About this activity
Twelve words with /z/ in the middle: music, puzzle, lizard, dizzy, busy, cousin, dozen, buzzer, easy, fuzzy, blizzard, wizard. Half of them spell the sound with an s — music, busy, cousin, easy — which makes this a set where the sound and the letter regularly come apart.
How to use it in a session
Split at the sound: mu-sic, li-zard. Splitting gives the student a final /z/ and then an initial one, both usually easier than the medial version. Easy and busy are the shortest and the best starting point; blizzard is the longest and puts the target after a cluster. Six minutes covers the twelve.
What to listen for
Listen for devoicing between vowels, which turns easy into eassy — the placement stays and the voice goes off. Watch music and cousin, where the /z/ is spelled with an s and a student who is reading rather than listening may produce an /s/ for a spelling reason rather than a speech one.
Carrying it home
Music, easy, busy and cousin are ordinary words. The throat cue works at home as well as anywhere, and children usually find the buzz interesting enough to check for themselves.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- First through fourth, usually after initial /z/ is stable.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all twelve cards play with no account.
- Why is 'music' in a /z/ deck?
- Because the s in the middle is pronounced /z/. The target here is the sound rather than the letter, and English spells /z/ with an s more often than with a z.