Should You Add -s or -es?

I’ll admit, when teaching how to form plurals, I used to teach students to add <-es> when the word ended with s, ch, x, and I can’t even remember the rest! How would I expect a student to learn this when it seems so complicated?

The easier way to teach students is to remind them that we need a vowel in every syllable. Take the word “boxes“, for example. When we say “boxes”, we hear two syllables. If we only add <s> to <box> we have <boxs> and we are missing a vowel in the second syllable. Again, we need the <e> in the second syllable because we expect every syllable to have a vowel.

The first step is to practice reading words that include <-s> and <-es> as suffixes. After reading, complete dictation exercises with both patterns.

Use the video to guide you in teaching teaching students how to read and spell plural words. You’ll pause frequently to clarify and ask guiding questions.

Until next time, patience and practice!

Angelica