Short Vowel Games
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Short Vowel Word Activities for Beginning Readers
This lens is all about word games that help children learn these beginning three letter words. The games and activities encourage children to play with letter sounds that they already know while adding new short vowel sounds, combining the letters and forming three letter words.
The short vowel and cvc word games included in this collection are intended for beginning readers to play with a partner as an independent activity while the teacher or homeschool parent is working with other children. These games should take no more than 20 minutes per session and can be used in literacy rotation centers.
Photo Credit: Vowel-a-saurus by KitAy
Oakland, on Forbes Avenue, in front of the Board of Education building
Used under creative commons
Literacy Rotation Activities
Learning Short Vowel CVC Words
Short Vowel Activities
Literacy Rotation Activities for Learning Short Vowels
Wooden Toy - Vowel Set (AEIOU)
Available on Amazon
When children are beginning to read they need plenty of practice decoding words. CVC words are words with a consonant vowel consonant pattern of letters. In other words there is a short vowel, an a, e, i, o, or u between two other letters. This is usually the first category of letter combinations taught after children learn their letters.
CVC Scrabble Word Game
Letter Tile Games with CVC Words
Scrabble Tiles (100 Letter Tiles)
on Flickr, Creative Commons
1. Separate the scrabble tiles into two piles, vowels and consonants and turn all the letters over.
2. For each turn, pick one vowel and two consonants.
3. Move the letters around trying to discover a word.
4. Write each word down on a paper. One point for each word you can form with those letters.
Variation: Receive one more point for each word formed when adding a silent e.
Note: Some combinations will not form words.
Hang Up the Wash
Divide the wash between Short and Long Vowel T-Shirts
Clean and Fresh
Van Dijk,...
Buy This Allposters.com
Ask parents to donate infant sized plain white t-shirts. Iron on pictures of objects with the short and long vowel sound you are studying onto the t-shirts. String a clothesline overhead. Provide an apron with clothespins.
Use two large cardboard boxes as the washer and dryer. These appliances could be painted and have nobs added to them to make them more realistic or they could just be simple boxes that you explain to the children are for pretend.
1. Children take a stack of t-shirts out of the washer and "dry them" according to vowel sounds.
2. Short vowel words such as tap would get hung on a clothesline with clothespins.
3. Long vowel words such as tape would get put in the clothes dryer.
Variation: Provide a washtub and washboard. Allow the children to actually wash the clothes and have them hang the short vowels on one line and the long vowels on another. You might want to do this activity outside on a hot day.
Washer and Dryer Unit
Available on Amazon
Recycled Phonics Games
Recycled Short Vowel Practice
Explode the Code/Book 1 1/2
Available on Amazon
My favorite and possibly the only workbook I will ever recommend is Explode the Code. This series teaches phonics, spelling, handwriting and reading all in a fun and silly but systematic way that does just as the title suggests. It helps children to Explode the Code. The illustrations are hilarious. You can not guess the answers. You must read each word in order to determine which is the correct word to circle, draw a line to, write or match to a picture. Recycling the book adds endless hours of cvc word practice.
Cut apart pages from a used copy of Explode the Code
Use a laminater to create reusable cards.
1. Children draw lines, circle or write in the correct answers.
2. Once checked by a teacher, the cards are erased.
Short Vowel Words in a Box
Altoid Tins and CVC Words
1. Children rearrange letters and attach them to the inside top of each tin.
2. Once they have been checked, close the lid and shake to start over.
Circle the Short Vowel Words
Newspaper CVC Words
A Small Girl Puts on Her Grandmother's Spectacles and Pretends to Read a Newspaper
Available at Allposters.com
Children search for and circle CVC words found in the newspaper. These three letter words are fun for children to search for and the children are delighted to discover that they can read the words that they find in the newspaper.
Short Vowel Charades
Active CVC Words
Acting Red Riding
Available on Allposters
Play Charades with the following CVC words:
Run, beg, tag, dig, pat, rap, cup, dot, ram, ham, gum, rip, zip, dip, hit,
Write each of these words on a card. Shuffle the cards and place them face down on a table in front of the children. One child at a time picks a card, reads it, and acts it out while the others try to guess what the word it. Beginning readers love this game and are delighted when they discover they can read so many new cvc or short vowel words.
Illustrated CVC Words
CVC Collage Words
1. Children trace around the letters of a CVC word.
2. Then glue on pictures that represent the word.
Note: Popped popcorn could be glued to the word pop.
Cat- glue on pictures of cats, fur from brushing your cat, Cut the word out of wild cat designed felt.
Trace the Cursive CVC words
Conconant Vowel Consonant Words
Cut pictures of CVC words from a used Explode the Code or other Phonics workbook.
Attach a strip of lined paper with dotted lines in the middle. Write the CVC word lightly in pencil or thin yellow marker. Laminate
.1. Children trace over the CVC words.
