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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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!
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