have your little one cover up the tricky ‘s’ at the end of the word with their finger. Once your child sounds out the word, have them say the word again with the ‘s’ added at the end “t-a-p, tap, tap-s”

Red Words

The words ‘the‘ ‘you‘ ‘are‘ ‘to‘ are words that can’t be sounded out

Words like ‘the’ and ‘you’ cannot be sounded out because they are not phonetic. These words have to be memorized. We stamp these words on our arm while saying each letter name “t-h-e spells the”. Here is a video showing how to stamp the letters:

Consonant Blends

Words with two or three consonants together like ‘frog’ ‘glad’ or ‘stripe’

When a word has two or more consonants together, like ‘glad’, blend the consonant blend first “gl”. Once they can sound out the consonant blend, they can sound out the rest of the word “gl-a-d”

The Word ‘have‘

Some words have catchy songs to help teach them

Some words are easy to remember with a catchy song. Here is a cute video of a song you can sing with your child to remember the word ‘have’. The video is a bit long, but you’ll get the jingle in the first few seconds: “h and a, v and e, have have have”. They can say this little jingle when they see the word ‘have’ and don’t know how to pronounce it

Words That End With ‘ck’

Like ‘duck‘ or ‘trick‘

When a word or syllable ends with a ‘k’ sound and there is a vowel before the ‘k’ sound, we spell it with a ‘ck’ and say ‘k’

Red Book Level

Magic E Fairy Words

Words that end with a vowel consonant ‘e’ like ‘bake‘ or ‘poke‘

When a word ends with a vowel consonant e, the Magic E Fairy flies over the consonant and bonks the vowel on its head, once the vowel is bonked it no longer says its sound, it says its name. Here is a cute video to show the Magic E Fairy in action:

The Magic E Fairy (silent e words)

Vowel Team Words

Words that have two vowels side by side like ‘wait’ or ‘team’

When two vowels are together, the first vowel makes the long sound and the second vowel is silent. There is a cute saying for this: “when two vowels go a walkin’ the first one does the talkin’ and the second one goes to sleep”. Watch this video for a cute song/visual

Sam Likes Fried Zebras

Words that end with double ‘ss’ ‘ll’ ‘ff’ or ‘zz’ like ‘mess‘ or ‘tall‘

When a word ends in f, l, s, z and there is a short vowel before it, then you double the f, l, s, or z (there are exceptions to the rules of course, like ‘bus’) and sound out the f, l, s, or z once when reading it. Sam Likes Fried Zebras is a memorable mnemonic

H Brother Words

Words with ‘ph wh ch th or sh’ like ‘fish‘ or ‘phone’

When the letter ‘p, w, c, t, or s’ come before ‘h’ they make a whole new sound. This H brother story is a cute way to remember H brother words. Here’s a cute story that brings the H Brothers to life:

Bossy R Words

Words that have a vowel followed by an ‘r’ like ‘stars’ ‘hurt’ and ‘arm’

When a word has a vowel followed by an ‘r’ we call them Bossy R words because the ‘r’ changes the sound of the vowel. Here is a good song for learning Bossy R. This one is good as well

Sneaky Sly Y Words

Words that end with ‘y’ like ‘my‘ ‘fly‘ and ‘sunny‘

When a one syllable word ends with a ‘y’, the ‘y’ makes a long ‘i’ sound. When a two syllable word ends with ‘y’, the ‘y’ makes the long ‘e’ sound

Yellow Book Level

Words With ‘ow’

Words like ‘brown’ and ‘blow‘

When a word has an ‘ow’ in the middle of a word, it is almost always pronounced ‘ow’. When a word ends with ‘ow’ it is usually pronounced with a long ‘o’ sound like ‘show’ (there are exceptions, like ‘how’)

Words With ‘all’

Like ‘all‘ ‘ball‘ ‘tall‘ and ‘wall‘

Here is a cute song to remember how to pronounce the word ‘all’. You can apply this song to words that end with ‘all’ as well

Words With ‘qu’

Like ‘squeal’ or squeak’

There is a simple saying for ‘qu’ words: “q and u are stuck like glue”. They are glued together so tightly that they only make the ‘q’ sound when being sounded out. The letter ‘q’ will always have the letter ‘u’ after it

Multi-Syllable Words

Words like ‘cray-on’ and ‘pic-ture’,

For words with more than one syllable. Focus on and sound out one syllable at a time. Then blend them together to make the word

Words With ‘oo’

Words like ‘room’ ‘broom’ ‘good’ and ‘look’

‘oo’ makes a long ‘oo’ sound when it comes before the letters ‘m’ ‘n’ and ‘l’ like ‘boom’ ‘soon’ and ‘tool’. ‘oo’ makes the short ‘u’ sound if it comes before the letters ‘d’ and ‘k’ like ‘good’ and ‘took’ (there are exceptions, like ‘food’)

Green Book Level

Words With ‘tch’

Words like ‘Mitch‘ ‘witch‘ and ‘stitch‘

‘tch’ words just make the ‘ch’ sound. If there is a short vowel before the ‘ch’ sound, it is spelled ‘tch’. If there is a consonant or vowel team (two vowels) before the ‘ch’ sound, it is spelled ‘ch’. Both are pronounced ‘ch’

The Word ‘where’

I sing this song when we come across the word ‘where’

To remember this word you can sing this song to the melody of B-I-N-G-O: “There is a word that we call where, herrre wee go! W-H-E-R-E, W-H-E-R-E, W-H-E-R-E, and that’s the word where!”

Soft C Words

Like ‘mice’ ‘race’ and ‘place’

Words with ‘c’ are pronounced ‘s’ when ‘c’ comes before the vowels ‘e’ ‘i’ and ‘y’

Soft G Words

Like ‘Gene’ ‘huge’ and ‘cage’

The same rule applies for soft G words as soft C words. The ‘g’ makes a ‘j’ sound if the ‘g’ comes before the vowels ‘e’ ‘i’ and ‘y’

Words With ‘dge’

Like ‘edge‘ ‘wedge‘ and ‘pledge‘

‘dge’ words make the ‘j’ sound. If a word is one syllable, one short vowel, with the ‘j’ sound at the end of the word, it’s spelled with ‘dge’

When your little one comes across a tricky word, use it as a teachable moment and show them the tip for learning the word. Sing the songs or show the videos above as needed, eventually they won’t need the reminder.

“A child who carries a book with a bookmark in it is in two places at the same time.” ― Tony Abbott. Happy reading as always!