CVC Words in the Soup
Scrabble Alphabet Soup
Make Math Mats with Soup Bowls
Program spoons with pictures of CVC Words
1. Children spell the words in the soup with Alphabet Pasta, Alpha-Bits or Scrabble Letters
Variation: Use real bowls, plastic letters and ladles. Float the letters in a water filled Sensory Table. Children ladle the letters out into bowls with spoons programed with a picture of the word.
CVC bracelets
Vowel Jewelry
Pipe Cleaners
Available on Amazon
1. Children string the letters to CVC words onto pipe cleaners and then wear as bracelets.
2. Place the matching CVCe word on the other arm.
People Pencils
Photo Credit: Writing on Your Partner's Back
from WPClipart
Partners stand one in front of the other. The person in the back is the "Writer". The person in the front is the "Letter". The Pencil needs to guess the letter.
1. The "Writer" uses a finger to write on "Paper", the other person's back.
2. "Paper" writes on real paper or the chalkboard as they feel the letters being written.
Typewriter Words
Typing Consonant Vowel Consonant Words
Bring in an old manual typewriter. Have a stack of CVC word cards available.
1. Partners take turns drawing a card and reading the word.
2. The other person types the word.
3. They check the spelling and then reverse parts.
Write a Story
Short Vowel Word Families Mini-Books
Short Vowel Word Families Mini-Books
Available on Amazon
25 Read & Write Mini-Books That Teach Word Families
Amazon Price: $6.67 (as of 05/31/2012)
Rhyming, reproducible storybooks that use a few simple words to help kids practice reading and writing words from 25 key word families.
The Giant's Keyboard
Beginning to Read with the Giant Keyboard
Keyboard Area Rug
Available on Amazon
Paint a giant computer keyboard on the playground or purchase a Classroom Area Rug depicting the keys on a computer keyboard.
1. Partners take turns drawing cards and reading CVC words.
2. The other person jumps on the letters of the word.
Word Family Wheels
Word Families for Beginning Readers
Turn-to-Learn: Word Family Wheels (Grades PreK-2)
Amazon Price: $177.04 (as of 05/31/2012)
Product Description
32 Easy-To-make Manipulative Wheels That Help Kids Master Key Phonograms & Become Successful Readers Great For Emergent Readers!
A must-have teaching tool for all emergent readers! 32 adorable, easy-to-make learning wheels teach the top word families! Includes lively lessons and instant activities. Fully reproducible.
Tri - Words
Three Letter Word Game for Children Beginning to Read
Educational Insights Tri - Words
Amazon Price: $9.99 (as of 05/31/2012)
Product Description
Grades 1 & up. This fast paced game is easy and has everything you need for word building fun. Includes timer, special die, and 30 tricolor tiles. Great for learning centers.
Family Houses
Word Families for Children Beginning to Read
Photo Credit: Vowel Houses
from WPClipart
Children write all the words for the members of a family.
ie: cat, mat, sat, rat, etc. for the first house
cap, gap, lap, map, etc. for the second house
bug, dug, jug, hug, etc. for the third house
The Squirrel's Nuts
Gather your Short Vowel u Acorns
Red Squirrel With Nut
Available on Amazon
Paint an oatmeal box to resemble an oak tree. Paint plastic Easter Eggs to resemble acorns. Paint a picture on the outside of some pictures of CVC words with a short u in the middle and a few other words. Inside each egg, write the word. Children pretend to be squirrels hunting for their favorite kind of nuts. (Those with a short u sound.)
1. Put nuts with short u sounds in the oak tree.
2. Leave the other nuts on the cover of the oak tree.
3. Children check their answers by opening up the acorns to read the words.
Children just beginning to read will love this independent literacy center.
Design Your Own Easter Egg
Available from Amazon
Hop or Jump
Frog and Toad Short Vowel vs. Long Vowel Words
Frog and Toad 100 piece puzzle - Windy Day
Available from Amazon
Read a list of short o and short u words.
The children hop when they hear a short o sound and jump when they hear a short u sound.
Variation: Write words on fly shaped paper. Feed the short o sounds to the toad and the short u sound to the frog.
Variation: Feed short o sound words to the frog and long o sounds to the toad.
Phonics Dominoes - Short Vowels
Beginning to Read with Short Vowel Dominoes
Educational Insights Phonics Dominoes Short Vowels
Amazon Price: $18.98 (as of 05/31/2012)
The phonics fun (and learning) stacks up with these colorful dominoes. Dominoes are printed with high-utility consonants (s, m, t, etc.) and important phonograms (word families), so kids can put together hundreds of words. Each set includes 84 dominoes (14 each of six bright colors) packed in a sturdy, crystal-clear storage container with an activity guide. Perfect for word formation games and great for centers.
About the Author of this Short Vowel CVC Word Lens
Short Vowels
Short Vowels for Beginning Readers
Come write about your experiences learning and teaching about short vowels on Wizzley, a fun and easy place to express your opinion:
by Evelyn_Saenz
My passion is teaching and finding ways to teach children in fun, hands-on, creative ways. The unit studies I make on Squidoo reflect my view that learning... more »
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