Confession time!

I only learnt this after Wei Teng (our ex-Literacy Coach) enlightened me.

This is why this poster has been pasted in every Y1 classroom:

Also, some of our students don’t know that a, e, i, o & u = vowels. Helping them internalise this fact will enable them to break down a long word into its constituent syllables. Another mind-blowing fact that I learnt from Wei Teng: Every syllable has at least one vowel.

More information on y as a part-time vowel

• This is how you always win the game Hangman. You pick a word with no vowels such as Rhythm, and you’ll pretty much win all the time
• Lots of words you can use: Myth, Rhythm, My, Hymn, Gym
• There is a a, e, I , o, u, … and sometimes y 80s song by a group named Freeze
• Also note that in 90% of the time when the y is taking the place of a vowel, it means the vowels in the beginning are pronounced in the short sound as opposed to long sound (E.g: the a in candy/ the i in silly / the o in phony

• Normally, words are made up of both vowels and consonants. The one exception to this is the word Iouea (a genus of sea sponges). This word contains all five vowels and no other letters.
• The words abstemious (the act of moderately indulging in food and drink) and facetious (finding humour is a serious situation) contain all five vowels in order.

Ending this with a question:

Singaporeans say “MacDonald’s”, but this fast food restaurant is actually spelt as McDonald’s. Why is the vowel ‘a’ missing in the spelling?

Leave a comment below to find out the answer!