- Good morning, learners.

I'm Randi House, and I'm a kindergarten teacher from right here in Arkansas.

I'm so excited you're joining me for another fun day of learning.

And today, we're going to be learning about the letter C and how it can make not one, but two different sounds.

Now, I know that you know that C says the keh sound, but did you know that it can also make the ss sound?

That's right, it steals that S's sound right away from it.

Mrs. House, how do we know which sound it says when, right?

Well, first of all, we call that keh sound the hard C sound.

And when the C says the ss sound, we call that the soft C sound.

And the good news is there's a trick to knowing when to use which one.

Now, I know you might be skeptical and probably don't quite believe me just yet, but trust me, kiddos.

You see, all you have to do to know which sounds C is making is look at the letter that comes after C to know how to read that word correctly.

If the letter that comes after C is I, E, or Y, then you use that soft C ss sound.

If it's any other letter, you use that hard C keh sound.

Now, get out a piece of paper and let's draw a line right down the middle of it.

On one side of that paper, I want you to write hard C, and on the other, I want you to write soft C. Let's chart some hard C words.

I'll say the word and you write it down.

Okay, guys, are you ready?

Our first word is corn, corn.

Card.

Cat.

Cook.

Camp and cake.

Now, let's look at those words really quickly.

If we look at the vowel that comes right after the C, it's either going to be an A, U, or an O, and that means it makes that hard keh sound.

Now, let's do some soft C words.

I'll say the words and you write them down.

Face, city, scent, cereal, space, and circus.

Now, let's look at those words.

If you look at the vowel right after that C, you will see that it's an I, E, or Y, but there is one tricky word in this.

If you look at the word circus, it actually makes both the hard and the soft C. In the first sound we hear ss, because I is right after the C. And the second time you see the C, you have a U, which makes it make the hard sound, keh, so we have circus.

Now, next time you're reading a new word and you come across that tricky C letter, just look at the letter that comes right after it to know which sound it makes.

I hope you guys are having an awesome day.

Be listening for those hard and soft C sounds and I'll see you back here again tomorrow for some more learning with Arkansas Rise and Shine.