Long Vowels - Waffles    

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

• a as in cake
• e as in peach
• i as in pie
• o as in toast
• u as in mule

The rule used for My Breakfast Reading Program is that if a single syllable word has two vowels (a,e,i,o,u), the vowel sound is most likely long.  This rule holds true 67% of the time.

Since waffles are cooked two sides at a time, these words are called "Waffles". 

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 in less than one second.

How: 

In My Breakfast Reading Program's database of 2,377 single syllable words, 878 have two vowels.  Sixty-seven percent (587) of the 878 words with two vowels (a e i o u) have the long vowel sound (Waffle).  See Table 1.

The 32% exceptions will be presented as  Fruit Toppings (22% - Diphthongs) and Hot Cereal ( 11% - Irregular Rimes). 

Waffles (587) make up 25% of all the 2,377 single syllable words. 

Note:  In addition, 8 words, such as quake, have qu + two vowels, have the long vowel sound.  Words with three vowels (32), such as please and blouse, are treated as Irregular.  The primary focus is to identify two vowels.

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".