Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Teaching the Sounds of "C" and "G" in Spanish


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Lately, I have been noticing that my students struggle with knowing which sounds to use when they see words that contain "C" and/or "G". Both of these letters are "vowel dependent" meaning the vowel that comes after them dictates their sound. To learn more about how "C" and "G" behave there are two great videos online:

The Letter G
The Letter C

I used these following units from Teachers Pay Teachers to create decks of cards. One deck has "C" words, and the other contains "G" words. I made two cards for each word so that I could play Memory, Go Fish, and the slapping game with my students. (With the slapping game, I lay out the cards on a hard surface and call out a word and they have to put their hand on the card before other students in order to capture the card. The student with the most cards at the end wins.)  These cards also double as flashcards in which your students can practice reading the words. These cards are great for early elementary kids. Here are the units I used:

GE and GI Words
GA, GO, GU Words
CE and CI Words
CA, CO, and CU Words

Another great tool is the story El Nabo Gigante, which contains a plethora of "C" and "G" words. Here is my post on how to use this book to work with these words. Here are a few other books that have a higher frequency of "C" and "G" words:

Carros, Camiones, y Aviones
El Ratoncito, La Fresa Roja Y Madura Y El Gran Oso Hambriento

There is also a Crazy Eights game available here that specifically focuses on these words! This would be for slightly older students who are reading Spanish for the most part, but struggling with the sounds of these two letter.

By taking a little extra time to focus on these words, it is my hope that my students will gain a better understanding of their sounds as they read the language.

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