I love when students are ready to start learning about and working with short vowels in CVC words! It is so much fun to see them merge together what they have learned about initial and final consonants, word families, and digraphs and blends and truly begin to make exponential gains in their ability to read and write new words every day.

If you have students ready to dive in to short vowels in CVC words, bookmark this blog post for helpful student-friendly definitions and examples, tips on when to introduce short vowels and in what order, and fun ideas for practicing short vowels in CVC.

Games, activities, and teaching tips for teaching short vowels in CVC words to Letter Name-Alphabetic Spellers

What is a short vowel sound?

Vowels consist of a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y. Each vowel can make two different sounds, a long sound or a short sound.

A long vowel sound says the name of the letter. For example, in the word “acorn”, the a says it’s name and is therefore a long vowel sound.

On the other hand, short vowel sounds are in short form and are not pronounced the same as saying the letter in the alphabet. For example, in the word “apple”, the a makes a short vowel sound.

Here are some examples of a, e, i, o, and u words that have short vowel sounds:

a: cap, bat, mat, lap, rap, tag, bag

e: bed, peg, get, wet, led, jet, net

i: rid, kid, rig, fit, pit, lip, big

o: got, not, mop, cog, hot, rod, pot

u: cup, hut, cut, pup, mud, rug, tug

Why is teaching short vowels important?

Short vowels are the gateway to students recognizing the presence of patterns within the English Language. Prior to being introduced to short vowels, students are hard at work learning that consonant sounds can be represented with letters in the alphabet. With the introduction of short vowels, students begin to learn two key truths about the English language:

1) Many words are made up of a consonant, followed by a vowel, followed by another consonant (CVC).

2) When a word is made up of a CVC pattern, the vowel sound in the middle is almost always short.

👉 Without direct instruction, some students do not readily grasp that words in the English language are made up of common patterns and letter pairings. This is especially true if hearing and repeating sounds, spelling, or reading at their developmental level comes with difficulty for them.

Students need help seeing that many words belong to word families or have similar patterns so that every word they encounter does not present itself as a new learning challenge for them. This understanding also helps them connect new learning to previously learned words and word pattern concepts.

Knowing that there are patterns within the English Language and being taught how to recognize and look for them when encountering new words is a powerful, impactful shift within a students’ learning process!

When should you introduce short vowels?

As soon as students can identify beginning consonant sounds in CVC words and are showing some success in using consonants in the final position of words, it’s time to practice identifying short vowel sounds in CVC words. This is the next developmental step to move students from isolating individual phonemes to phonological blending. Many agree that introducing short vowels first with word families containing the same vowel (same-vowel word families) provides more support for students before jumping into word lists with a mixture of short vowels in CVC words (mixed short vowels) in isolation.

***If you are looking for information on same-vowel word families, please visit this previous post on the topic! Need tips for supporting students in all phases of the Letter Name-Alphabetic stage? Get those here!

IN WHAT ORDER DO YOU TEACH SHORT VOWELS?

There are a lot of opinions on this topic. While there is no right or wrong way, a very common order for introducing short vowels is starting with a, and following with i, o, u, and then saving e for last. Some teachers prefer to introduce each vowel in isolation, while others argue that it is best to pair two together to provide contrast for students. Most seem to agree that it is best to separate the i from the e because they can sound so similar, especially depending on a student’s accent.

Remember, if you are following the order recommended in my blog posts, students have already had a unit on same-vowel word families where they worked with short a (-at, -an, -ad, -ap, -ag), short o (-op, -ot, -og), short e (-et, -eg, -en), short u (-ug, -ut, -un) and short i (-ip, -ig, -ill).

Words Their Way suggests first introducing short vowels with more pictures than words to give students more support and ensure they are not simply looking at the medial vowel, but hearing it when they sound out a word.

Short A and O in Pictures and Words - rag, beg, tag, box, rod, pop

Short I and U in Pictures and Words - lid, zip, wig, cut, pup, gum

Short E, I, O, and U in Pictures and Words - net, leg, dig, pin, cot, rod, mud, run

After students have experience with saying and listening for the medial vowel sound, students are ready to focus more on representing what they hear in their spelling of the words.

