Activities for Short Vowel Sounds

Beginning readers learn common consonant sounds and then progress to understanding short vowel sounds. The short vowel sounds often occur in the middle of simple words such as "dog" and "run." Short vowel knowledge begins with discrimination of same and different vowel sounds, so early activities in this area should focus on grouping words with similar vowels. As students progress, they need to produce the correct short vowel sound when they see single vowels followed by consonants in order to sound out unfamiliar words. Finally, beginning readers transfer their understanding of vowel sounds to their writing by identifying the vowel sound heard in the word and producing the matching letter when spelling.

  1. Active Games

    • Active games motivate many children, so these ideas may be just the right vehicle to help them practice short vowel sounds. Vary the difficulty of these games by using from two to five vowels. Hang the vowel letters around the room. Put on active music, and have the children dance. When you stop the music, call out a word containing a short vowel sound. The children try to run to the correct vowel. Try "if-then" instructions to practice hearing short vowels. Say items such as "If 'cat' has a short u, flap your arms" or "If 'pet' contains a short e, run to the table."

    Quiet Games

    • Word sorts are a great way to practice short vowel sounds. Provide players with word cards and a sorting tray. Challenge them to sort words by the short vowel sound, putting short "i" words together in one area and short "o" words in another. Vary the difficulty by changing the number of vowel sounds to find. Make the game easier by having children discriminate between words that have and do not have the target sound.

      Children who enjoy board games will have fun with a trail game containing short vowel words on the spaces. Roll a die containing the the vowels, and move to the next space containing a word or picture with that sound. You can adapt many children's card games to practice short vowels as well. Use picture or word cards that kids can sort or match by short vowel sound, and play games modeled from familiar games like Go Fish, Rummy or Old Maid.

    Paper and Pencil Activities

    • Use text from old magazines or newspapers, and challenge children to highlight words containing the target short vowel sound. Have students create rhyming words for reading practice by starting with a word stem such as "-op" and adding different consonants or consonant blends. Let children color or circle pictures that contain the target short vowel sound.

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