Vowels and consonants kindergarten

What are vowels and consonants?

We explain what vowels and consonants are and how primary-school children are taught to identify CVC, CCVC and CVCC words, vowel digraphs and consonant digraphs.

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What are vowels and consonants?

The alphabet is made up of 26 letters, 5 of which are vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and the rest of which are consonants.

A vowel is a sound that is made by allowing breath to flow out of the mouth, without closing any part of the mouth or throat.

A consonant is a sound that is made by blocking air from flowing out of the mouth with the teeth, tongue, lips or palate ('b' is made by putting your lips together, 'l' is made by touching your palate with your tongue).

The letter 'y' makes a consonant sound when at the beginning of a word ('yacht', 'yellow') but a vowel sound when at the end of a word ('sunny', 'baby').
 

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Vowels and consonants in primary school

Children learn all the letters of the alphabet in the Foundation Stage (nursery and Reception years). This means they learn to look at a letter and then make its sound, but also to hear the sound of a letter and be able to write it down.

In Reception children move onto learning to read and write CVC words (consonant, vowel, consonant) such as cat, top, hit, nap.

They then move on to read and write CCVC words such as trip, stop, pram.

They also learn CVCC words such as milk, lamp, tusk.

Children will also learn that sometimes two vowels are put together to make one sound, such as ai, oo, ea, ie which can be found in words such as rain, boot, read and pie. When two vowels are put together to make one sound, this is called a vowel digraph.

They also learn that sometimes two consonants are put together to make one sound, such as th, ch and sh which can be found in words such as bath, chip and mash. When two consonants are put together to make one sound, this is called a consonant digraph.

Teachers may or may not make children aware of all the linguistic vocabulary in bold above. It is not necessarily important that they know these words or can define them: the most important thing is that they learn to read and write individual letters and words with confidence through thorough step-by-step phonics activities.

Children moving up the school may notice certain things about vowels and consonants. For example, in English we rarely have three or more vowels together; beautiful, queue, liaise, quail, quiet, squeal are some of the few words that use this spelling pattern.

Another thing children may notice is that every word in the English language contains a vowel. This is quite a useful thing to know when playing hangman: go for the vowels first!

More like this

• What are CVC words, CCVC words and CVCC words?

• Phonics teaching step-by-step

• What is a digraph?

• Recognising short vowels in CVC words (Phase 2 phonics)

• What is ‘magic e’ or a split digraph?

• Reading vowels (Phase 2 phonics)

• Two-letter vowel sounds: /ee/ /oo/ /ur/ (Phase 3 phonics)

• Joining vowels: handwriting practice activity

• Using unstressed vowel words

The Learners Nook

Learning English’s vowels and consonants is a core skill that all English learners will need to have. Strong phonics skills now will translate into better reading and writing skills later on. We have made this guide to help you and your child master vowels and consonants with step-by-step instructions and everything we think you will need to become a phonics teaching pro.

To help you and your children practice phonics, we have made some free flashcards that you can use. The flashcards can be colored and include a find the letter game on each page. Just click here or on the picture below to go to the download.

Vowels and consonants lessons begin with knowing the sounds of each of the letters of the alphabet. Our lessons are laid out in the general order that we would teach them. Consonants are, for the most part, paired with similar-sounding consonant pairs to make it easier for your child.

These lessons will become the fundamentals of your child’s reading skills. Pair these lessons and our free flashcards to get your child reading vowels and consonants in English as quickly as possible.

Phonics doesn’t stop with the 26 letters of the alphabet. In these more advanced lessons, we are going to introduce long vowels and their patterns. As well, we will teach your child about the sounds made by the letters th, ch, sh, and ng. Use these lessons to complete your child’s basic level of vowels and consonants.

The phonics of vowels and consonants can be a really tricky thing to teach. To help you along, we have tried to put all of our best resources in one place to make sure that you will find success in teaching your child to read. Our articles here include games, songs, activities, and strategies you can employ to help your child master phonics.

In the English language, we have 5 main vowels: a, e, i, o, and u. We usually say that each of these vowels makes two sounds, a short vowel sound, and a long vowel sound.

Short vowel sounds are “a” as in apple, “e” as in egg, “i” as in igloo, “o” as in octopus, and “u” as in umbrella.

Long vowels are “a” as in name, “e” as in here, “i” as in fight, “o” as in hole, and “u” as in cute.

The majority of letters in English are considered consonants. Consonants are formed when air is restricted in some way while you are making a sound. This restriction can be in your throat or mouth and can be often caused by your tongue, teeth, lips, or some combination of these. All of the letters except a, e, i, o, and u are consonants. “Y” is unique in that it can be both a vowel or a consonant.

Phonics is a system of learning where we emphasize the most common sound-letter combinations. All of this is with the end goal of getting kids to be able to sound out words and read on their own. Instead of learning words as a whole, we break words down into their sounds represented by the letters that comprise those words.

