Lesson plans for short vowel sounds

5 Easy Short Vowel Activities to Make Your Phonics Lesson POP! -

Let’s chat about 5 easy short vowel activities that will pop in your classroom. I know sometimes these short vowel lessons can get a little boring in the classroom. Do you ever get bored teaching short vowel lessons?

We’ve talked about teaching phonics explicitly during reading instruction…it’s important! 

What is the Difference Between Short Vowels and Long Vowels?

After reading the article from Classroom, they sum it well, “As the name would imply, short vowels have a much shorter pronunciation than long vowel sounds.”

Short vowels will make a shorter sound, whereas long vowels have a longer sound, saying the vowels’ exact name.  Long vowel sounds allow the speaker to move their mouth from a closed position to an open one.

When dealing with short vowels, it will be 1 vowel closed in by a consonant or consonants.  Examples:  man, wet, fish, tub, moth

Long vowels have many more complicated spelling patterns.   There are vowel teams, the magic e, open syllables, and more!

What are the Short Vowels?

As Classroom states, “Short vowels produce only one sound and do not require the speaker to open his mouth very wide. The speaker’s jaw is relaxed and barely moves during the production of short vowel sounds. The speaker’s tongue is placed in different positions but is also usually relaxed. Short vowels can occur in stressed syllables, such as “o” in offer, or unstressed syllables, like the first “o” in tomato.”

As a former first-grade teacher and current reading specialist, I like to start the school year off by teaching the short vowel sounds. What are the short vowels? A, E, I, O, and U!

The vowels are closed in by a consonant or consonants to make the short vowel sound.  Watch this video on my Instagram to see it in action! Read more to learn more about the 5 Easy Short Vowel Activities!

5 Easy Ways to Teach Short Vowels 

Let’s discuss 5 easy short vowel activities!  These 5 ideas will help the students grasp the concept of short vowels while having fun!  

1.  Add Movement!  When you teach the short vowel sounds, incorporate a movement for each sound.  For example, for the short a sound…students can place their hand under their chin to feel the movement.  Multi-sensory techniques will help make more brain connections as the students these short vowel sounds.  
2. Closed Syllable Houses!  Have the students make a little house with a door.  Cut the door so it opens and closes.  Laminate to reuse!  Write CVC words onto the house to show how the consonant closes in the vowel and makes the vowel.  This post will explain more about open and closed syllables!   Here is my Instagram Reel that shows closed syllables in action.
3. Sand Trays!  Pour sensory sand or play sand onto a tray or plate.   The teacher will say a sound, the students will write the corresponding vowel into the sand.  Step it up by having the teacher say a word, the students will write the vowel into the sand.  
4. Vowel Intensive Drill:  In Orton Gillingham, a wonderful way to practice the short vowel sounds is the vowel intensive drill. Each student will have the 5 vowels on separate notecards, in a little tent.  See the photo below!  The teacher will say a short vowel sound, the students will hold up the corresponding card.  For example, if the teacher will say /ă/, the students will hold up the card.  The students love this practice and it is a perfect multi-sensory activity.  
5. Use Visuals!  Try out my teaching slideshow, “We Love Short Vowels”.  It provides example words for each short vowel.  The students can practice reading many words as they learn all about the short vowels.  It also includes corresponding worksheets to practice each short vowel.  

I hope you can incorporate some of the 5 Easy Short Vowel Activities in your own classroom.

Can’t I Just Teach Word Families?

Years ago as a teacher, I would begin each school year teaching word families.  To begin, I’m not saying word families can’t have a place in the classroom, but it can’t be the only way short vowels are taught. Use word families as a strategy to teach short vowels, but not the ONLY way!

All About Learning Press has an argument against relying solely on word families in your teaching.  

“If you stop there—just teaching word lists grouped by word families—you will be severely disappointed in your teaching efforts.

Why? Because if you use word families incorrectly, students may end up just following the “pattern” of that particular lesson, blindly zipping through the spelling words without really learning them. What you intended to be educational and insightful becomes an exercise in following patterns—and the time you spent teaching spelling goes down the drain because your child can’t actually spell those words outside of the neatly organized list.

Another downfall of overemphasizing word families is the risk that your child will pay too much attention to the ends of words, skipping over the first part of the word to get to the answer. Instead, we want the student’s eye to start at the beginning of the word and move to the end of the word. Encouraging his eye to start at the end of the word and then jump back to the beginning of the word is reinforcing incorrect eye movement. We don’t want to reinforce dyslexic tendencies.”

