Open and closed syllables is a very important foundational skill for reading multisyllabic words. This really is the next big step for readers in their decoding journey once they have mastered letters/sounds/phoneme isolation, manipulation etc.
Having this skill in their tool box helps them break down words into more manageable chunks as they are decoding larger words.
Let’s take a closer look at the differences between open and closed syllables and how best to teach it to our students.
There are some really good videos on you tube that are a great place to start:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epk-hnVC10k
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3j3YVocNxk
I had this idea of showing them an open and closed door as a visual…I was lucky enough to find one on Amazon that worked perfectly for this lesson. I think these have been used as ‘fairy’ doors possibly. But, it’s super cute and a working door to get my point across.
So on a white board you can write words like:
hi
me
go
be
Have your students say these words and remind them that they said a long vowel word at the end. I do this like the picture above – with the door open to show them they are an open syllable and have a long vowel sound.
Then as you can see from the picture I add a consonant and close the door…this is on a small sentence strip cut up or index card so I can use different consonants to get my point across and create new words.
I have taught this skill for years and I think my students are finally starting to get it ( and much faster ) with this visual!
If you want to try it out you can find the cute door here:
affiliate link
So, let me know if you use this idea I’d love to hear all about it ~ you can find me on instagram or fb by clicking the icons at the top of my blog.
Happy teaching!
xoxo,
