So what are “Wild Old Words”?  Wild Old Words are “rule breaker” words.  Students are taught early on that a single vowel in a one syllable word is short, however, there is a small group of words that breaks that rule. These words are called Wild Old Words. It’s helpful to teach these words because they are pretty common, so if our student can recognize them right away, it’ll help them become fluent readers. When the vowels “i” and “o” are in a one syllable word that ends in “ld”, “nd”, “st”, or “lt” sometimes the vowel says it’s long name. There are a few examples below. If you’d like to download the FREE poster and word list, just click