Closed Syllable Teaching Tips + Hands-On Activities

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Does your child struggle when they encounter new words? Does he or she have trouble decided how to pronounce words? Getting acquainted with open and closed syllables can really improve a young reader’s ability to decode new words. That is a great way to boost reading confidence!

Today, I’m sharing closed syllable teaching tips and also some hands-on activities for becoming more familiar with the closed syllable.

What is a Closed Syllable?

Put quite simply, a closed syllable is a syllable where the vowel sound is followed by a consonant (or consonant sound). They are called closed syllables because the vowel (or vowel sounds) is “closed in” by consonants on either side. Closed syllables typically have a short vowel sound. Open Syllables have long vowel sounds.

CVC words are generally closed syllables such as cap, bug, bat, and, and mit. More than one consonant can also close in the vowel, such as in words like wish or insect.

Knowing whether a syllable is closed or open can help students when they encounter new words. It helps with pronunciation and spelling (and writing). Let’s say your child is reading and they come across the word combat. If they have never seen the word before, they may struggle with how to pronounce it.

But, if your son or daughter is familiar with the rules of closed syllables, they would know that both syllables have a short vowel sound since both com and bat are closed syllables.

Closed Syllable Exceptions

Just like with everything else in the English language, there are exceptions when it comes to closed syllables. A closed syllable is when a vowel is “closed in” by a consonant (or consonants) after the vowel and the vowel usually makes the short vowel sound.

These words all have at least one closed syllable that contains a long vowel sound. I’ll group them by word family. Here are the exceptions:

–ild: wild, mild, child
–ind: kind, mind, bind, find, blind, grind, rind, wind, behind
–old: mold, told, cold, bold, fold, gold, scold, sold, hold
–olt: bolt, colt, molt. volt, jolt
–ost: most, post, host

It is a good idea to introduce these words to your son or daughter, so he or she can quickly recognize them as long vowel closed syllables. Luckily, they are words that most children learn to read and recognize quickly.

Teaching Closed Syllables

Be sure that your child has a good sense of what a syllable is – a “word chunk” containing at least one vowel or vowel sound. You can practice breaking words up into syllables by clapping to get them warmed up.

Another great way to warm up is to write syllables on small index cards. For example, I might write the word “baby” on two index cards. “Ba” would go on one index card and “by” on the other. When I put the cards together your son or daughter can read the word. Next, have them practice reading the individual syllables by separating the cards. Write several words like this (two-syllable words work best for this warm-up) and then you can practice making up nonsense words by switching the syllables around.

Once your child is comfortable with what a syllable is and can easily break words into syllables, they are ready to move on to closed syllables.

Start with Familiar Words

Most early elementary students are familiar with words like cat, mat, pig, man, etc. These words follow the CVC word pattern, which means Consonant – Vowel – Consonant. Let’s start with CVC words and build more complex words to start.

A word like mitten is perfect for introducing closed syllables. It is made up of two CVC words: mit and ten. Write mit and ten on separate lines of a piece of paper.

Can your child pronounce them?

Now write them together to create the word mitten. Mitten is known as a VCCV word because the middle of the word has the pattern Vowel – Consonant – Consonant – Vowel pattern: I-T-T-E.

Ask your child (or work together) to split mitten into two syllables.

How many vowels (or vowel sounds) are there? Two.
How many consonants between the vowels? Two.

Split between the two consonants. You end up with mit and ten. You can explain that each of these syllables is called a “closed syllable”.

Why is it Called a Closed Syllable?

There are a few fun ways to explain why these are called closed syllables:

1) The consonant at the end of the syllable acts like a door and “closes” the syllable in causing it to make the short vowel sound.

2) Say each sound in the syllable: mmmm, iiiii, ttttt. What happens to your mouth when you say the “t” sound? It closes! So, that is why these are called closed syllables. (You can also use this to teach open syllables because if, for example, you say the sounds in me: mmm, eeeee, your mouth is open at the end!

As your child becomes more comfortable with identifying and pronouncing closed syllables, you can move on to more complex words.

Closed Syllable Word Lists

Here are some closed syllable words to use in your activities.

One-Syllable Words

Two-Syllable Words (with at least one closed syllable)

Closed Syllable Activities

Open to Closed Syllable flap

This interactive foldable is great for demonstrating how consonants can change a long vowel sound (open syllable) into a short vowel sound (closed syllable).

Write out several open syllable words down one side of the page. You can use my example below to come up with words. Fold the flap on the right over, so that the back meets up with the long vowel word written on each line. Write a consonant on the flap to make a new, closed syllable word. You can look at my examples below, but feel free to come up with your own words or make up some wacky words and have a laugh!

Closed Syllable Dab ‘n Dot

I don’t know what it is, but my kids LOVE to use dot markers! You can take a piece of blank paper and write several open and closed syllable words all over the paper. Have your child read each word and dot the words that are closed syllables with one color and the open syllable words with another color.

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