Montessori Mom

Phonograms are the spelling patterns that go beyond simple phonetic (CVC) words. Once your child has mastered the Pink, Blue, and Green reading cards, these word lists help them tackle the rich variety of English spelling patterns.

This comprehensive reference contains 65 phonogram categories with hundreds of words organized by spelling pattern. Use these lists with the Moveable Alphabet, reading cards, or spelling exercises.

Materials

• Moveable Alphabet
• Word cards or labels for each phonogram group
• Small boxes or drawers for sorting exercises

Recommended:

• Montessori Phonetic Reading Cards Level 3, Group 2 — 10 packets with photos and cards for phonogram patterns.
• Montessori Phonetic Reading Cards Level 3, Group 1 — 11 packets (198 cards) covering key phonogram groups with 3-part format.

Getting Started

A 4 or 5 year old child can handle double consonants (-ck, -ss, -ff) and -ing words. You can introduce these words if they are part of your child's environment. Start with the double consonant patterns, then progress through the long vowel phonograms.

Double Consonant Patterns

-ing words

king, ring, sing, wing, fling, bring, spring, sling, swing

-ll words

hall, wall, mall, bell, dell, fell, well, tell, sell, drill, ill, will, bill, sill, till, fill, hill, mill, still, grill, pill, doll, dull, lull, gull, smell, swell, spell, dwell

Challenge: skull

-ff words

off, huff, ruff, puff, muff, gruff, fluff, stuff, muffin, scruff, cliff, stiff

-ck words

back, pack, rack, sack, tack, black, crack, track, stack, deck, neck, peck, wreck, brick, click, flick, kick, pick, quick, sick, stick, thick, trick, wick, block, clock, dock, flock, knock, lock, mock, rock, sock, stock, duck, luck, muck, stuck, truck, tuck

Extra Challenge Words

button, cotton, turret, happen, mutton, fossil, rotten, squirrel, ribbon, fizz, carrot, bottom, tennis, kennel, kitten, traffic, blossom, summer, address, buzz, bonnet, attic, mitten, rabbit, banana

Long A Phonograms

-a_e (silent e, long a)

gate, late, cake, rake, drake, spade, snake, ape, plate, slate, lake, cape, name, made, wake, lame, bake, lane, tame, tape, take, grate, flame, fate, maze, slave, cable, blaze, blame, pale, make, raven, label, brave, stake, wade, ate, mane, scrape, grave, trade, came, save, safe, rave, scale, same, cane, fade, pave, stale, grape, Jane, James

Challenge: lemonade

-ai (long a)

sail, mail, nail, rail, pail, tail, maid, rain, snail, train, paint, laid, raid, aim, brain, trail, strain, sprain, waist, fail, wail, saint, wait, grain, faint, gain, drain, bail, bait, pain, gait, stain, afraid, explain, claim, frail

Challenge: railing, contain, obtain, quaint, maiden, maintain, Spain

-ay (long a)

jay, ray, bay, hay, may, day, say, lay, pay, way, away, tray, play, stay, spray, bray, fray, pray, gray, sway, clay

Challenge: crayon, payment, display, delay, relay, array, essay, midday, decay, dismay, astray, playing, repay, Sunday

Long E Phonograms

-ea (long e)

pea, eat, seal, leaf, bean, seat, bead, beam, team, stream, neat, cream, lean, reap, speak, read, dream, steam, clean, meal, beast, yeast, seam, mean, veal, leak, leap, feat, peat, plea, least, treat, beat, east, feast, bleat, creak, heal

Challenge: teapot, peacock, season, scream, squeak, squeal, sea, weak

-ee (long e)

eel, bee, fee, tee, see, wee, tree, reel, sweet, sweep, street, feet, green, seeds, heel, reed, peel, seem, been, deep, peep, seed, seen, creep, steep, weed, sleep, preen, keep, greed, deed, feel, bleed, meet, tweed, need, keel, keen, heed, deem, sleet, weep

Challenge: toffee, queen, week, creed, coffee, sixteen, seventeen, nineteen, fifteen

-ie (long e)

field, yield, fiend, priest, brief, grief

-ey (long e)

key, abbey, alley, valley, jockey, hockey, donkey

-y (long e)

teddy, putty, very, ugly, holly, dolly, entry, curry, body, candy, inky, merry, sadly, bunny, sorry, witty, rusty, crusty, dirty, bumpy, softly, penny, happy, fifty, sunny, berry, sandy, sixty, seventy, pity, jolly, sentry, pansy, empty

Long I Phonograms

-i_e (silent e, long i)

bite, dine, fine, hide, hike, kite, like, lime, line, mine, nice, nine, pile, pine, pipe, ride, ripe, side, time, vine, wide, wife, wine, wipe, write, bike, dice, dive, drive, fire, five, hive, life, mice, mile, prize, quite, rice, rise, shine, size, slide, smile, spine, strike, stripe, tire, tribe, white, while

-igh (long i)

high, sigh, might, night, right, sight, tight, bright, flight, fright, knight, light, slight, thigh, plight, blight, delight, midnight

-y (long i)

by, my, cry, dry, fly, fry, ply, pry, shy, sky, sly, spy, sty, try, why, reply, supply, deny, apply, July

Long O Phonograms

-o_e (silent e, long o)

bone, cone, dome, dose, drove, froze, hole, home, hope, hose, joke, mole, nose, note, phone, pole, poke, rode, role, rope, rose, spoke, stone, stole, stove, those, throne, tone, vote, woke, wove, zone

