1.  Closed Syllables

• One vowel "closed in" by one or more consonants; the vowel sound is short.
• Vowels:   a (apple),   i (icky),   o (octopus),   u (up),   e (Ed).

2.  Goals of Instruction: Read and Spell

• All consonants plus consonant digraphs   [two letters, one sound: sh, ck, th, ch, wh, ph].
• Words with beginning blends and then ending blends:   flat, smashup, planet, camp, himself, talent, swept, grandstand.

3.  Additional Considerations

• Doubled Consonant Letters:   when single-syllable words end in /f/, /s/, /l/, or /z/, the consonant letters are doubled, as in stuff, mess, hill, and jazz.
• Long vowel sound in a closed syllable:   -old, -olt, -ost, -ild, -ind   (cold, bolt, post, wild, find).
• "Glued" ending sounds:   -ng, -nk   (rang, sing, long, hung, tank, think, honk, chunk).
• Word endings (inflectional morphemes):   s, es, ing, ed,   (runs, shops, fixes, wishes, camping, *slamming, twisted, yelled, jumped). (*Consonant doubling: When a one-syllable word with one vowel ends in one consonant, double the final consonant before adding a suffix beginning with a vowel.)