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Step 1: Short Vowels / Closed Syllables (CVC)

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Vowels are the only letters that can say their own name

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Definitions


Short Vowel / Closed Syllable Definitions:
Short Vowel refers to a vowel saying its short sound (not its name) as in hat, bed, sit, off, up. Short vowels are represented:  /ă/  /ĕ/  /ĭ/  /ŏ/  /ŭ
Long Vowel refers to when a vowel says its name as in she, and bike. Long vowels are represented: /ā/  /  /ī/  /ō/  /ū/
CVC is short for Closed syllable. The closed syllable has one vowel and ends in a consonant. The vowel says its short sound like in the words fan, pet, it, on, and luck. The Closed syllable is the most common syllable, and the only syllable where the vowel says its short sound.

Teaching Videos and Written Stories

Teaching Videos:

Introduction: AE, I O U a kiss! The vowels are different from all the other letters, even the y.
/ĕ/, Fred and his horse named Ed
/ă/, Apple
/ĭ/, Igloo

/ŏ/, Octopus
/ŭ/, Umbrella

Written Stories:

PowerPoints and Google Slides PowerPoints for teaching short vowel words CVC Google Slides Icon

For the formatting of PowerPoints to be correct, click FILE, then DOWNLOAD, and download in Microsoft PowerPoint.

How to make the vowel sounds PowerPoint from instructional video All 5 vowel PowerPoint slides are in the PowerPoint, so we recommend you come back multiple times to teach one new vowel sound at a time.  Use the up and down arrows to navigate through the PowerPoint.

Google Slides Short a /ă/ Family intro -at -an -ap -am -ag
Google Slides Short e /ĕ/ Family intro -ell -eg -ed -en -et
Google Slides Short i /ĭ/ Family intro -in -ill -it -ig -id -ip
Google Slides Short o /ŏ/ Family intro -og -od -ot -op -ob -oss
Google Slides Short u /ŭ/ Family intro -um -up -ut -ub -un -ug

Good readers do not read letter by letter, they read in chunks.  Start this habit early by reading closed syllable words from the vowel to the end of the word, then add the first sound(s).  By clicking through this PowerPoint the student should be saying “ot” “pot” “ot” “hot”.  To make this even more effective, do it to a beat (you can use a free online metronome) so the student gives a response every other beat.  There is a lot of research going on about how beat and rhythm helps learning in lots of ways.
PowerPoint CVC Beginning word families reading in chunks 1
PowerPoint CVC Beginning word families reading in chunks 2

PowerPoint Flash Beginning Word Families
In this PowerPoint the 4h words are flashed. This helps students learn to take a quick look and make an image of the word in their heads. See Flashing Words for more information on this strategy.  Download the PowerPoint and use the up and down arrows to  arrows to go through it.

PowerPoint All Syllable Types with Practice  (Directions in notes section on each slide) Use only slides that are relevant to where you are in the steps.

Teach Along the Way with Short Vowels Teach along the way with short vowels

TEACH ALONG THE WAY ●●●

Big Sounds Pack: Print and and add the relevant sounds, (the 21 consonants, 5 vowels, -ck, and -all) to practice daily. Add more sounds each step of the way.

Work on mastering the first sets of beginning sight words.

qu, the /kw/ sound, counts as one consonant: q is always followed by u and together they count as one consonant. Together they say /kw/. I tell students “The queen broke her leg (hence the backwards bend in the lowercase q in most fonts) and so the u wheels her around in a wheelbarrow. This is all the u can do – it does not say anything. Saying “Quiet queen, work on your quilt!” emphasizes the /kw/ sound.

– ck: The /k/ sound after a short vowel is spelled ck. The /k/ sound after any other sound is almost always spelled with a k.

ffsszzll: The “fizzle” rule. These letters are usually doubled after a short vowel in a one syllable word. This comes up in words like bell and fizz.

all: The word all and the ending -all is pronounced as if it were spelled with an /ŏ/, making it a cheater chunk.

** If questions about Magic e (vce) words present themselves, we have Beginning Magic e Pyramids, stories, and games Packs to use.

Tips Tips

TIP: To be consistent with pronunciation say key word before vowel sound (apple /ă/, elephant (or Ed) /ĕ/, igloo (or icky) /ĭ/, octopus /ŏ/, umbrella /ŭ/).  Without training, most adults say vowel sounds incorrectly when trying to pronounce a vowel by itself (without being in a word).

Being automatic with the basic skills is key to reading. Learners need to read and write with automaticity. Consider the following strategies when working towards automaticity:
See Working on New Words or Sounds with Flashcards
See Flashing Words
See Highlighting Word Lists
See Timing Students

Map Sounds to Letters

Map the sounds in the word to the letter(s) representing the sounds, even if it is not a letter combination that has been taught yet. Only an unusual sound/letter combination needs to be remembered “by heart.” Mapping the sounds to the letters is how we remember what words look like. See example below:

Map Sounds To Letters examples

Be sure to reinforce what you know and are learning about words, for example:
Schwa Sound: Any vowel might say /ŭ/. Point out that this happens in many common words like: the, of, was, some, from…

Key and Directions for Materials Key


KEY:
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1K-1 Beginning
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-21-2 Growing
Pink Plus: intervention, challengeIntervention/Challenge

Bundle: Multiple types of materials (games, activities, stories…) bundled together.
Pack: Multiple pieces of the same type of material, for example a pack of books.

