A. Introducing Suffixes “-s,” “-ed,” and “-ing” to CVCe Base Words: “bake,” “bakes,” “baking,” “baked”

• (Suggested transition song, sung to the tune of “The More We Get Together”):

“Sit down and come together, together, together. Sit down and come together, together, right now. Open your ears now, and listen to these words. It’s time to hear some words now and think how they’ve changed.”

• Begin the Suffixes instructional practice:

1. Teacher says: “We will listen to some words to hear how they’re similar and how they’re different. Listen carefully.”

2. Teacher says: “bake,” “bakes,” “baking,” “baked.”

3. Teacher asks:

“How are these words similar?” (all have the sound /ā/; all have the word “bake” in them)

“How are they different?” (The ending changes.)

4. Teacher says: “That’s right. They all have the sound /ā/ and all have ‘bake’ in them.”

5. Teacher places the Suffix Cards on the board.

6. Teacher repeats the four words aloud and asks:

“What do you suppose these groups of letters represent?” (the endings of the words)

7. Teacher says the word “bakes” and invites a student to identify the Suffix Card that represents the ending.

8. Repeat step 7 with the words: “baking” and “baked.”

9. Teacher says: “These endings are called suffixes. All of the words I said have the base word ‘bake’ in them, but they each have a different suffix. The suffixes change the meaning of the base word ‘bake.’”

10. Teacher invites a volunteer to use “bake” in a sentence.

11. Teacher writes the word “bake” on the board while students skywrite the letters.

12. Teacher asks:

“What is the job of the ‘e’ at the end of this word?” (magnanimous magician, tells the “a” to make the /ā/ sound)

13. Teacher invites volunteers to use “bakes” in a sentence.

14. Teacher writes the word “bakes” under “bake.”

15. Repeat steps 13 and 14 with “baking” and “baked.”

16. Teacher and students read the words together.

17. Teacher asks:

“How are these words similar?” (all have the letter “a”; all have the /ā/ sound.)

“How are they different?” (they have different suffixes; there is no “e” in baking)

18. Teacher points to the Suffix Card “-s” and asks:

“Which of the words in the list has this suffix?” (“bakes”)

19. Teacher draws a box around the suffix.

20. Repeat steps 18 and 19 with the remaining Suffix Cards.

21. Teacher says: “When we listened to each of these words, we heard the base word ‘bake’ in all of them. Let’s underline each base word and see if ‘bake’ is in all of them.”

22. Teacher underlines the base word in each word.

23. Teacher asks:

“What do you notice?” (Two of the base words are missing the silent “e.”)

24. Teacher points to the base word “bake” from the word “bakes” and says: “This is clear. Here is the base word ‘bake.’”

25. Teacher points to “bak” from the two remaining words (“baking” and “baked”) and says: “This isn’t so clear. I would expect this to be ‘bak,’ but when we said the words, we clearly heard ‘bake.’” Teacher asks:

“What happened to the silent ‘e’?” (Responses will vary.)

26. Teacher says: “I wonder if there is a clue in the suffixes?”

27. Teacher points to the three Suffix Cards (“-s,” “-ed,” and “-ing”) and asks: “What do we notice? Two of these have something in common.” (“-ed” and “-ing” both start with a vowel.)

28. Teacher says: “Hmm…it was the words with the suffixes ‘-ing’ and ‘-ed’ that seemed to have the problem.  The silent ‘e’ disappeared in those base words. And both of those suffixes start with a vowel. I wonder if there is a connection? I think we may have to be sleuths and see if we can figure this out!”