Teaching the CK rule

One of the hardest spelling rules for my firsties is when to use ck and when to use k. Confession: I spent many years teaching not actually teaching the rule. I had spelling words and spelling tests and word sorts. But I didn’t teach when to use ck and when to use k. Finally I was introduced to the Orton-Gillingham approach to spelling and reading for struggling readers. Game changer. I love love love teaching phonics rules that actually make sense of our super confusing language. This is one of my favorite rules to teach now because now my kids know how and when to use ck.

I’ll start with the rule:

At the end of words, when you hear /k/ sound, you most often use the letter k or the letters ck. When the /k/ sound follows a short vowel, use ck. Otherwise, use k.

When I teach a new phonics rule, I now begin with auditory (sounds) and connect it to the visual representation (letters). I begin by asking my students which letters say /k/. At this point, students have learned that both c and k say /k/. They have likely also encountered ck together but do not know why they are together or when to use them together. Either way, at this point I introduce the grapheme ck. I use letter tiles so that I can show the letters c and k on one tile because I want to show it makes one sound together. I put the c, k, and ck together to show the ways we can make the /k/ sound.

I tell my students that there are times when we are supposed to use c, times when we are supposed to use k, and times when we are supposed to use ck. I tell them that today we are going to focus on which letters to use when we hear /k/ at the end of words.

I first put the letter c back and tell my students that it is rare to use just c at the end of words (especially one syllable words that we are using at this point). That leaves me with k and ck.

Together, we say, segment, and build several words that end with the /k/ sound. For example, I say “Let’s build the word duck”. We all say “duck”, then finger spell together /d/ /u/ /k/. I lay out three white squares to represent the three sounds we hear (see below).

Then, we fill in the first two sounds with the correct letters. I place k and ck under the last white sound square to show that both say /k/ at the end of words. Then I tell them the rule. After saying the rule, I ask, “Should we use ck or K?” I end up repeated the rule over and over after each word we build. I also ask them to explain why they chose ck or k? For this example, I would lead them to ck because the rule is that we use ck at the end of words when the /k /sound follows a short vowel. We review our vowels and I remind them what “short” means (and we review those sounds). We build tons of words in this way, each time asking the kids to pick ck or k and explaining why.

Another great way to do it is to first give them examples of words with ck and k at the end to see if they can figure out the rule themselves. Ask questions like, “What do you notice about all the words in each category?” Give hints like, “What comes before the /k/ sound in each?”

In small groups, we do more work with this and I’ll give students white boards or their own letter tiles to build the words.

I might lay out a word on the reading table as shown above and have them write on white boards what they think the correct answer is.

Here is another activity for practicing ck and k.

I fold the cards below so you can only see the picture.
I say the word, students repeat, then we stretch the word.
Right before we get to the last sound (always /k/) we pay extra attention to that previous sound. That will help us determine which side it goes on (k or ck.)
Segment the word into its individual sounds. It is helpful to use manipulatives like bingo chips. This way you can point to the chip that says the sound right before the /k/. For example, if you are doing “rake”, you would segment /r/ /a/ /k/ while pushing a bingo chip for each sound. Then you would say, Here is the /k/.” (Point to the chip that says /k/.) What sound was right before it?” (Point to the chip right before it) Repeat the sound then ask, “Is it a short vowel?” ( In this case, no).
Decide where it goes on the board.
Then we reveal by unfolding.

Here are some other activities:

Sorting picture cards by word family. Say the word, then peel of the onset (first sound). Decide which word family it belongs in. For example. “duck”. /d/ /uck/. Place it under the uck column.

Matching picture and Word Cards

You can also sort the word cards on their own.

This game really is more for reviewing vowels, but you can remind students that these are all ck words because the short vowel comes right before the /k/ sound. Here, they say the word, segment the sounds, and determine which vowel it is. Goal is to get five in a row.

I love using onset and rime cards for every phonics skill! These cards can turn in to a bunch of games. You can mix and match like this. Kids randomly mix blues and yellows and see how many real words they make. You can use one blue and 5-6 yellows and see how fast you can read all the different words.