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Swamp of Vowels

Deep in the Swamp of Vowels

A city of old stays hidden

Visitors are welcome

But unkindness is forbidden

Pirate ships are buried there

But the pirates are no more

Treasure chests lay hidden there

Beneath the sandy floor

Where diamond tiaras

Silver coins, pearls and gold

Hide from Mermaids swimming

Above this treasure load

With hair like yellow ribbons

Flowing soft and long

They join a fish called Upsy

to sing the Swamp Vowel song.

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Mousey squeaks,

Miss Kitty purrs,

a pup barks bow wow;

Letters are like animals

and Rubén teaches how.

A pig oinks; A cow goes moo,

Boys and girls cry, boo-hoo.

Animals don’t say their names,

Alphabet letters are much the same.  

Reading depends

on the letter sounds you choose

Watch Out!

Alphabet names letters

don’t always use.

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Little huh

Ph-one, ph-antom, ph-ilosophy

Do you see me ph-onetically?

The mighty pheh sound

little huh helps make

puh to pheh, the sound is great

A reader Keiko will now become

Knowing two puh sounds

Instead of one.

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The Silent Letter

If I stay as silent as I can possibly be

I help the vowels to be genuinely free

To use their lovely, long sounds you see

Listen to the words nose and rose

I’m there at the end, my dear little friend

But I stay silent.

If I stay as silent as I can possibly be

Words can change because of me

Hop to hope, tot to tote, cut to cute, flu to flute

But it’s not always true

The words give and live ignore my clue

Bike, like, stage, page, skate, lake

What a great clue I make!

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Quarrel, Quarter, Question, Quest,

Which of our quh words

do you like best?

Quirky, quintessential and querulous

I like them all they’re marvelous.

Just like us

Quiet and quick and question

Queen and quiz and quail

I love them all… quhs are the best

But none is better than the rest.

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Rubén cinched his lasso tighter

with lots of love

The circle of rope grew smaller in the

sky up above,

The little letters wanted to holler out the

word they made

But it was up to Keiko by herself to do the task unafraid;

She must not give up. She must win her prize

By sounding out the word

before her eyes.

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