Open and Closed Syllables

Syllables are something the students have worked on since kindergarten.  They are pretty good at clapping words into separate chunks.  In second grade we will take it a step farther and teach them open and closed syllables.  We have already seen a few cases of this with our word study/spelling patterns.  An open syllable can decide the spelling pattern.  Even though we will not teach this concept until later in the school year, I thought it may be helpful to go over it with you now.  I have started to talk about it in class so the students also have a heads up.  It can be difficult to understand unless it is practiced. 
So an open syllable is a syllable that ends in a long vowel.  Examples include: no, me, tree, hi.  When a word has more than one syllable the same lesson applies.  For example: "because" The syllables are be*cause.  So the first syllable ends in a long vowel, making it an open syllable.  It will decide the spelling pattern in words like: "meter." When broken apart "meter" becomes me*ter.  Since it is an open syllable the spelling pattern is e by itself.  At first glance, it looks like e consonant e, but the syllable break changes that.  Here is a short video of a teacher teaching the concept. I am a visual learner so it helped me. 
http://www.sacs.k12.in.us/Page/7814
Side note: I had to teach myself this when we adopted this phonics program.  I had no clue what an open or closed syllable was before!  I never remembered spelling being so complicated, perhaps that is why I have always struggled with it.  This program is very focused on teaching the students how  not to 'memorize' spellings of words, but instead understand the spelling pattern and manipulate/create new words using what they know! Once I embraced this new style of teaching/learning I was blown away, by how much better the students have done in their reading and writing. As always, let me know if you have any questions.