The problems with Long E

We have been discussing the long e digraphs. So we are adding ee, ea, and ie to the list of things Ben can sound out this week... which has let to some interesting observations about homonyms/homophones that was sparked by reading the word beat. Ben said, "I love to eat beats." Well... I think he loves to eat beets. So, as we have been going through our word lists this week, we have been making a poster:

For the curious -- we now have 5 ways that the long e sound is spelled: ee (beet), ea (beat), ie (field), eCe (Pete), final y (any).

3 comments:

Joe Ganci said...

Hi, Katya!

You need to add the following long e sounds:

one e by itself: zebra, me, he, she, Ethan, repeat (both the e and the ea), athlete, stampede, Japanese

ey: key

ei: ceiling, receive, deceive


You have to love the English language!

Katya said...

Good point, Joe. We have actually covered the open-syllable rule (he, she, Ethan) but forgot about it when we were talking about all the ways to make long E. Athlete, etc are covered by the eCe rule (Magic E). EY and EI we have yet to get to...
The problem with English is we have 44 phonemes and only 26 letters!

MoscowMom said...

Love the chart. Wow. Yet again, you amaze me. What a teacher you are. You sure have put to use, and still do, every bit of your broad liberal arts education!!!