Teacher friends, let’s discuss short vowels! Have you noticed that accents have a huge impact on vowel sounds? For example, I’ve noticed in the southern states ‘i’ and ‘e’ sound almost exactly the same! Whereas more northern areas tend to definitively separate the two very distinctively. Have you also noticed how this can affect students’ ability to spell and read correctly? Accents will always have an incredible effect on how students speak and interpret words, and that’s okay! Teaching phonics clearly and thoroughly can help distinguish the correct way to read or write no matter their unique, wonderful accent.
I personally loved to teach phonics! It was an incredible process to see students connect the dots and go from letter sounds to reading aloud full books! Having plenty of practice is key, so having a phonics center is the perfect opportunity for students to practice daily. Here is my favorite digital vowel center you can use in your class!
It’s the all-in-one, complete short vowel set and is the only short vowel phonics center you’ll need all year, every year! The best part? It’s digital! This interactive resource can be used on whatever device your school provides; laptops, computers, Chromebooks, iPads, or tablets. (Which means automatic material for virtual classes or fun homework!)
I even liked to use it as a fun whole class activity by displaying it on the SmartBoard in the front of our classroom. This also gave me the opportunity to show students how to use the resource when I was ready to introduce it for individual activity time. It was a low prep, easy peasy way to give my students instant access to short vowel practice.
There are 12 activities per short vowel with a total of 55 activities! I’ll list and explain them below:
My students who were still in the beginning levels of learning phonics loved this game. They drag and drop cards with a picture and word into the correct vowel sound column. This game helped them to connect the sound to a visual example, and was many of my student’s favorite activity.
This was a huge hit for my students who loved to type on the computer! They practiced typing and spelling as they typed 4 words 3x each. The repetitive spelling helped them to practice sounding out the words as they typed and be able to master each word quicker than the usual spelling worksheet I used before.
This was my favorite activity, for obvious reasons! When provided with a picture and word, students will type a complete sentence that includes the word. This was the perfect way to include imagination in this center. They would create some impressive sentences during this activity that really made me proud.
Students will drag and drop 5 words into the correct ABC order during this activity. It was great alphabetical sorting practice and also helped to connect the distinct vowel sounds from consonant sounds.
Students placed an O over short vowel words and an X over words that are not short vowels. This was definitely a class favorite as well. It was a fun activity that was lightly challenging.
Students enjoyed this activity, and it was great for small group teamwork as well! A picture and scrambled letter tiles are shown, and students will drag and drop letter tiles to unscramble the words. The short words chosen were perfect for short vowel sound recognition.
Students were able to determine which version of the word is spelled correctly in the sentence provided. They were able to drag and drop to highlight the correctly spelled word. This challenging activity is great to use in large group time as well.
The classic game where students could fill in the missing word from a sentence using a picture clue. I loved this activity and the visual representations that got my students discussing possible words during small group.
This was a step up from the word scramble as students use letter tiles to build their own words with short vowel sounds. This was another small group favorite as they used teamwork to find and build words with the given vowel.
Students use a picture clue to build a word with letter tiles and then type the word. This was great for typing practice as well. I personally like this for individual practice, but it was fun to do during large group sessions as well.
Students will read 5 sentences and type any short vowel words that they find. Perfect practice! The sentences are easy to read, and my students referred to it as a fun word search!
All of these digital activities in one place can be a lifesaver for pre-planning. Plus, having easily accessible materials like this on hand is perfect for substitute teachers! This is a resource every teacher needs for engaging, fun, interactive, AND paperless centers for short vowel phonics.
You can find this incredible bundle and more HERE!