“Use word families as a strategy to teach short vowels, but not the ONLY way!”

-RIndy Roberts, Learning with heart

By teaching the students to look from the beginning of a word to the end of a word, will be beneficial when they come to words with suffixes.

What about the science of reading? 

I made a free guide for teachers and parents to make it easy to incorporate the Science of Reading with their students.  The research behind the Science of Reading is so intriguing and I wanted to share how I incorporate it daily into my instruction.  

I wanted to make it SIMPLE for teachers to make this shift to teaching phonemic and decoding skills explicitly.

Short Vowels & The Science Reading?

The science of reading is key when you are teaching.  First, based on much research, teaching phonics explicitly will benefit all children.  According to Secret Stories, “Decoding is essential to reading. It allows kids to figure out most words they’ve heard but have never seen in print, as well as sound out words they’re not familiar with. The ability to decode is the foundation upon which all other reading instruction—fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, etc… are built.”

“Teaching phonics explicitly will benefit all children.”

The Orton Gillingham approach uses multi-sensory learning techniques to teach decoding, encoding, and blending sounds to build successful readers.  Based on the Orton-Gillingham Academy, “The Orton-Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia.   It is most properly understood and practiced as an approach, not a method, program, or system. In the hands of a well-trained and experienced instructor, it is a powerful tool of exceptional breadth, depth, and flexibility.”

I have been using the Orton Gillingham approach in my classroom for 3 years now.  By using this multi-sensory learning approach, the students are more likely to grasp and retain what they learn.  Read more about why I love Orton Gillingham here!

Orton Gillingham phonics program has made such a difference in my classroom.  It is a multi-sensory phonics curriculum.  In the first grade curriculum, it builds on the correct letter formation in handwriting and the sounds the letters make.

The Orton-Gillingham Approach is multi-sensory and structured to teach reading, writing, and spelling.

It is commonly used for students with dyslexia, but can be used to help all students feel more confident when they read and write!

Resources to Help With Short Vowels

I have created the “We Love Phonics” program to make it easier for teachers to introduce and teach phonics skills.   I have created a resource that will guide you for an entire school year, with lesson slideshows and worksheets that correspond to each skill.  

The short vowel resource will cover all 5 easy short vowel activities. The Open/Closed Syllable resource will explain how to break words into syllables, and the explanation of closed syllables with the short vowel sound. What are your favorite ways to teach short vowels? 

 Would you like the FREE Science of Reading Guide? Check out this FREEBIE! 

Short Vowels and Long Vowels Lesson Plan

Objectives:

• Students will learn how to recognize and remember the sounds of both short vowels and long vowels.
• Students will be able to produce the sounds of the short vowels and long vowels in isolation.

About the Concept:

Vowels in the English language can represent a variety of sounds. The first step in mastering the various vowel sounds is learning the difference between short vowels and long vowels. Of the two, the long vowels are easier for children to learn because long vowels basically sound the same as the letter names. For example, long a sounds like the a in able, long o sounds like the o in over, and long u may sound like the u in use or the u in blue. Children generally find it more challenging to learn the short vowel sounds because many of them sound so similar to each other: The short i in pig sounds very similar to the short e in peg. The short o in pop sounds a lot like the short u in pup. Before children can learn the rules for spelling and reading short and long vowel sounds, they must be able to recognize and produce these sounds reliably. The short vowels can represented by a curved symbol above the vowel: ă, ĕ, ĭ, ŏ, ŭ. The long vowels can be represented by a horizontal line above the vowel: ā, ē, ī, ō, ū. Here are some examples of short vowel words: at, egg, it, ox, up. Here are some examples of long vowel words: ate, each, ice, oak, use. When students have learned to recognize the vowel sounds in Oh, Do You Know?, they can learn short vowel spelling patterns through the Volume 1 song Spelling Families. Long vowel spelling patterns are covered in the Volume 1 songs Talking and Walking and Silent E. Some other songs that teach students about vowel spelling patterns are the Volume 2 songs, Spelling Choices, Cool Vowels, The Right Diphthong, and I Before E, and the Volume 3 songs Why Does Y? and Drop It!.

