Teaching the Sounds of -ed

Teaching the sounds of -ed at the end of the word indicates that something has happened in the past. The -ed ending is actually what we call a “morpheme” – a unit of meaning. This concept can be a little tricky for our young readers as the -ed ending on a word has three sounds.
When the -ed ending comes after the letter “t” or “d” it makes the /ed/ sound like in the words “melted”, “rented” and “printed”.
If the word ends with the following sounds, the -ed ending will make the /t/ sound: p, k, s, f, th, ch, sh or x (e.g. jumped, fished).
The /d/ sound for -ed is used for all other endings (e.g. banged, yelled).

Sorting activities are ideal for helping our beginning readers understand this concept. When you download this activity you will receive three arctic scenes and 88 colorful penguins with past tense verbs. Students sort the penguins according to the pronunciation of the -ed ending (/t/, /d/, /id/). A pronunciation and spelling rules chart is also included.

The Sorting Penguins Sounds of -ed can be found in my online Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Sounds of -ed Bundled!

Looking for more activities to teach past tense? The Sorting Penguins activity is just one of four activities contained within the Winter Themed Sounds of -ed Bundle! This bundle contains 186 word cards- 93 verb cards only and then 93 cards with the past tense included. Using the verb only cards, students can change the tense and then put the word into a sentence. Students can sort cards with the ending sound.

This bundle also includes the I Have, Who Has game. When you download this packet you’ll receive 3 differentiated sets of this popular activity. This activity is ideal for use within centers or small group instruction.

The 4-In-A-Row game is a super simple activity which make it ideal for independent centers. There are 3 different 4-In-A-Row game boards contained within this download. Students take turns reading the word, changing the word into its past tense form and then placing their chip in the square. The first player to have 4 of their chips in a row wins the game.