We have a whole post on this topic here. However, in short, you want to teach phonics in a systematic way that emphasizes the ability to break words down and “sound them out.”

While teaching, you will also want to keep your children’s attention by playing games, listening to songs, or reading books with them. The key to teaching them phonics is making it fun for them and reinforcing the things that they have already learned through activities that they like.

We have generally laid out our lessons in the order that we would teach them. Start with learning all of the short vowel sounds and consonant sounds. We have chosen to organize them by similar sounds instead of by the order of the alphabet, but of course, the order you teach them in is up to you.

You can then move into long vowels and the phonemes represented by more than one letter (th, sh, ch, and ng). These lessons should get you through basic phonics. So the next step would be to begin blending sounds to make words and then to have them read on their own.

Every child is different. Some children will have more difficulties with phonics and reading in general compared to their classmates. If you are having trouble with your child, it could be that they are too young. Most children do not learn to read until they are 6 or 7.

You can start familiarizing children with the sounds of English at any age. Actual phonics instruction depends on the child. I have taught some children as young as three, whereas others needed more time to develop before we could start teaching them how to read.

Yes, unfortunately, we cannot explore every topic here or answer every question. If you have a quick question, you can send us a message at the link below, or click here. If you need more help, you can schedule a chat with us to discuss your situation and questions.

Literacy education. Introduction to vowels and consonants. | Outline of a lesson in teaching literacy (preparatory group) on the topic:

MDOU "Kindergarten in the village of Kamenka, Pugachevsky District, Saratov Region"

Teaching literacy

"Introduction to the concepts of vowels and consonants."

Senior mixed age group

Prepared by the teacher

Svetlana Farkhutdinova

Zakirovna

Kamenka 2017

Topic of the lesson: "Introduction to the concepts of vowels and consonants."

Goals: 1. Development of memory, attention, logical thinking.

2. Development of auditory and visual attention.

3. Acquaintance with the concepts: vowel, consonant sounds.

4. Differentiation of the concepts of vowel, consonant sounds.

5. Development of fine motor skills and coordination of movements.

2. 6. Development of phonemic hearing.

Handout: Red circles, green and blue squares cut out of colored cardboard. nine0003

Equipment: Blue and green box, toys, ball.

Phonograms sounds of nature and sounds of objects

Course of the lesson:

• Org. moment.

Smile

What day is it today? Gloomy overcast light or sunny? What mood does this weather make you feel?

Do you know what you need to do to improve your mood, so that your soul is warm and calm? You have to smile.

Song sounds:

A gloomy day is brighter from a smile,

A rainbow will wake up from a smile in the sky.

Share your smile

And it will return to you more than once.

I want to share a smile with you. I give you my smile. I love you. You have such sunny, radiant smiles that, looking at them, the day becomes brighter, and the soul warms up. Bring your smile to those around you. Smile at each other. Music sounds.

• Introduction.

Didactic game "Let's listen": Children, let's close our eyes, stand silently and listen. (phonogram sounds of nature, sounds of objects) What do you hear? nine0003

Everything you heard, what is the name?

Correct sounds. Well done boys. Today we will go to the fabulous city "Zvukograd". We will find out what other sounds are. Let's play interesting games with these sounds. Well, let's hit the road, shall we? (Yes). The phonogram of the song "It's fun to walk together" sounds. The children walk around the tables and take their seats.

Educator: But in order to get to this city, we need to solve a riddle:

You can’t see him, you can’t pick him up, but you can hear him. What's this? (sound)

Well done. Of course it's sound. We hear sounds, we listen. We remembered that there are sounds of nature, sounds of objects, sounds of music. But it's not all sounds. There is another group of sounds, and it is called speech sounds. We not only hear these sounds, but also pronounce them.

There are many sounds in the world:

The rustle of leaves, the splash of a wave.

And there are speech sounds,

We must know them for sure.

Main body.

We ended up with you in a very tiny city called Zvukograd. It has only thirty one inhabitants. No one has ever seen these inhabitants, since they were invisible. But you can still hear them. These inhabitants are called sounds. Six sound singers: a, o, u, u, u, s. They sing along: I, e, e, u. For vociferousness and melodiousness, these sounds are called vowels. The sounds are very friendly with each other and sing magical songs. We can also sing along with them, but for this you need to recognize all the sounds and pronounce them correctly. nine0003

The vowels are drawn in a ringing song

And - and - and - and.

A - Can cry and groan:

O - o - o - u - u - u.

They can rock Alenka in the cradle:

A - a - a - a.

They can scream like an echo in the forest:

Ay! Ay! Ay!

Can fly high in the blue

They do not want to whistle and grumble.