Materials:

• Sing Your Way Through Phonics Volume 1 CD, Tracks 9 and 10 (Listen to audio sample)
• Sing Your Way Through Phonics Volume 1 Mini-Charts (pp. 41-46)
• Letter cards for a, e, i, o, and u.
• Chart displaying long vowel words and pictures (ex. ape, eagle, ice cream, ocean, unicorn)
• Chart displaying short vowel symbols, words and pictures (ex. alligator, eggs, iguana, octopus, umbrella)
• Optional: Cards with medial-position short vowel pictures (ex. hat, cat, hen, pen, fish, dish, dog, log, gum, drum)
• Optional: Cards with medial-position long vowel pictures (ex. snake, rake, sheep, sleep, kite, night, goat, coat, flute, suit)
  

Note: If you do not have the CD or Mini-Charts, you can still teach this short vowels and long vowels lesson plan using the folk tune listed on the Oh, Do You Know? Song Lyrics page. You can create your own mini-charts using the words in bold print letters in each verse of the Song Lyrics.

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Procedure:

1. Review the letter names of the vowels: a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Say, "Today, we are going to learn about how vowels can sound in words. We will focus on a, e, i, o, and u."
2. Display letter cards a, e, i, o, and u. Say, "Sometimes it is easy to hear the vowel in a word. Can you tell me what vowel you hear in the word use (u), in the word eat (e), in the word ape (a), in the word ice (i), in the word oak (o)?" Point to the correct letter card, each time the children answer correctly. Say, "It is easy to hear the vowels in these words because they actually say their own names. When vowels sound just like their own letter names, we call these long vowels."
3. Display the chart of the long vowels with pictures and symbols. Point to the long vowel chart and say, "We can draw a long line over the vowel if we want to show that it has a long sound. Ask the students to draw this symbol in the air. " Point to ā, and say, "Long a sounds like the beginning of ape." Say together, "Long ē sounds like the beginning of eagle. Long ī sounds like the beginning of ice cream. Long ō sounds like the beginning of ocean. Long ū sounds like the beginning of unicorn."
4. Say, "Sometimes a vowel has a different sound and does not say its own name." Show the chart with the short vowel words and pictures. Say, "This chart shows words that have a short vowel sounds."
5. Point to the symbols on the short vowel chart and say, "We can draw a short smile over the vowel to show that it has a short sound." Ask the students to draw this symbol in the air. Say, "Let's practice the short vowel sounds saying just the beginning of each word on the chart. Can you say just the beginning of the word alligator? (/ă/), the beginning of the word eggs? (/ĕ/), the beginning of the word iguana? (/ĭ/), the beginning of the word octopus? (/ŏ/), the beginning of the word umbrella?" (/ŭ/)
6. Say, “Now we are going to listen to a song about the vowel sounds to help us remember them. At first, the singers will sing about all the short vowel sounds. Next, the singers will sing about all the long vowel sounds. See if you can think the sounds for each vowel before you hear it in the song.” Play Sing Your Way Through Phonics Volume 1 CD, Track 9--Oh, Do You Know? and point to the Mini-Charts on pages 42-46.
7. Point to the symbols on the chart and say, "Did you notice that the short smile and the long line can be written over either capital or lowercase letters? Let's listen to this song again and see if you can answer the singer's questions. Re-play Sing Your Way Through Phonics Volume 1 CD, Track 9--Oh, Do You Know? Students will hear the question, "Oh, do you know the short a sound, the short a sound, the short a sound?" They should sing the answer, "Oh, yes I know the short a sound. The short a sound is /ă/." For the rest of the questions in the song, students should sing the aswers, "The short e sound is /ĕ/. ..The short i sound is /ĭ/...The short o sound is /ŏ/..., The short u sound is /ŭ/..., The long a sound is /ā/..., The long e sound is /ē/..., The long i sound is /ī/..., The long o sound is /ō/..., The long u sound is /ū/." Teachers can point to the children to cue them when it is their turn to answer the song's question.
8. Listen to the song again, but this time assign a part of the class to sing the song's questions and a part of the class to sing the song's answers. Then switch roles singing questions and answers. Variations: The teacher sings the questions and students sing the answers or vice versa. A small group of students sing the questions and the rest of the class sings the answers or vice versa. Those singing the answers can write the appropriate symbols in the air or make large symbols with their arm positions as they sing the short or long sounds. Examples: Hold arms out to the sides arching upward for short vowels. Hold arms straight out to the sides for long vowels.

Follow-up:

1. Practice singing Oh, Do You Know daily for a few days. Then try singing the song without hearing the words, using the instrumental track (Track 10). Allow different students to point to the Mini-Charts words while singing.
2. Using the Mini-Chart Templates, vary the order of vowels (Ex:short i, short a, short u, short e, short o) or vary short and long vowels in sequence (Ex: short a, long a, short e, long e, etc.)
3. As a learning center task, have students match pairs of picture cards with the same vowel sounds (Ex: cat/hat, snake/rake). Note: At this point in their learning, it is easier for children to do this task if rhyming words are used. As they advance, they may be able to match short common vowels in pictures of non-rhyming words such as bag and bat.

