Hard and soft “c” and “g”: It`s a hard “g” in “grass,” but the grass itself is soft. Finally, say 1-3 sentences that use words with a hard, soft g. Say each sentence once and give students time to write it. Keep it simple and only use words you`ve taught, as well as words they already know. For readers who are struggling, it can be helpful to work on one spelling template at a time. For example, you can start with words ending in -ge: cage, page, huge. Next, work on the words ending in -dge. After that, you can work on words that start with ge. Then, one by one, move on to the others. Our card game Giant vs. Cyclops offers students a fun way to practice applying strict and gentle c and g rules.
The game includes instructions to play six games of varying difficulty. To ensure mastery, the deck contains real and absurd words (absurd words force players to decipher them instead of memorizing them). Click below for a video demonstration of two fun Giant vs Cyclops card games. In this article, I will explain the difference between harsh and soft sounds. I will also tell you how I teach hard and soft g and c sounds and when I teach them. When I first introduce hard g and soft g, I like to use a small activity to see if students can see the difference. You can hand out word cards to students (perhaps with pictures to help them) and see if they can split into two groups. Some students will have words that begin with a soft g, and others will have words that begin with a hard g. (You can explain the hard and soft g ahead of time, OR you can see if they understand it for themselves first.) Some sweet words are gymnastics, age, sweet, giant, germ, genius, bridge, huge, angel and danger.
When teaching phonetics and spelling rules, it is very important that the student immediately applies the rules of the text. Unfortunately, there aren`t many books that target this particular skill, but I did find a few. You may want to try these books on Amazon. In the first example, each word contains both a hard “c” and a soft “c”. In the second example, the first word “bicycle” first uses a soft “c” and then a hard “c,” but the second word, “vacancy,” uses a hard “c” first, then a soft “c.” The third example uses a hard or hard. Soft “c” in “gauge” and “magnificent,” while the second and third words — “geography” and “gigantic” — use a soft “g” followed by a hard “g.” Finally, I would post the “Is g hard or soft?” poster so that students can see this rule in writing and use it as a reference. To make matters worse, there are a few words that contain both harsh and soft sounds. Some examples: Hard g sound is more common than soft g sound. The hard g sound produces the /g/ bran as in chewing gum. The soft g sound produces the /j/ sound as in giant. When c precedes an i, y or e, it is soft and says /s/.
For example: city, bike and running. If c precedes another letter, it is difficult and says /k/. For example: camera, car and cone. When g precedes an i, y or e, it is soft and says /j/. For example: giant, gypsy and precious stone. If g precedes another letter, it is /g/. For example: walking, giving and gravel. And then there are some funny words that include both a hard letter sound AND a soft letter sound – recycle, reconcile. There are common words that do not follow the rules (for example: girl and gift).
For this reason, we teach hard and soft c and g rules to older students who are already proficient in basic visual words and phonetic concepts. These students can handle the extra layer of hard and soft c and g rules. Wondering why some words are written with a double consonant at the end, like Miss, and others aren`t (like Rob)? There`s actually a reason why this happens, and it`s called The Floss Rule. The Floss rule helps you know when to double the final consonant, and it`s a fairly easy rule to learn. For these sounds, the most important question is: “What comes directly AFTER the letter g/c?” This helps determine whether it is a harsh or soft sound. You can teach students to follow the rule, but if the word doesn`t make sense, try the hard g sound. Flexibility in reading is always important. G and C are delicate letters! If students don`t know the difference between their harsh and soft sounds, “Let`s race!” can easily become “Let`s rake!” I created this activity just for my freshman friends.
The sorting activity is ideal for teaching small groups when introducing the concept.