Introducing soft 'g'

This is a one-off lesson.
You can introduce it whenever you like
as long as you have taught the lesson on soft 'c'.

In English words, the letters C and G are similar - they each have two sounds, a hard sound and a soft one. Children are familiar with the two sounds in the letter C so we can now introduce the letter G which follows a similar pattern. The letter G has two sounds: the hard sound that we have in go and the soft sound we have in age. So far, children have learnt that the letter G has a hard sound /g/. They're now going to learn that it sometimes has a /j/ sound as well. The idea that a letter can have two different sounds is still new for children, so again we need to introduce this with great care, presenting it as something interesting and rather special. The new pattern is introduced in two Units taught one after the other.

Unit 1

What to do

You will need

1. First, build the word age with letter-blocks in the middle of the sheet of coloured card.

2. Tell your child that this is the word age. Again, don't mention long vowels or magic 'e' or anything else by way of explanation. Just keep it simple.

3. Now get him to write age lots of times on the spare piece of paper, saying "A G E (letter names) age" as he does so. Join all the letters if you can. As the A-to-G join is difficult, you might like to join just the G and the E; for children who don't loop the G, there'll be no join here. Whatever you do is fine.

4. Next, point out that the letter G has a /j/ sound in the word age. Again, make a big point of this, treating it as something interesting and rather special. Don't explain - just leave it at that.

5. Now build as many words as you can on the age pattern - page, stage, cage, rage, wage. Use the letter-blocks as before, keeping the words on the sheet of coloured card. And from time to time, pick up a word, jumble the letters, and give them back to the child to make up.

6. You now stop and explain that the letter G is like C and also has two sounds. Using the DOG reading card, show that the letter G usually makes the /g/ sound as in got, dog and log - as he already knows of course. Explain that the age words are special: here the G has the /j/ sound, just like an J. Again, a short explanation is all that's needed here - it's not yet necessary for children fully understand the rule.

7. Finally, the words need to go in your child's exercise book. The heading should be age fairly large but not in capitals. Make a list of the words and perhaps add a few in sentences underneath. If you can get hold of some Animal stickers, these are a useful device for this: children choose an animal, put it in their books and draw a cage around it - the animal can be in a rage in his cage.... . Again, don't use any of the pictures on pages 89 to 91 of the SoundWorks Copymasters as we're saving these for later.

What next
The next thing to do is establish soft 'g' as part of a reading strategy.

Unit 2

What to do

1. Before the lesson, cut out one of the Houses on Copymaster 91 in the SoundWorks Copymaster book. Put it in your child's exercise book, roughly in the middle of the page.

2. In the lesson, your child fills the house with the 'age' words, and writes age above as a heading - fairly large and not in capitals.

3. Then, just as you did for the letter C, explain that these words are special because here the G has the soft sound /j/. Say that this is useful to know for reading - most of the time, the letter G has a /g/ sound (as he already knows) but sometimes it says /j/ as we see here. When he reads, the thing to do is use /g/ all the time - but if it doesn't work, then try the /j/ instead. Then say: "Let's practise what we have to remember:- "

4. Finally, as before, get your child to write ge lots of times on the page with the age house. You could use different coloured pens, make a border or do little rows under the houses - whatever you like. Each time he writes the letters, he says: "G - E (letter names) ... /j/ (letter sound)". Every now and again while he's working, ask him the prompt you are trying to establish: "The letter G usually says /g/ but it also has a soft sound, what is it?" ... "/j/".

Note: the very common word get breaks this pattern because here the G is hard. It would be wise not to draw attention to this word while you are teaching the ge pattern.

What next

This completes the work on soft 'g' for the time being. The letters C and G form a unique pair, both having a hard and a soft sound. There are no other letters that follow this pattern, so once you've taught these two the job is done. You now have strategies in place that you can develop when children read, drawing on the prompts you have established. There will be further opportunities to practise soft 'c' and soft 'g' at various points in this course, particularly in the work on Syllables.