Extensions:

1. Introduce the Read-and-Sing Book, Oh, Do You Know?. The comical illustrations provide several examples of each sound in the song. When children sing, "Oh, do you know the short a sound?", they can point to cats, apples, ants, an ax, a hat, and a basket. For long a, they will find Amos listening to the radio, holding a May calendar next to a table with cake, maple syrup, grapes, and plates. After children can remember all the vowel sounds, they can sing on their own with the instrumental version of the song and perhaps create their own short and long vowel pictures. They will also enjoy grouping objects that have the same vowel sounds or creating collages of magazine cut-outs. Keep a few copies of the book at a literacy center equipped with headsets so that students can gain practice in listening, singing, and remembering the sounds of the long and short vowels.
2. Using 3-letter or 4-letter words, explain the rule that when one vowel is in the middle of a word, it is usually short (Ex. bag, sit, bed). Print some of these words on a word wall. Pointing to an appropriate word, perform this rap to reinforce the short vowel rule: "Got one vowel in the middle of the word, got one vowel in the middle of the word, got one vowel in the middle of the word--Say /ă/, say /ă/, say /ă/ [clap-clap]. Repeat by pointing to another appropriate word and another short vowel sound until all short vowel sounds have been covered. Variations: Add back and forth side-steps while reciting the rap. Change the ending claps to taps, stomps, or knocks. Add rhythm instruments to help keep the beat.
3. Find short vowel words in children's books and poems. Examples: From Shel Silverstein's Poetry in Where the Sidewalk Ends-Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me, Too for short i; Jimmy Jet and his TV Set for short e. Singing games like The Banana Song (using the name Anna). Dr. Seuss' There's a Wocket in my Pocket and Fox in Sox for short o. Nursery Rhymes like Jack Sprat for short a; Diddle Diddle Dumpling for short i, short u, short o, and short e; Hickety-Pickety for short i and short e.
4. Find short and long vowel sounds in students' names. Ex. Ann, Ellen, Jim, John, Buddy for short vowels; Jake, Steve, Mike, Joan, and Judy for long vowels.
5. Find short and long vowel sounds in environmental words like Exit, Stop, Bus, In. Label classroom objects that illustrate short and long vowel sounds: dĕsk, chāir, tāble, gāme, pĕncils, pĕns, pāper, shĕlf, răck, lĕdge, ēasel.
6. Have a Show-and-Tell time where children bring in objects with a particular short or long vowel sound. Place these or other objects on a table labeled with that vowel and the short or long symbol.

Evaluation:

1. Students can produce the correct short vowel and long vowel sounds on Mini-Charts pp.41-46 without assistance.
2. Students pass a written or manipulative test where they match pairs of short vowel pictures and long vowel pictures.

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Speech sounds: vowels and consonants | Condition of a reading lesson (1st grade):

Outline of the lesson on the topic "Vowels. How to identify Vowels?" Grade 2 Methodist: Matveeva I. B.

Purpose: to develop the ability to distinguish between vowels and consonants, to designate vowels in writing.

1. Deepening knowledge about vowel sounds. Improving the spelling skills of words with the studied spelling. nine0007

2. Promote the development of independent thinking, broadening the horizons of students; development of creative abilities of students, research skills.

Subject: students will learn to see vowel sounds in words, correctly label them with letters; analyze, draw conclusions, compare.

Cognitive : the formation of the ability to independently identify and formulate the cognitive goal and topic of the lesson; the ability to build a speech statement in oral form; formation of the ability to search for the necessary information. nine0007

Regulatory: goal-setting, planning and evaluation of the results obtained with the set task; the ability to evaluate their activities in the lesson, to determine successes and difficulties.

Communicative: planning educational cooperation with classmates: agree on the distribution of work between yourself and your neighbor, be able to listen and hear each other, enter into a dialogue; ability to work in pairs, to provide mutual assistance.

