Vowel stick

Hearing the vowels in words can often be a problem when spelling words so this little activity focuses on listening carefully for the vowel sounds. Concentrate on the short vowel sounds, so the /a/ in cat, the /e/ in bed, the /i/ in pin, the /o/ in pot and the /u/ in jug. It is a good idea to practice these sounds on a regular basis. I always used the vowel rap from ELS/ALS but using the sounds not the names of letters.

a-e-i-o-u That is how we say them
a-e-i-o-u That is how we play them
We say them soft, we say them loud
Of our vowels we sure are proud
a-e-i-o-u (whisper)
a-e-i-o-u (normal)

That is how we say them!

Use lolly sticks to write the vowels and make sure you give children their own lolly stick. Alter the sequence of the letters on each stick so children cannot copy off each other. Read out a word containing the short vowel sound. Can the child put their finger on the correct vowel?

Some examples of words would be – sat, mat, bat, ban, bad, cat, can, cap, cast, dab, damp, fan, fat, fast, gap, hat, lap, map, mat, peg, beg, leg, lend, mend, men, red, send, tend, ten, pig, pin, bin, nip, din, dip, fig, gig, jig, limp, sip, pod, bod, mod, pond, bond, cot, con, cop, hop, mop, rod, pud, mud, dud, cup, but, bun, lump, fun, sun.

Extension

Use longer words for example compound words where they have to listen for two vowels. For example tenpin, batman, fishshop, flipflop, tiptop, tinman etc