Teaching Soft C and Soft G Phonics Sounds

Teaching Soft C and Soft G Phonics Sounds

Hey, y'all! When I first started teaching, I admit, I didn't know all the different phonics "rules."  I didn't know what made "c" and "g" hard or soft. But the more I learned about these and other phonics rules, the less weird the English language seemed and the easier it was for me to teach my students. These soft c and soft g phonics games help my students practice when to use the soft sound or the hard sound and provides opportunities to practice reading words with these special sounds. 

If you didn't know, when a "c" or "g" is followed by an "i," "e," or "y," (like in gym or cycle) the sound becomes soft. C will make a /s/ sound and g will make a /j/ sound. As fluent readers, we don't always stop and think about these rules or recognize when the sounds change. But when we explicitly teach our students to recognize these things, it saves us all a ton of time and stress and makes learning to read so much easier for our littles. 

In our classroom, we teach the skill explicitly in a whole group. Then, we break off into reading rotations. Our rotations are: small group/teacher table, read to self, the computer program adopted by our district, and phonics centers. My students use our phonics centers independently in their rotations and with me in their small reading groups. 

Students practice reading soft c and g words with: 

• read and write cards
• roll and read cards
• pyramid sentences
• Bump games
• hidden words
• sound sorts
• spin-a-sentence
• matching/memory cards
• and a Scoot game

I use the Scoot game at the end of the week to assess how students are doing with the new skills they're learning. We also use these cards to play Quiz-Quiz-Trade for additional practice. 

These centers can be used as independent practice, with partners, or in small groups for interventions. I usually put the hidden words cards (Super Sleuth), Bump games, spin a sentence, read and write cards, and Memory cards in their independent centers. I keep roll and read, pyramid sentences, and sound sorts with me for small groups. And we use the Scoot game as assessment. This gives students choice during their center time and gives me options for my small groups to work with. 

With targeted skills practice, I've seen my students grow exponentially. Before, I was getting so frustrated because my kids would learn a skill during our phonics instruction and only had limited amount of practice apply it. Now, their centers are targeted to the skill, just like during math time, so they actually see the phonics rules in action. It's made a world of difference. 

You can find these soft c and soft g phonics centers in my TPT store here. It's also part of a growing bundle of phonics games and interventions designed to last you the entire school year. While you're checking it out, be sure to follow me on TPT so you don't miss anything new. And there is a TON of new on the way. 

I hope you found some new ideas for your classroom and understand the soft c and soft g phonics rules a little bit better. Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon. 

Stay cozy,