-oa (long o)

boat, coat, foam, goat, groan, load, loan, moan, oak, oat, road, roast, soak, soap, toad, toast

-ow (long o)

blow, bow, crow, flow, glow, grow, know, low, mow, own, row, show, slow, snow, sow, throw, tow, window, follow, pillow, yellow, elbow, hollow, shadow, sparrow, borrow

Long U Phonograms

-u_e (long u)

cube, cute, fume, fuse, huge, mule, mute, tube, tune, use, prune, flute, brute, crude, duke, dune, June, Luke, plume, rule

-ew

blew, brew, chew, crew, dew, drew, few, flew, grew, knew, new, screw, stew, threw

-ue

blue, clue, glue, sue, true, due, hue, rescue, statue, value

Consonant Digraphs

-sh

ship, shop, shed, shell, shin, shirt, shoe, shook, shot, shout, shut, dish, fish, push, rush, wish, brush, crash, crush, flash, fresh, trash, splash

-ch

chain, chair, chalk, change, chase, cheap, check, cheese, chest, child, chin, chip, chop, chunk, church, each, inch, lunch, much, peach, rich, such, teach, touch, watch

-th

that, the, them, then, there, these, they, thin, thing, think, third, this, those, three, through, thumb, bath, both, cloth, math, month, path, teeth, with, worth

-qu

queen, quack, quake, quarter, question, quick, quiet, quilt, quit, quite, quiz, squash, square, squeak, squeeze, squint, squirrel

R-Controlled Vowels

-er

her, fern, germ, herd, jerk, nerve, perch, serve, stern, term, verb, were

-ir

bird, birth, dirt, firm, first, girl, sir, skirt, stir, swirl, third, twirl, whirl

-ur

burn, burst, church, curl, curve, fur, hurt, nurse, purse, surf, turn, blurt, churn

-or

corn, cord, for, fork, form, fort, horn, lord, more, nor, north, or, porch, port, short, sort, sport, storm, store, torn, worn

-ar

bar, car, far, jar, star, arm, barn, cart, card, dark, farm, guard, hard, large, march, mark, park, part, scarf, sharp, smart, start, yard

Diphthongs

-ow (as in cow)

bow, brown, clown, cow, crowd, crown, down, drown, flower, frown, gown, growl, how, now, owl, plow, power, prowl, town, tower, vowel, wow

-ou

about, aloud, bound, cloud, couch, count, found, ground, hound, house, loud, mound, mount, mouse, mouth, our, out, pouch, pound, proud, round, scout, shout, sound, south, sprout, stout, trout

-oi

boil, broil, coil, coin, foil, join, joint, moist, noise, oil, point, poison, soil, spoil, toil, voice

-oy

boy, joy, toy, annoy, destroy, employ, enjoy, royal, voyage

Other Patterns

-al / -all

also, always, salt, talk, walk, ball, call, fall, hall, mall, small, stall, tall, wall

-oo (long)

boo, cool, drool, food, fool, groom, hoop, loop, moon, mood, noon, pool, proof, roof, room, root, school, scoop, smooth, soon, spoon, stool, tool, tooth, troop, zoo

-oo (short)

book, brook, cook, foot, good, hood, hook, look, nook, shook, stood, took, wood, wool

-au / -aw

cause, fault, haul, launch, pause, sauce, August, auto, claw, crawl, dawn, draw, fawn, jaw, law, lawn, paw, raw, saw, shawl, straw, thaw, yawn

Soft C

ace, cell, cent, center, certain, circle, city, cycle, face, grace, ice, lace, mice, nice, pace, peace, place, price, race, rice, since, slice, space, spice, trace, twice, voice

Soft G

age, cage, change, charge, edge, fudge, gem, gentle, giant, ginger, giraffe, gorge, huge, judge, large, ledge, magic, merge, orange, page, plunge, rage, ridge, sage, stage, strange, urge, village, wage

-tion

action, addition, attention, collection, condition, connection, direction, education, election, fraction, function, instruction, invention, mention, nation, notion, option, portion, position, question, section, station, suggestion, vacation, tradition

-sion

collision, conclusion, decision, division, erosion, explosion, extension, invasion, mission, occasion, passion, permission, television, tension, version, vision

Silent Letters

Silent b: bomb, climb, comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb, numb, plumb, thumb
Silent k: knee, kneel, knew, knife, knight, knit, knob, knock, knot, know
Silent w: wrap, wreck, wren, wrestle, wring, wrinkle, wrist, write, wrong, wrote
Silent g: gnat, gnaw, gnome, sign
Silent h: heir, honest, honor, hour, rhino, rhythm
Silent t: castle, fasten, listen, often, whistle

How to Use These Lists

1. Box exercises: Write words on cards and sort into boxes by phonogram pattern
2. Moveable Alphabet: Spell out words from each group
3. Matching: Match word cards to objects or pictures
4. Reading practice: Read through a group and identify the common pattern
5. Dictation: Say words from a group and have your child write them

What This Develops

• Spelling mastery — understanding the patterns behind English spelling
• Reading fluency — recognizing phonograms speeds up word recognition
• Vocabulary — each group introduces related words
• Pattern recognition — a key cognitive skill for all learning

See also: Montessori Reading — for the complete reading method and free Pink, Blue, and Green reading card printouts.