mybabyian, my daughter loves the Silly Phonogram Stories too. Actually, she’ll beg me for them: “Please will you tell me a Silly Phonogram Story?” I love it!
So here are the rest of them. First, I made some mistakes typing the phonogram list for the Fighting Friends story. Here’s the right one: ue & ew, au & aw, ei & ey, ai & ay, oi & oy, oa & oe, oo & ui & oul, ou & ough
The other stories:
Pirate Phonograms: ar, er, ir, ur, ear, or AND Flying Phonograms: ere, arr, err
Once upon a time there was a phonogram that wanted to be a pirate, so it always said, “Ar!” And one day it bought a pirate ship, and it was so happy, it said, “Ar!”
But then it realized that it needed other phonograms to help sail the ship. So it went looking for more pirate phonograms.
It met the flying phonograms (hold up one of them: ere, err, arr) and said, “Ar! Do you want to be a pirate and sail a pirate ship?”
“No,” said the phonogram. “I want to fly an airplane, so I say, ‘Air! Air!’ But I don’t have an airplane.”
“Ar!” said the pirate phonogram. “I can say Air! too, but I want to be a pirate.” And it walked on.
It met another phonogram. “Ar! Do you want to be a pirate and sail my pirate ship?”
“Air! I wanted to fly,” said the phonogram [er], “but maybe I’ll be a pirate instead.”
“Can you say Ar?”
“I can say Er,” said the phonogram.
“Hmm. I can say Er too. Close enough!” said the pirate phonogram, so they went off together.
They met another phonogram (ir, ur, ear). “Ar! Do you want to be a pirate?”
“Yes!”
“Can you say Ar?”
“I can say Er!”
“Close enough!”
They walked on. Finally they met this phonogram (or).
“Ar! Do you want to be a pirate?”
“Yes!”
“Can you say Ar?”
“I usually say Or, but I can say Er.”
“Hmm, I can say Or once in a while, and sometimes Er. OK, you can join us!”
Then they had enough to crew the pirate ship and they went sailing away. And/or the flying phonograms find an airplane and fly away.
Laryngitis Letters: ck, wr, gn, kn, gu
One morning this phonogram woke up (first letter of each combination, except gu - use the second letter) and tried to talk, but nothing came out. It went out and tried to talk to everyone, but nothing came out. At last it met this phonogram (the other letter), who helped it. “Let’s join up,” it said, “and we’ll be a new phonogram and I’ll do the talking.” So that’s what they did.
Markers: x, dge, tch (I haven’t told this one yet, so this is just a sketch)
Once upon a time this phonogram (x) woke up and went for a walk, saying, “ks, ks, ks.” It was a special phonogram called a marker, and it was going to meet with all the other markers.
All three make their sounds and met together and dance around singing “I’m a marker!” and making their sounds.
Shushing Phonograms: ti, ci, si, ssi (I haven’t told this one yet, so this is just a sketch)
Once a bunch of [insert child’s favorite animal] went to the library and were talking much too loudly. So this phonogram came over and said, “Shh, shh, shh!” But they were still noisy. So another phonogram came over and said, “Sh, sh, shh!” Etc.
The Selfish Phonogram: igh & eigh (I haven’t told this one yet, so this is just a sketch)
Once upon a time there was a very selfish phonogram, igh. It always thought about itself, and only said, “I! I! I!”
Its neighbor was a phonogram that looked similar, eigh, but was not so selfish. It said, “Ay, ay, ay.”
Sometimes the nice phonogram, eigh, would say, “Ay, you should be nicer to people, ay.”
But the selfish phonogram always just talked about itself. “I! I! I!”
So the nice phonogram had lots of friends, but the selfish phonogram was always alone because no one wanted to play with someone so selfish.
Hard to Say: ng
This one doesn’t really have a story yet, but I think I’ll emphasize that the sound is unusual.