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Step 8: -cle (consonant l e)

-cle syllable story poster
consonant l e
-cle story visual

Consonant le:
*Always at the end of a word
*Always 3 letters (unless a suffix is added to the word)
*Always ends in the letters L, E

-cle syllable poster
consonant l e
Consonant le poster

Teaching icon Teach Teaching icon 2


Definitions

-cle definition:
-cle stands for Consonant, the letter L, and the letter E. This is the Consonant L E Syllable, usually shortened to -cle. The dash indicates that there are letters in front of these letters. No word can begin with this syllable, it always comes at the end of words. (Though there can always be an ending after the -cle like in tables.)

Teaching Videos and Written Stories

Written Story

  • The story for -cle: The e at the end of the word sees its vowel friend being closed in by a consonant, but is too late! There are already two consonants between the e and its vowel friend. The e decides to jump over the L to get closer to its vowel friend so it can help its friend say its name. Unfortunately, the e did not consider how top heavy it is, and when it made the leap, it went head first and landed as a schwa. Thus the -cle syllable is a schwa sound. (-cle says /kŭl/, -zle says /zŭl/)

PowerPoints and Google Slides PowerPoints for teaching short vowel words CVC Google Slides Icon

For the formatting of PowerPoints to be correct, click FILE, then DOWNLOAD, and download in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Can use anytime after Step 8: PowerPoint Game: Syllable Jeopardy! 

Teach Along the Way with -cle Teach along the way with short vowels

TEACH ALONG THE WAY ●●●

Breaking up words – keep the cle together! This is a great syllable because you always know where the syllable break is! However, this syllable does not work for our “Spot and Dot” method for breaking up syllables. Watch for -cle syllables at the end of words when breaking up words!

Go to Step 10: Huge Words and use PowerPoint to play Jeopardy!

Tips Tips

-cle is it is clear where to break a -cle word into syllables, since the break always comes before the consonant. For example ta/ble (open syllable, -cle), ap/ple (closed syllable, -cle) and spar/kle (bossy r, -cle) . This is a good time to practice breaking words up and noticing what kind of syllable came before the -cle.

Map Sounds to Letters

Map the sounds in the word to the letter(s) representing the sounds, even if it is not a letter combination that has been taught yet. Only an unusual sound/letter combination needs to be remembered “by heart.” Mapping the sounds to the letters is how we remember what words look like. See example below:

Map Sounds To Letters examples

Be sure to reinforce what you know and are learning about words, for example:
Schwa Sound: Any vowel might say /ŭ/. Point out that this happens in many common words like: the, of, was, some, from…

Key and Directions for Materials Key


KEY:
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1K-1 Beginning
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-21-2 Growing
Pink Plus: intervention, challengeIntervention/Challenge

Bundle: Multiple types of materials (games, activities, stories…) bundled together.
Pack: Multiple pieces of the same type of material, for example a pack of books.

Directions for everything else:

More on the Directions Page

Sample Bundle

Sample Bundle contains samples of the stories, games, lists, flashcards, fluency pyramids, activities, spelling and more you will find in the practice section below.


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