Personal:

Hello, today I will teach you a lesson - Emina Seidalievna. Let's smile at each other, and if someone has difficulties in the lesson, we can always solve them together.
Actualization of support knowledge 9000 letters Classwork . Let's spend a minute of calligraphy to find out what letter we are writing about. Guess the riddle: Vertical pillars, Connected by one board, But it is not even, Broken at an angle! Let's write a lowercase and uppercase AND to the end of the line. - Choose the most beautiful letters and underline. - Well done! Let's guess the riddles and write down the answers. Came without paints and without a brush And repainted all the leaves. nine0007 That's right, write down the answer, who wants to write on the board from the red line with a capital letter. Gingerbread man hangs on a branch, His rosy side shines! That's right, write down the pumping, who to the board? In September meets us Bright and spacious… That's right, write it down If it wasn't for him, Wouldn't say anything. That's right, write it down What kind of tree is standing - There is no wind, but the leaf is shaking? nine0007 That's right, write it down There is a house in the yard - The owner is chained. That's right, write down Long-eared is very dexterous. In the morning he nibbles on carrots. He quickly hides in the bushes from the wolf and the fox. Who wrote it down, sit up straight.	( Autumn) (Yabloko) ( Grade ( Language) (Aspen) 9000	000 9000	000	000	000	000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000 9000	000	000	000	000	000	000	000	000	000	000	000	000 (apple) ( class) ( tongue) (aspen) (dog) (hare)	P– analyze and synthesize C - take into account different points of view and strive for coordination in cooperation
Definition of the topic of the lesson (goal setting)	I am reading a quatrain from a poem by V. Berestov. Vowels stretch in a ringing song, They can cry and scream, They can cradle a child in a crib, But they do not want to whistle and grumble. Please answer the questions: - What is this poem about? -What signs of vowel sounds does the author name? nine0007 - What sign of vowel sounds could you add?	- About vowel sounds. - They can stretch, shout, sing. - When pronouncing vowel sounds, the air passes through the mouth freely, without obstructions.	Р - Set a learning task, plan activities for the lesson0006 I propose to open the textbook on p.89 and read the topic. What signs of vowels do we know? Name. -What is the difference between a vowel and a consonant? Let's make a conclusion. How to identify a vowel sound? - And now read the rule on p. 89 and say: What is the first difference between a vowel and a consonant? What is the second difference? What is the third difference? Now tell me the whole rule. .. Who can? Organizes work with the textbook. Exercise 134. Read and say why a vowel sound can be called a voice sound? -Name all the vowel sounds. -Check any sound: does it have the listed properties? 2. Ex. 135. How many vowel sounds are there in Russian? Write down the vowels. - How many vowels are there in Russian? - Write them down. 3. Control 136. What is depicted in the first circle? nine0007 - What is shown in the second circle? - What letters can represent vowel sounds in writing? Fizminutka.	Vowels pass freely through the mouth There is noise in the consonant It is pronounced without barriers consists of only a vowel sound - - The vowel forms a syllable. Vowels pass freely through the mouth - A vowel consists only of a voice. The vowel forms a syllable. They tell the rule - The word is formed from the word voice , which means voice. -A,O,U,E,I,S. - (children name the sound and prove that the sound is a vowel). -6. - [A], [O], [U], [E], [I], [S]. -10. -A, O, U, E, I, S, E, E, Yu, Z. - Sounds in square brackets. - Letters, since there are no sounds E, Yo, Yu, Ya. nine0007 They are called in a chain: [A] - A, O, Z; [E]-E, E; [O] -O,Yo; [S] -S, I; [U] -U, Yu; [I] -I, E, I.	P- build reasoning about the vowel sound P- establish cause-and-effect relationships P- build a speech statement in oral form; R- accept and save the learning task R- perform learning actions in a materialized, loud speech and mental form L- healthy lifestyle
Consolidation	Open your workbooks and do exercise 83. You need to insert a number and letters. Checking the correct execution of the task. - Let's check what happened. In the Russian language of sounds... sounds can be designated as follows: [a],[ ]... In Russian..... Task And now let's do this task, you have a card with the task on the styles, read the words on them. (Hedgehog, elephant, spinning top, apple, raccoon, cat, shark) Which words contain vowels that represent two sounds? And in which words only vowels represent one sound? Write down the words in which the vowels represent one sound.	Independent exercise. 6 [a], [y], [i], [e], [o], [s] 10 , s.	L- educational and cognitive interest in new educational material and methods for solving a new particular problem R and adequately perceive the teacher to take into account different opinions and strive to coordinate various positions in cooperation
Lesson	Reference 9000 9000 9000	Let's repeat that The vowel consists only of _________. Learn more Five shapes name Stories to tell children How many syllables in sounds Kindergarten and first grade math What is another word for mom Nighttime stories for children Story of goldilocks Learning activities for 3 year olds Sesame street songs sing Three little pigs straw house Math games for students