How to teach words ending in the K sound

A reader asks how to teach her first grader words which end in a K sound.

That’s a tough question to answer because even though there are basically three ways of ending English words with a K sound (“c,” “ck,” and “ke”), there are many variations of short-ish vowel sounds before the K sound (-ac, -alk, -awk, -ek, -ic, -ilk, -ok, -ook, and -uk.)  There are even more variations of long vowel sounds before the “K” sound (-ache, -ake, -eak, -eek, -eke, -iek, -ike, -ique, -oak, -oke, -olk, and -uke).

But luckily, first graders don’t need to know all the variations.  So, let’s offer them a few basic rules.

For words which rhyme with book and look, the spelling is –ook.  Make sure the child can distinguish between the -ook sound and the –uk sound.  Say both kinds of words aloud and ask the child to tell you if you are saying an -ook or a -uk word.  Words which end in –ook include

Words which end in -uk include

Most short-vowel, one-syllable words end in -ck.  In addition to the -uck words  above, other common -ck words include

A small number of words end in -lk where the L is silent: chalk, talk, and walk.  Some people pronounce these words as rhyming with -ok (walk, lock) while other people pronounce them as rhyming with the -aw sound (talk, hawk).  I would teach these -lk words as a small word family and not confuse the child with other letter variations.

Most long-vowel, one-syllable words ending in a “K” sound end in -ke.  They include

Many long-vowel, one-syllable words ending in a “K” sound end in two vowels before the K, such as beak and soak.  In order not to confuse the child, I would skip over teaching these kinds of words until the previous kinds of “K” words are learned.  The exception I would make is teaching –eek words.  I often teach -ee words before I teach silent E words, and when I come to silent E words, I tell students that almost all long-vowel, E words are spelled with –ee.  Instead of the E coming at the end of the word, it comes after the first E, I say.  This does not seem to confuse students.

The only words ending in just a C that a first grader might need to know are doc, picnic and music.  And the only short-vowel, one-syllable word ending in just a K that I can think of is trek.  Teach these as exceptions to rules.

I suspect what the child is confused by is not how to read all these words, but how to spell them.  If so, I would teach them as word families, and review them often.