Orton-Gillingham Flash Cards, Level 3: Even More Rules ‘n’ Phonograms

These printable cards are to be used in conjunction with our other Orton-Gillingham flash cards. They contain the following entries, some of which are direct ‘upgrades’ of specific cards from the Level 1 and Level 2 decks:

• Long and short vowel sounds for ‘a, e, i, o, u’, with keywords containing the schwa (unstressed) sound for each vowel
• ‘c’ says /s/ when it is followed by ‘e’, ‘i’, and ‘y’
• ‘g’ says /j/ when it is followed by ‘e’, ‘i’, and ‘y’
• Magic-e vowel sounds
• Magic-e Syllable rule
• R-controlled vowels
• R-controlled Syllable rule (also known as the ‘Bossy R rule’)
• Drop-e rule for suffixes

Usage notes:

• You can replace the Level 2 cards for ‘a, e, i, o, u’ with these Level 3 versions once your child has learned the schwa sound (either from Swords & Stationery or elsewhere).
• You can also replace the Level 1 cards for ‘c’ and ‘g’ with these Level 3 versions once your child has learned their soft sounds. The soft sound for ‘c’ is /s/, as in ‘cent’. The soft sound for /g/ is /j/, as in ‘ginger’. These two consonants make their soft sounds when they are followed by ‘e’, ‘i’, and ‘y’ (e.g., ‘cent’, ‘ginger’).
• ‘g’ says /j/ when it is followed by ‘e’, ‘i’, and ‘y’
• Magic-e vowels follow their long vowel sounds. To test your child, substitute the dash between the vowel and ‘e’ (e.g., the ‘–‘ in ‘a–e’) with a consonant and ask them to read the entire unit aloud. Thus, if you were to substitute the ‘–‘ with ‘t‘ in ‘a–e’, the unit should be pronounced as /ate/.
• The schwa (unstressed) sound is pronounced as /ə/, as in the first sound in the word ‘about’.
• All r-controlled vowels have the schwa sound. For ‘or‘ and ‘ar‘, however, the schwa sound typically only manifests when they are at the back of long words, like ‘doctor‘ and ‘dollar‘.
• Page 5 contains the answers to Page 4’s rules.
• You can duplex print Pages 4 and 5 (double-sided).  This provides you with a direct reference to the rule while you’re holding the other side up for your child.