The Elementary Spelling Book, being an Improvement on the American Spelling Book · Nos. 52–53 · Part 5: Vowel pairs and light syllables
31. More vowel pairs: break, oak, nail, dream, grain
Goal: Your child reads and spells more ea, oa and ai words, and notices that "break" and "steak" are exceptions.
You'll need
- The book, open to this table
- A slate, small whiteboard, or paper and pencil
What's in the book
No. 52 has break, oak, peal, shoal, nail, tail, steak, croak. No. 53 has dream, steam, bean, mien, grain, plain, gleam, with sentences such as "When the wind blows hard the sea roars, and its waves run high." (This page could not be fetched on its own when these guides were made. The words here come from the full text of the same scan, and the page shown is our best estimate; if it does not match, turn a page forward or back.)
The lesson, step by step
The pattern
The same vowel pairs: ea, oa, ai. Most ea words say long e (dream, bean). But a few, such as "break" and "steak", say long a. The book marks those so you can tell.
Read the table aloud
Read the table aloud together, a column at a time. You say a word, your child says it back while pointing to it. Then your child reads a column alone. Some of the words:
break, oak, peal, shoal, nail, tail
steak, croak, dream, steam, bean
grain, plain, gleam
Spell aloud
Now the old way: your child looks at a word, then spells it aloud and says it.
Sayg, r, a, i, n, grain.
Go down a column like this. Then cover the column, say a word, and have your child spell it aloud without looking.
Read the sentences
Under the table are short reading lessons that use its words. Your child reads them aloud, pointing to each word. Help with any word not yet learned. Two of them:
When the wind blows hard the sea roars, and its waves run high.
Dictation
Say each word, use it in a short sentence of your own, and say it again. Your child writes it. Try these: oak, nail, tail, dream, steam, bean, grain, plain.
Check together against the book. Any word that came out wrong goes on a card for tomorrow.
Wrap up
Your child says "break" and "dream" and tells you which one is the odd one out, and why.