Phonics questions about 'was' in 100 EZ Lessons

[NavyWifeandMommy]

okay so when I read it's was is sounded like wuz but the book says was. How do you teach it?

The same with the. the book says the with a long e sound. we say it either way.

 

I know there was a thread about it awhile back but I wasn't at that lesson at the time and now here I am way passed that post and I tried searching but failed.

[johnandtinagilbert]

we teach it the third sound of A aaaahhh (like open your mouth and say aaaaah) so it's really /waaaahhhhhz/; but b/c we speed up when talking, it often sounds like wuz

 

for the, you can opt to teach the history of the word, thee (double e says /E/) and that it has been shortened to a single e for convenience; however, we say /thu/ b/c that's how we say it, so I taught it as a sight word.

 

as always, ymmv :)

[lamamaloca]

I teach "the" with a long e to fit the rule "vowels are usually long at the end of a syllable (or in an open syllable, if you want to get technical)." I explained to the kids that sometimes vowels "get lazy" and just sound like "uh" when you're not emphasizing them, but for spelling we are careful and precise in our pronunciation.

[Dinsfamily]

I teach "the" with a long e to fit the rule "vowels are usually long at the end of a syllable (or in an open syllable, if you want to get technical)." I explained to the kids that sometimes vowels "get lazy" and just sound like "uh" when you're not emphasizing them, but for spelling we are careful and precise in our pronunciation.

 

This is how we do 'the' also. In fact, we usually say 'the' with the long e sound before a word that begins with a vowel (eg. 'the end'). Our lazy pronunciation (which varies in different regions) changes how we say words but not how we spell them.

 

We do 'was' the same was as Tina. The 'a' says its ah and the 's' says z. Both regular sounds of those letters.

 

There wasn't any need to teach either one as sight words.