Unit 6

What Does It Mean to Be Canadian?

Crack the Code - Syllables

A syllable is a part or beat of a word.

It contains a vowel sound and may contain the consonants around that vowel. When you are trying to find out how many syllables are in a word, it may help to clap each time you say a new sound in the word.

For example, when you say the word student, you would clap twice: once for stu- and again for -dent. This means the word student has two syllables.

Here are some more examples of words and how many times you would clap as you say that word:

to-ge-ther (clap-clap-clap) (3 syllables)
farm-er (clap-clap) (2 syllables)
mice (clap) (1 syllable)
el-e-phant (clap-clap-clap) (2 syllables)
un-hap-py (clap-clap-clap) (3 syllables)
cough (clap) (1 syllable)

Dividing words into syllables can be a great way to help you discover what a word means. There are many different things you will notice when you break words into syllables:

All syllables must have a vowel sound.
A vowel in the middle of a syllable usually has a short sound.
A vowel by itself usually has a long sound.

Here are some quick rules about dividing words into syllables:

If a word has a double consonant (like happy), divide the word into syllables between the double consonant (hap-py).
Divide a word into syllables between the prefix (rewrite or re-write) or suffix (writer or writ-er) and the root word.
Never split up two consonants that make one sound (like th, sh, ch, etc.). For example, the word marching would be divided after the ch (march-ing).

You can also use a dictionary to help you figure out how to divide a word into syllables. In the dictionary entry shown below, the word Canada is divided into syllables using dashes between the syllables.

Other dictionaries may show the syllables divided with slashes (Can/a/da).

Game

In order to practice separating words into syllables, play the Syllables factory game. Click on the picture of the game, and click on How to Play to learn how to play the game. After the demo of how to play the game, you can choose a level of difficulty. Then, play the game to build your robot!