Teaching Preconsonantal Nasals in CVC Words - Letter Name-Alphabetic Spellers

Getting ready to dive into preconsonantal nasals with your students? Let this blog post help you brush up on what preconsonantal nasals are, when students are developmentally ready to learn to spell preconsonantal nasals, common mistakes students make when first working with nasals, and fun and effective ideas for them.

WHAT ARE PRECONSONANTAL NASALS?

Let’s break down this teacher jargon to best understand what preconsonantal nasals are. First, it’s important to know that there are three nasal sounds in the English Language–n, m, and ng. 

What are nasal sounds? Nasal sounds are those produced by air flowing through the nose as well as from the mouth because of the position of the lips or tongue (air does not flow through the nose with other sounds).

Preconsonantal nasals are nasal sounds that come before a consonant, such as the n's or m's in ng, mp, nt, nk, and nd. 

Some examples of words with preconsonantal nasals:

NG: fang, swing, hung, gong, lung, thing

MP: pump, stamp, lamp, limp, stump, ramp

NT: blunt, plant, hint, runt, sent, mint

NK: drank, prank, stink, sink, skunk, bunk

ND: grand, hand, sand, stand, brand, land

WHEN ARE STUDENTS READY TO LEARN ABOUT PRECONSONANTAL NASALS?

Students are ready to work with preconsonantal nasals at the end of the Letter Name-Alphabetic stage when they are successfully spelling most CVC words correctly, including those containing blends and digraphs.

Words Their Way suggests introducing preconsonantal nasals by showing students how n and m can sound quieter when they are part of a final blend and also how short vowels in these words sometimes sound a little different than the CVC words they’ve been working with up until this point. 

In all of the following games and activities, students identify the differences they hear when comparing CVC words like run/pan/ram to words like rung/pant/ramp that contain a preconsonantal nasal as a final blend.

Words Ending in NG, NT, and MP - rang, wing, pant, ramp, clamp, bang

Words Ending in NG - swing, hung, long, hang, clang, thing

​Words Ending in MP - jump, stump, damp, champ, limp, dump

Words Ending in NT - runt, tent, print, slant, rent, mint

Words Ending in NK and ND - sank, drink, junk, trunk, land, stand

* Note: I've linked each of these examples of preconsonantal nasals to resources that can be used to teach these skills. You can find the bundle for Preconsonantal Nasals here.

What are some common mistakes students make when trying to represent preconsonantal nasals in words?

When preconsonantal nasals are in a word, the nasal sound (n or m) can be a lot quieter than when it stands alone at the end of a word (i.e. rang vs. ran–say them with me now and try to hear the -n sound!). 

In addition, the short vowel sound often becomes a little stunted or not as clearly short in a preconsonantal nasal word. It is very common for students to struggle to accurately represent words with preconsonantal nasals at first, because up until this point in their word study journey, students have been working to represent very concrete sounds heard in words. When attempting to spell preconsonantal nasals, they will often leave out the “quiet” m or n because they don’t hear it or they may struggle to correctly identify the medial short vowel sound.

All of this is developmental AND teachable, so don't fret! 

What types of activities benefit students working with preconsonantal nasals in CVC words?

Because preconsonantal nasals are fairly elusive and often make the short vowel sound less clear, students may struggle to accurately spell words that contain preconsonantal nasals. Games and activities provide students the opportunity to participate in repeated practice and pull together their learning in a fun, impactful way. As WTW does, we like to call these types of words "mysterious," so you'll notice these games have a magical theme🪄! In the examples below, I've linked the games and activities I've created for teaching and practicing preconsonantal nasals.

In the game Abracadabra, students take turns drawing a picture or word card, covering a CVC word like ran, pat, or wig on the game board and then transforming it into a new word with a preconsonantal nasal like rang, pant, or wing. Students try to collect the most words on their recording sheet to win the game.

Since students often struggle to figure out how to represent the sounds they hear in words with preconsonantal nasals, I also like engaging them in activities that require them to repeatedly practice the spelling pattern of their word study words.

In Layer On, students spin a final consonant or consonant blend and match it with a word part card to make a word. They add the word (by writing or building it) to an existing word tower. Students "layer on" as many words as possible to create a word tower with as many words as they can.

You can find all the games and activities I use for this unit in the Preconsonantal Nasals Final Blends NG, MP, NT, NK, ND Bundle. With board games like Bippity Boppity Boo, Hocus Pocus, Alakazam, and Presto, and Layer On! for each concept, your students will get plenty of practice with these magical (and tricky) words! 🌟

ROOTING FOR YOU AND THE SUCCESS OF YOUR STUDENTS LEARNING THIS SKILL!

When it comes to introducing preconsonantal nasals in final blends (and really any word study concept for that matter!), I believe that the more exposure and practice opportunities students have, the stronger readers and spellers they can become. 

As you help your students successfully master skills in the letter name stage, be sure to plan opportunities to circle back to previously taught word study concepts as well as more time with familiar and previously used activities.

Have students in the Letter Name-Alphabetic Stage who need support with other concepts? Check out these helpful posts:

Supporting Students in the Letter Name-Alphabetic Stage

Teaching Beginning Consonants Letters and Sounds

Teaching Phonics Word Families

Teaching Beginning Digraphs and Blends in CVC Words

Teaching Short Vowels in CVC Words

LOOKING FOR MORE LETTER-NAME ALPHABETIC RESOURCES?

You can get all of the Letter Name-Alphabetic Stage games in a time-saving, money saving bundle!

NOTE: The Letter Name word searches and word study notebook are also included in bundles for all 4 levels of Words Their Way if you need those!