Educator: Vowel sounds break out easily and freely, without encountering any obstacles on their way. They can be sung for a long time and loudly - each separately and sequentially rearranging. Let's sing. [a, o, y, e, s, and]. How many? (vowel sounds 6). They are called vowels, from the word "voice", i.e. voice. Because they can be sung with a voice, with a voice. We will denote these sounds with a red circle. Look they are like a ball. It can roll for a long time, so the vowels are sung, stretched. nine0003

Game “Name the Sound at the Beginning of a Word”

The vowel sounds liked the way you remembered them so much that they wanted to play with you. Do you want? (Yes).

I will name words that begin with a vowel, and you have to say what that sound is. (the game is played with the ball in a chain so that each pupil takes part in the game).

Watermelon, cloud, duck, game, stork, donkey, iron, iris, ear, lake, orange, etc.

But in this magical land there are still inhabitants - consonant sounds. They live worse. In order to pronounce them, the air needs to break through the barriers that lips, teeth, and tongue put up for them. They cannot sing these sounds themselves, but agree to sing only together with vowels. That is why they are called consonants. nine0003

A consonants ... agree

Rustle, whisper, creak,

Even snort and hiss,

But I don't want to sing to them.

S, S, S... - a snake whistle is heard,

Sh, Sh, Sh... - a fallen leaf rustles, R, R... - motors rumble

Consonant sounds are pronounced briefly. Some hard, others soft. Look at them. What color is their outfit? (children's answers).

If the consonant is hard, then he puts on a blue dress, and if soft, then he wears green. We will designate them with you, with a blue or green square. A square is a cube, look like a ball cannot roll. So the consonants are not sung, they do not stretch. nine0003

Didactic game "Collect toys".

Guys Dunno dropped in on us and look what a mess he left. I scattered all the toys, help me collect them. But we will assemble them in the following way: we will remove the blue box for the toy that begins with a hard consonant sound, and the green box for the toy that begins with a soft consonant.

We will now get up and rest.

Physical education minute. Smile

Up and down hand jerks,

As if we were waving flags.

Stretching our shoulders.

Hands moving towards. (One hand up, the other down, in jerks

hands change.)

Hands to the sides. Smile.

Lean left and right. (Tilts to the side.)

Begin squats.

Don't rush, keep up. (Squats.)

And at the end - walking in place,

This has long been known to everyone. (Walking in place.)

Educator: Consonant sounds, guys, are not only hard and soft, but they can also be voiced and deaf. nine0003

What does this mean? Listen and compare how two musical instruments sound like a bell and a drum. What can you say about their sound?

(The bell sounds loud, but the drum has a dull sound.)

This is how consonants sound, some sound loud, others dull. To determine which sound is deaf or voiced, you need to put your palm on the neck and pronounce the sound. If the neck rattles like a bell (show a bell), then the sound is sonorous, and if the neck is calm, does not rattle, then the sound is deaf. Let's play game

"Guess what the sound is."

I call a consonant sound, and you determine whether it is voiced or voiceless. If the sound is sonorous, then you show the bell, and if it is deaf, then just sit quietly. (the teacher names the sounds, the children practice in determining the voiced and deafness of consonant sounds.)

Finger gymnastics

"Spring"

Go, spring, go, red,
("walk" with the fingers of both hands on the table)
Bring a rye ear ,
Oat sheaf,
Fragrant apples,
Golden pears,
Big harvest in our region.
(they bend one finger from the little finger)
“Drip, drip, drip”
Drip, drip, drip - drops ring.
April is coming.
(Rhythmically, for each syllable they tap on the table with the pads of their fingers, starting with the big one)

Mapping words.

The guys really like the sounds. How do you play them.

Now they are asking you to build word houses.

In front of you are cards with drawings and geometric shapes, squares, blue and green and red circles. You need to conduct a sound analysis of the word and make diagrams for these words. nine0003

Educator: Well done guys.

Summary of the lesson:

Well, it's time for us to go home. But before they return, you need to pass the password. Ready?

What two groups are speech sounds divided into? (vowels and consonants)

How to distinguish a vowel from a consonant? (vowels are pronounced freely, they can be sung, and consonants are pronounced with a barrier, they cannot be sung. )

Name the vowels.

What are consonants? (hard/soft, voiced/deaf)

Educator: Well done, you coped with the task and we returned home, but we will definitely continue our journey through the city of Zvukograd.

Synopsis of a lesson in teaching literacy "Let's learn vowels and consonants with Masha" | Condition plan for literacy training (preparatory group):

Municipal Budgetary Educational Institution kindergarten No. 1 "Kolosok" of the Komsomolsky district of the Chuvash Republic

Summary of teaching literacy with children of the preparatory school

On the topic:

“Learn vowels and consonants along with Masha”

Komsomolskoye, 2019

Goal: Teaching children the ability to differentiate sounds into vowels and consonants

Tasks:

Educational:

1. Continue to learn to divide isolated sounds into vowels and consonants, observing your voice and articulatory organs;
2. Continue to learn to highlight 1 sound in a word and correlate it with a certain color, depending on whether the sound is a vowel-consonant;
3. Continue to learn how to analyze the sound of the word; nine0042
4. Exercise in the ability to select words for a given scheme.

