Short Vowels - Pancakes   

What: 

Short vowels are special sounds for the letters: a, e, i, o and u.

• a as in cat
• e as in hen
• i as in fish
• o as in fox
• u as in duck

The rule used for My Breakfast Reading Program is that if a single syllable word has one vowel (a,e,i,o,u), the vowel sound is short. 

Since pancakes are cooked one side at a time, these words are called "Pancakes".  This rule holds true 92% of the time. 

Why: 

Being able to recognize a vowel, know the vowel rule and say the vowel sound is the most important skill when trying to read an unfamiliar word.  The goal is to see a vowel, know the rule and and say the vowel sound in less than one second.

How: 

My Breakfast Reading Program presents single vowel words using the synthetic phonics method.  Lessons 1 - 16 focus on short vowels only.  Lessons 23 - 42 have both short and long vowels. 

In My Breakfast Reading Program's database of 2,377 single syllable words (Table 1), 1,113 have a single vowel (a e i o u).   Ninety-two percent (1,033) of the single vowel words, have the short vowel sound (Pancake).

Note:  In addition, 10 words, such as quick, have qu + one vowel with a short vowel sound. 

The 8% of exceptions will be presented as Fruit Toppings (2% - Diphthongs e.g. ball and salt) and Hot Cereal ( 6% - Irregular Rimes e.g. go and be).

Pancakes (1,033) make up 43% of all the 2,377 single syllable words.

Since Pancakes (43% ) and Waffles (25%) make up 68% of single syllable words, the long and short vowel sounds are repeated throughout Lessons 1 - 42 using the synthetic phonics method

Repetition, repetition, repetition. 

For short (10) and Long (8) include "qu".