phonics question

[loosinas]

i wonder if anyone can tell me a simple way of explaining to my son how to tell how to sound out the i-e, a-e etc
if he saw a word like bike how do i explain to him that the i makes that sound and we dont sound the e ??
i hope someone understands what im getting at lol

When two vowels go walking te first does the talking

whenyou have two vowels together in a word or separated by one letter in the case of bike you say the name of the first vowel instead of the sound of them both.

Or you could use the old magic e rule. I still remember the magic e song from words and pictures.

oooh share the song share the song !!

i'm not a teacher, just mother of DD who's been doing some her phonics in her 'transitional' term - I asked very quickly at pick up about the 'double letters' she had in her letter tin and the basic rule seemed to be, they sound the first letter of the two, and the second one is silent .. so for i-e, it would be 'i' (as in the sound like eye) in a-e, 'a' (as in aye, bee, ceee)
but i'm sure a teacher will be along to tell you more correctly what it should be - i'd like to know that I heard it right too! ;-))

oh it was look and read not words and pictures wow thattakes me back

There's a free children's book illustrating the magic e rule here (third book).

It's called a split digraph. A good way to show how the sound works is to write all the sounds on post it notes e.g. b ie k. Then cut the ie digraph in half and put either side of the k. This shows that both letters are needed to make the sound. This is an activity from the Letters and Sounds book.

magic or silent "e" likes to be written but likes to stay silent.

www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-alphablocks-demonstrate-a-split-digraph/11251.html

mrz Great link! I've been reading English for most of my life and had no idea that there was such a tidy explanation.

Fab link, thanksmrz