Developing:

1. Develop auditory attention and phonemic hearing;
2. Develop auditory memory, thinking.

Educational:

1. Continue to develop the ability to act according to instructions;
2. Continue to teach to listen carefully to an adult, to be active.

Course of the lesson

Organizational moment

- Good afternoon, guys! Look who came to visit you today? Did you recognize her? (shows the doll Masha from the cartoon "Masha and the Bear") Of course, this is Masha! She, like you guys, is going to school soon. Misha prepared tasks for Masha to check if she is ready for school. (The teacher shows a closed box with the inscription "Masha") But, Masha is afraid that she will not cope with the tasks alone. Well guys! Are you ready to help Masha? (Yes) Get ready and you Masha listen carefully and memorize! nine0003

1. Dividing sounds into vowel and consonant

- Before going to school, we must learn to hear all the sounds in a word and determine which sound is a vowel or a consonant. So let's make a sound! (Children sing the sound A). Does the voice come out freely? (Yes!). That's right, the voice comes out freely, which means the sound is a vowel. Let's make the sound S! (Children pronounce) Does the voice come out freely or is something preventing it? (Answers of children). The voice meets an obstacle in the form of teeth and tongue, which means the sound is consonant. (Next, the teacher pronounces the sounds O, Sh, M, U, Z, Y, E, D - the children determine whether the sound is a vowel or a consonant)

2. The game "Determine what sound and raise the circle of the desired color"

- Guys, and you, Masha, must remember that we denote vowel sounds in red, the voice comes out freely, it is sung, nothing interferes with it (a picture is shown -scheme). We designate consonant sounds in blue, the voice meets an obstacle in the form of teeth, lips, tongue (a picture-diagram is shown)

I suggest playing a game. I will name the sounds, and you will determine the sound of a vowel or consonant and raise the desired color (The teacher calls the sound - the children raise the circles of the corresponding color)

3. Naming vowels

- So, let's name the vowels again. There aren't many of them. (Children call the vowels A, O, U, Y, E, I)

4. Task "Name the picture and stick a circle of the right color"

- Guys, we can distinguish between vowels and consonants. And now we are ready to help Masha complete one of the tasks in the package. (The teacher takes out a poster with pictures and self-adhesive mugs in blue and red). You must determine what sound the picture begins with and stick a circle of the desired color next to it. If the word begins with a vowel sound, glue a red circle next to it. If from a consonant, we glue a blue circle. (Children perform the first few pictures together with the teacher. Then each child goes to the easel, loudly calls the picture, and sticks the right circle)

- Well done guys! You did it. Let's move on to the next task from the package.

5. Game exercise "Put the pictures in the right houses"

The teacher takes out two cardboard houses with a red and blue roof, as well as pictures. In the center of the house, instead of windows, there are transparent pockets for inserting pictures.

- Guys, in front of you is a house with a red roof and a house with a blue roof (The teacher fixes them on an easel). And also pictures. You will need to determine with what sound (vowel or consonant) the word in the picture begins and populate it in the right house. We will name the picture quietly, to ourselves. nine0003

6. Physical education

We know a lot of words on the vowel: Stork autumn duck hoar. (Children step on a red circle and jump on the spot) on the consonant, we also know: Beetle of firewood grass goat. (Children step on a blue circle and jump on the spot) And now, a friend do not yawn, you come correctly! (The teacher calls words to vowel and consonants, children step on circles of the right color). nine0003

7. Sound analysis of the word COM

- Let's move on to the next task from the premise. (The teacher takes out a poster and three circles: two blue ones and a red one) A riddle is written here. The mystery about the most beloved fish of Masha

A huge fish lies at the bottom, as if a block. Lies, moves his mustache, does not tell the fish to yawn. There is a house in a deep pool, , , , , , , , , , , ,0003

- We need to spell out the word COM using these circles. So, what 1 sound is heard in the word COM (Correctly C) C is what sound (Consonant). So, we put in a circle of what color (Blue) What sound goes on (Sound O) O - this is what sound (Vowel). So, lay out a circle of what color (Red). What we got (CO). Which sound comes next (Sound M). M is what sound (Consonant). So, we put a circle of what color (Blue) Name the consonant sounds in the word COM (M and C). What is the vowel sound in the word COM (O). Well done! nine0003

8. Selection of pictures for the scheme. Isolation and naming of consonants and vowels in words.

- Look at the pictures. (The teacher takes out a poster with pictures). Find and name the pictures that match our scheme. (Scheme is shown: blue, red, blue).

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