Short A and O in Easy CVC Words - jam, wag, map, mom, hop, fox

Short I and U in Easy CVC Words - kid, win, bit, rub, fun, hut

Short E, I, O, and U in Easy CVC Words - wet, pet, sip, kit, not, hot, bus, cub

Once students have had ample practice and success with reading and spelling easy/simple CVC words, they are ready to apply what they have previously learned about digraphs and blends to CVC words. Whereas previously, they worked on correctly identifying and spelling the digraph or blend part, now they’re ready to spell CVC words with initial and final digraphs and blends in their entirety.

Short A, I, and E with Initial Digraphs - chap, wham, chip, thin, shell, shed

Short A and I with Initial Blends - crab, drag, grill, grip, clap, plan, slip, flip

Short E, O, and U with Initial Blends - plot, trot, slob, frog, sled, fret, glum, slug, drum, truck

Short Vowels with Final Digraphs -SH, -CH, -TH, -SS, -CK - cash, path, wish, miss, clock, boss, rush, stuck

Short Vowels with Final Blends -SK, -ST, and -SP - mask, grasp, desk, nest, fist, lisp, lost, cost, tusk, dust

Short Vowels with Final Blends - FT, -PT, -LF, -LP, and -LT - raft, scalp, wept, self, gift, lift, wolf, golf

* Note: I've linked each of these short vowels in CVC words to resources that can be used to teach these skills. You can find the bundle for Short Vowels in CVC Words here.

What types of activities benefit students who are working with short vowels in CVC words?

Engaging students in games and activities with LOTS OF PICTURES that show CVC words is very important as students move toward the end of the Letter Name-Alphabetic stage. When students are challenged to build or write the word being depicted by an image, they are compelled to practice their phoneme segmentation skills, or what they hear in a word vs simply relying on what they see when looking at the written word.

🌟 NOTE: In the examples below, I've linked the games and activities I've created for teaching and practicing short vowels in CVC words.

For example, in Hop Around the Map, students take turns drawing cards that contain a picture depicting a short a or short o CVC word. They must say the word the picture depicts aloud, listening for the medial vowel sound that is heard. Then students must find a word on the gameboard with a matching initial consonant and final consonant sound. The word on the gameboard has a missing medial vowel that students mentally fill in and record on their recording sheet. As students record each word on their recording sheet, they sort them by the medial vowel sound.

Using strategically chosen games that challenge Letter Name-Alphabetic spellers to build or write words being depicted by an image gives them more opportunities to practice their phoneme segmentation skills, helping to solidify CVC spelling patterns.

I also use Spin, Cover, Write, Check activities a lot during this unit because of its heavy incorporation of pictures. In this particular Spin, Cover, Write, Check for Short A, I, and E with Initial Digraphs, students choose from versions of the spinner and 4 versions of the picture board. They spin for a short vowel sound or initial digraph and cover images that match the vowel sound or digraph they spun. Students must use their phonological blending skills to apply what they have been learning and spell the word they covered on their recording sheet.

Incorporate spelling games for your Letter Name-Alphabetic spellers that build students' phonemic awareness skills while learning how to identify and represent short vowels in CVC words.

When teaching short vowels in CVC words, I like to ensure that the activities and games I choose to use incorporate a lot of opportunities for students to not only see and practice spelling CVC words, but also to hear the medial vowel sound and how all the individual phonemes or sounds are blended together. I also like to get the biggest bang for my buck by choosing resources that allow students to interact with word patterns in many ways at once–identifying, blending, sorting, comparing, matching, reading, and writing in this case.

If you’re looking for done-for-you resources such as these, check out my Short Vowels in CVC Words Bundle.

TAKE A MOMENT TO REAP THE FRUITS OF YOUR LABOR

While it is rare to have moments in teaching where you are able to sit back and give yourself a pat on the back while watching your students succeed, seize this moment in time! You have been hard at work teaching students how to represent beginning and ending sounds, guiding them to correctly identify and represent medial vowel sounds, training them to see the patterns that exist within word families in CVC words, and supporting them as they learn about and begin using common digraphs and blends.

Now it is time to let the magic happen and let all the puzzle pieces fall into place as students become ravenous readers and spellers of CVC words!

Allow students to revel in this stage by providing them with LOTS of varied opportunities to merge all that they have learned up to this point and build more confidence as they forge ahead!

Have students in the Letter Name-Alphabetic Stage that are ready to work on other concepts? Check out these helpful posts:

Supporting Students in the Letter Name-Alphabetic Stage

Teaching Beginning Consonants Letters and Sounds

Teaching Phonics Word Families

Teaching Beginning Digraphs and Blends in CVC Words

Teaching Preconsonantal Nasals in CVC Words