Bringing Phonics to Life: How to Teach Closed & Open Syllables

Closed and open syllables are the first out of the six types of syllables that students should learn. According to research done by Stanback in 1992, open syllables and closed syllables combined make up nearly 75% of all syllables. This is fascinating and has major implications when teaching students about syllable types. If we spend plenty of time making sure our students understand these two types of syllables, it will pay off big time, especially when they begin to encounter multisyllabic words.

Before we get into ways to bring your instruction to life when teaching open and closed syllables, let's first explore the difference between the two.

What is an open syllable? 

An open syllable is a syllable with a single vowel and no consonants after it. The vowel is "open" and makes it's long sound. We code the long vowel sound with a macron.

What is a closed syllable?

A closed syllable is a syllable with a single vowel followed by at least one consonant. The vowel is "closed in" and makes it's short sound. We code the short vowel sound with a breve.

Okay, now let's dig into the fun stuff! When teaching open and closed syllables, how can we help to bring our instruction to life for students? Keep reading to learn some creative ideas!

Use Syllable Houses (with doors that open and close) 🏠

These houses are a great hands-on tool for helping students to understand the difference between open and closed syllables! And bonus.... they're FREE for you to download! Click the image below to download a set of 10 houses that you can use right away 😊 Here are a few quick tips for using the houses:

• Print the houses on cardstock so they are sturdier. Since students will be opening and closing the doors on these, they'll get a lot of use.
• Print on colored cardstock to make them even more exciting 😉
• Laminate before cutting the door. This will also ensure that they last longer.
• After laminating, cut the door on the dotted line. Be sure not to cut the solid line on the right of the door. Instead, you will fold the door back on this line.
• If your houses are laminated, you can have students use a dry erase marker to mark the vowel, consonant, breve/macron on the house. Then, they can erase with a tissue or eraser.

Incorporate Hand Motions 🫱

Hand motions add a kinesthetic aspect and help students remember the new concepts they are learning. Plus, what's really neat about the hand motions for open & closed syllables is that it ties into the vowel sounds for each syllable type!

For an open syllable, have your students hold one arm out straight. Tell them that they are pretending their arm is a door and that it is open. Ask them if their arm is short or long. It's LONG! This can help them remember that the vowel in an open syllable makes its long sound. You can also make the connection between their arm being straight and the macron (symbol for the long vowel) is a straight line too!

For a closed syllable, have your students bend their arm in, just like it's a door closing. Now ask them if their arm is short or long. It's SHORT, just like the vowel sound! Have them notice that their arm is bent, and if they trace the path of their arm, it makes a curve just live the breve (symbol for the short vowel sound).

To see these hand motions in action, check out our YouTube video on open & closed syllables below!

Use Your Classroom Door 🚪

Using index cards or sentence strips, write several examples of words that can be read open/closed. Cut the last consonant off and tape them onto your door and door frame like the image below. Demonstrate how, when the door is open, the vowel has no consonant after it. But when the door is closed, there is a consonant that is "closing" in the vowel.

Ready Made Digital Lessons 💻

If you are looking for a unit on open and closed syllables that is already created for you... you're in luck! Our "Digital Science of Reading Phonics Lessons" has everything that you need to teach your students about open & closed syllables. Just pull up the digital lessons on your smartboard, print off the coordinating materials for each lesson, and you are set!

These lessons are HIGHLY engaging and include the following for each concept:

That's a total of 12 digital lessons... 6 decodable word lists... 6 student encoding pages with teacher guides... & 6 decodable readers! All for $24!

 To grab your bundle of lessons, click on the link of your choosing below!