Spelling forms ough and augh · f as gh · Long o as o-e

Our new sound: /oʊ/   written long o

Push your lips into a round O. Start with your mouth open, then close your lips into a smaller, tighter circle as you finish — /oʊ/, the name of the letter o.

Check yourself: Mirror: your lips must get SMALLER and rounder while you say it. If your lips hold still, you are saying a plain o.

Watch for: A plain held /o/. All three home languages have one, which is why this sound gets waved through and then turns up wrong in every long-o word for the rest of the year.

Read these · 40 words

◆ marks a word that does NOT follow today's pattern — Blumenfeld boxes these on the page. Teach it by heart; do not let the class sound it out and lose faith in the rule.

Read the sentences

• I bought candy and gum.
• Paul caught the balL He thought the ball was fast.
• Dad taught a tennis lesson.
• Dad has a cough.
• Mom gave him a cough drop.
• The steak was tough.
• The sea was rough.
• I bought candy and gum.

Write what you hear

Say the word, have them repeat it, count the sounds on fingers, THEN write. The count is what stops a child writing the first letter and guessing the rest.