4th-5th Grade Level 11 Sort It “c” and “g” Spelling & Texts PDF
streamlined instruction accelerated achievement
Soft “C” and Soft “G”
Words Activity Pack
Written and Developed by Marnie Ginsberg, PhD
@2018 Reading Simplified
About the Soft “c” and Soft “g” Activity Pack
BACKGROUND: The so-called soft “c” sound is /s/, as in “cent.” This sound often happens
when the “c” is followed by an “e,” “i,” or “y,” as in “cent,” “city,” or “cycle.” However, this
pattern is a low frequency spelling, except for at the ends of multi-syllable words, such as
“entrance,” or “electricity.” Therefore, we don’t teach this pattern explicitly until students are
near the end of the 1st grade or 2nd grade Streamlined Pathway, when they know most of
the Advanced Code and are improving in their multi-syllable reading.
Similarly, the so-called soft “g” sound is /j/, an in “giant.” Again, this happens after the “g” is
followed by and “e,” “i,” or “y,” as in “gem,” “giant,” or “gymnast”. This “rule” about soft “g” is
less reliable than the “c” rule, though. For instance, consider the words, “girl,” “gift,” or “get.”
And, there are even fewer “g” as /j/ sounds than there are “c” as /c/. Like the advice about
soft “c” above, teach the soft “g” later in the student’s development, unless it happens to be
needed earlier.
@2018 Reading Simplified
OVERVIEW: This activity pack contains games and resources for helping your students learn
to apply the /s/ or /j/ sounds when needed. You may not need all of these resources. Many of
your students may have already deduced this “rule” implicitly by learning to read
high-frequency words with the /s/ or /j/ sound already. My aim is to provide more than most
teachers would need.
This is one of the few “rules” we teach. Rules, in general, aren’t reliable and they take a
student’s mind away from the meaning-making process and sound-blending process that
really help them attack unknown words rapidly. However, these rules for soft “c” and “g” are
pretty reliable and they should come along at a time when your students’ decoding skills are
pretty well established.
Mostly as your students play with these words with these activities or in texts, remember our
main strategy is to get them to Flex It–try one sound in a word and if it doesn’t make sense,
try another one. If we’ve been coaching them to “Try another sound,” or “What else could this
(tapping missed letter-sound) could this be?” they may have already encountered these tricky
“c” and “g” issues. Great! Just keep encouraging them to put that into play as they read these
words for games or sorting.
CONTENTS:
•
•
•
•
(Optional) Rap/Memory Support Poster
Slap It Soft “c” – Deck 1 (easier)
Slap It Soft “c” – Deck 2 (harder)
Slap It Soft “g” – Deck 1 (easier)
• Slap It Soft “g” – Deck 2 (harder)
• Sort by Sound Soft “c” worksheet
• Sort by Sound Soft “g” worksheet
About the Soft “c” and Soft “g” Activity Pack
INTRODUCING: You may want to put a few words on the board that include both the /k/
and the /s/ sounds for “c.” For instance, the words “cent,” “cat,” city,” “cold,” and ‘cycle.”
“What’s going on here?” you may ask the class. Then you could do the same with the letter
“g,” as in “gate,” “gem,” “good,” “giant,” and “gymnast.”
Then you could share the pattern/rule about both soft “c” and “g” with the poster.
If you can get a little beat in your oral reading, 😉 it may become a chant/rap that the
kids enjoy reciting.
@2018 Reading Simplified
Next, have the class or group try to read word cards from the Slap It deck for “c.”
Remind them to Flex It, if what they first attempt doesn’t make sense.
Finally, help the students play Slap It with the “c” deck that’s best suited for their level.
HOW TO PLAY SLAP IT: Slap It is a Reading Simplified variation of the card game Slap.
The objective is to end up with the most cards. Two to four players take turns each turning
over one card at a time. If the word has the hard sound for the relevant letter (i.e., “c” or “g”),
then the students do nothing other than continuing to take turns turning over cards. However,
if the word has the soft sound for the relevant letter, the first player to slap the deck and
read the word correctly gets to keep all of the cards under that pile. Ideally, the student will
orally read each word as s/he turns it over. Whoever has most of their hand on the bottom
of the pile is the one who gets to keep the entire pile of cards…but only if s/he can read
the word!
If a player accidentally slaps a word with the hard sound of “c” or “g,” s/he has to give 2
cards to EACH of the other players.
