Sounds, Letters and First Words
Primary 2 · English
Sounds, Letters and First Words
Lesson 2 of 3
12 min
Keza writes three words in her book: cat, hat, mat.
She reads them out loud and starts to laugh. They all sound the same at the end!
Keza has found a word family. Learn one word, and the whole family comes free.
Look at the ending Keza found: -at. It never changes.
Now change only the first sound:
c + at = cat
h + at = hat
m + at = mat
b + at = bat
r + at = rat
s + at = sat
Six words. You only had to learn one ending.
Words in a family rhyme. Rhyme means they finish with the same sound.
Same game. New ending: -in.
p + in = pin
b + in = bin
t + in = tin
w + in = win
f + in = fin
Mutesi runs fast because she wants to win. She throws her paper in the bin. The beans came in a tin.
p + en = pen
h + en = hen
t + en = ten
m + en = men
Careful here. pin and pen look almost the same, but they are different words. Listen to the middle sound. The middle sound is what changes.
Try to blend the. Sound it out: t ... h ... e. Does it work? Not really.
Some small words hide from blending. We call them sight words. You do not sound them out. You just know them, the way you know your friend's face in a crowd.
Learn these ten by heart:
the a is to of you my he she was
Take one word, like my.
Look at it. Say it. Cover it with your hand. Say it again. Then check.
Do that for one word each day. Soon you will read it in a single blink, with no blending at all.
Read this: The cat is my pet.
The, is and my are sight words — you know them.
cat and pet you blend — c-a-t, p-e-t.
That is how real reading works. You use both skills together.
Tip
Same ending, same sound. Change the front, change the word.
If you can read cat, then you can already read hat, mat, bat, rat and sat. You just did not know it yet.
Put f in front of -at. What word do you make?
Put t in front of -in. What word do you make?
Which word does not belong: bin, win, bat, fin?
Which word rhymes with hen: hat, ten or tin?
Write down two sight words from today.
fat 2. tin
bat. The other three are in the -in family. Bat is in the -at family.
ten. It ends with the same sound, -en. Hat ends with -at and tin ends with -in.
Any two of: the, a, is, to, of, you, my, he, she, was.
What you learned today
Quick check