This game can go on for awhile, so you may want to put a time limit on it! Note that most of
the words have the hard sound for the letter–because that better represents the statistical
frequencies of our language (i.e., /k/ for “c” is a lot more common than /s/).
REMAINING RESOURCES: The Slap It cards can also be used for sorting or any other
game/activity you can think of. For Sorting, give students a relevant deck of cards (either
Deck 1 for the easier level or Deck 2 for the harder). Have them Sort by Sound, and as
they sort, have them Write and Say the spelling of each sound on the relevant Sort by
Sound worksheet.
Thus, this Activity Packet can be used for at least 4 games of Slap It and 4 Sort by Sound
activities, as well as any other game or activity you can think of for these high-frequency word
cards. Finally, here’s a LINK for Google Sheets that have the Top 4,000 words sorted by
these sounds. You may choose to use these words in other ways. Copy and save the file to
edit. ENJOY!!
Soft “c” and Soft “g” Rap
gymnast
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT C – DECK 1
SLAP IT
cent
place
face
certain
cell
voice
Written and Developed by Marnie Ginsberg, PhD
@2018 Reading Simplified
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT C – DECK 1
SLAP IT
ice
since
center
percent
city
circle
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT C – DECK 1
SLAP IT
racing
pencil
cycle
fancy
icy
came
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT C – DECK 1
American
SLAP IT
cat
captain became
@2018 Reading Simplified
catch
cattle
SOFT C – DECK 1
camp
case
@2018 Reading Simplified
SLAP IT
cap
can’t
California medical
SOFT C – DECK 1
SLAP IT
escape
Canada
college
cold
cost
Mexico
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT C – DECK 1
SLAP IT
coal
colony complex
coat
cow
@2018 Reading Simplified
second
SOFT C – DECK 1
SLAP IT
common discover Congress
coast
@2018 Reading Simplified
record
cool
SOFT C – DECK 2
cent
SLAP IT
surface process
necessary century
@2018 Reading Simplified
ceiling
SOFT C – DECK 2
SLAP IT
ceremony cease
city
@2018 Reading Simplified
resource
society electricity
SOFT C – DECK 2
cycle
America
@2018 Reading Simplified
SLAP IT
democracy emergency
cause
political
SOFT C – DECK 2
SLAP IT
physical education Africa
chemical carbon Mexican
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT C – DECK 2
locate
SLAP IT
career
communication
scale electrical practical
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT C – DECK 2
SLAP IT
community economic continue
complete condition corner
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT C – DECK 2
SLAP IT
contain
corn
income
correct Constitution
@2018 Reading Simplified
cotton
SOFT C – DECK 2
SLAP IT
computer count
@2018 Reading Simplified
contact
SOFT G – DECK 1
SLAP IT
gem
large
gentle
gene
germs
genius
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT G – DECK 1
SLAP IT
age
page
danger
giant
magic
giraffe
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT G – DECK 1
SLAP IT
gymnast
Egypt
energy
gave
gas
garden
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT G – DECK 1
SLAP IT
gain
gate
gap
began
sugar
gather
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT G – DECK 1
SLAP IT
legal
regard
against
good
go
gone
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT G – DECK 1
gold
forgot
@2018 Reading Simplified
SLAP IT
goal
wagon
Chicago dragon
SOFT G – DECK 1
SLAP IT
cargo
got
golden
get
give
girl
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT G – DECK 1
gift
@2018 Reading Simplified
SLAP IT
begin
geese
SOFT G – DECK 2
SLAP IT
gem
general language
huge
strange dangerous
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT G – DECK 2
suggest
urge
@2018 Reading Simplified
SLAP IT
judge
gently
giant magically
SOFT G – DECK 2
SLAP IT
imagine Virginia gymnast
gym
@2018 Reading Simplified
technology regardless
SOFT G – DECK 2
SLAP IT
irrigation
investigation
@2018 Reading Simplified
gang
illegal
organic gasoline
SOFT G – DECK 2
SLAP IT
magazine organ
negative
organize Michigan
game
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT G – DECK 2
SLAP IT
government
God
governor category
@2018 Reading Simplified
forgotten
goat
SOFT G – DECK 2
goose
SLAP IT
ago
Oregon
target together longer
@2018 Reading Simplified
SOFT G – DECK 2
finger
SLAP IT
forget
bringing beginning
@2018 Reading Simplified
bigger
Sort by Sound
Hard “C”
/k/
@2018 Reading Simplified
Soft “C”
/s/
Sort by Sound
Hard “G”
/g/
@2018 Reading Simplified
Soft “G”
/j/