Directions for everything else:

More on the Directions Page

Sample Bundle


Practice Reading Practice Practice Reading


Beginning Reader Short Vowel Word Family BUNDLES and PACKS! Bundle

a word familyMini Word Lists and StoriesKgn Word List SampleKgn Words Phrases SamplePyramid SampleWord List Dice GameBoard Game Short Vowel Book


Beginning Reader Short Vowel Bundles

Short Vowel Bundles
About CVC Bundles
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC /ă/ Bundle: words, phrases, pyramids, games -at -an -ap -am -ag /ă/ BUNDLE
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC /ĕ/ Bundle: words, phrases, pyramids, games -ell -eg -ed -en -et /ĕ/ BUNDLE
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC /ĭ/ Bundle: words, phrases, pyramids, games -in -ill -it -ig -id -ip /ĭ/ BUNDLE
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC /ŏ/ Bundle: words, sentences, games -og -od -ot -op -ob -oss /ŏ/ BUNDLE
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC /ŭ/ Bundle: words, sentences, games -um -up -ut -ub -un -ug /ŭ/ BUNDLE

Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC Mixed Bundle: words, sentences, games Mixed BUNDLE

Beginning Reader Short Vowel Packs

Short Vowel Word Family Lists Packs
(also in Bundles above)
INDEX for Short Vowel Word Family List Packs: Read, Draw, Write
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ă/ Lists /ă/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ĕ/ Lists /ĕ/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack/ĭ/ Lists /ĭ/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVCPack /ŏ/ Lists /ŏ/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ŭ/ Lists /ŭ/ Word Families

Look Alike Words Pack
CVC Pack mixed vowel Look Alike Words

Short Vowel Pyramids Pack
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1*CVC Pack CVC Mixed vowel PYRAMIDS Pack includes sight words: the, to

Short Vowel Word Family Game Packs
INDEX for CVC Short Vowel Word Family Game Packs

Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack / Games /ă/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ĕ/ Games /ĕ/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ĭ/ Games /ĭ/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ŏ/ Games /ŏ/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ŭ/ Games /ŭ/ Word Families


Short Vowel Story Packs:
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC Mixed Small Book Pack CVC 4 PAGE MIXED VOWEL BOOK Pack: 20 Four Page mixed short vowel books, all horizontal format. Sight words needed include: the, she, he, me, we, I, go, hi, my, and in the last books fly, say, to, too. (also below)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC Pack Full Page Stories with Lists ALL

Word and Phrase Lists Lists icon

Have students highlight each vowel, say the vowel sound, then read the words.  (dig: learner says /ĭ/ /dig/) This helps students train their brains to automatically notice the vowels. An option is to have students highlight the end word chunk – the vowel to the end of the word and read word end chunk, then whole word. (dig learner says /ĭg/ /dig/) See Highlighting Word Lists.

Short Vowel Word Family Lists Packs
(also in Bundles above)
INDEX for Short Vowel Word Family List Packs: Read, Draw, Write
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ă/ Lists /ă/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ĕ/ Lists /ĕ/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack/ĭ/ Lists /ĭ/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVCPack /ŏ/ Lists /ŏ/ Word Families
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack /ŭ/ Lists /ŭ/ Word Families

Word Lists:
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Beginning ffsszzll words list SEEING DOUBLE 1
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC word lists by vowel a, e, i, o, u
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC mixed word lists with reference pics
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeCVCC ffsszzll(a few 4h and blends) word lists SEEING DOUBLE 2
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeCVC mixed vowel(4h and blends) drill words with reference picts
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeVC automaticity with short vowel endings *Being automatic with common chunks in words is key to fluent reading. Practice reading these word endings.  Use a timer to see how fast the student can read them.  Have the student think of words that end with each of these endings.  Have students spell words with these endings, both real and nonsense.

Phrases and Sentences:
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC a phrases ANN AT BAT
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC ag word family A RAG IN THE BAG (a few 4h and blends) words and sentences
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC e phrases HEN HAD AN EGG (with timing option)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC i phrases A PIG CAN DIG
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC o phrases A BOX FROM MOM (with timing option)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC u phrases BUG IN A JUG (with timing option)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC mixed vowel Words and Phrases group 1 and 2 (with timing option)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC Nonsense Syllables It is important readers can read nonsense syllables as well as real one syllable words with automaticity.
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeCVC Nonsense Syllables 2 last column includes blends and 4h

Multiple Syllable Word Lists:
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeOpen and Closed Syllable CVC/CVC y dividing multiple syllable words Crazy Nonsense Words
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challenge *Nonsense cvc into multiple syllable words CVC syllables for blending and spelling
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeCVC/CVC 2 closed syllable word lists by first syllable vowelNote: Some vowels in multiple syllable words will say the schwa sound (the short u sound like the o makes in mother).

Flashcards Flashcard icon

Blue Heart, Green Star, Pink Plus: K-2 and interventionShort vowel sounds picture cards
Blue Heart, Green Star, Pink Plus: K-2 and intervention*Short vowel sounds picture cards activities
Blue Heart, Green Star, Pink Plus: K-2 and interventionCVC Short vowel words Covering the word, uncovering it for just one or two seconds then covering it up again is a great strategy to encourage students to begin to make the images of the words in their heads.  If learner does not know the word after it is “flashed” ask: “What letters did you see?   Do you want me to show you again?  (If yes, flash word again. Flash as many times as necessary, pausing to ask what the learner remembers about the letters/word between flashes.)  “What sounds do those letters make?”  Good readers have models of common words and word patterns in their heads so they can read them automatically.  This strategy encourages students to start making these images in their minds. See Flashing Words.
Blue Heart, Green Star, Pink Plus: K-2 and intervention*Short Vowel Word Families Flashcards have a word family chunk on one side (-at) and wordlist with that family on the back side (hat, chat). Wordlist includes cvc and ccvcc words. Includes a directions page.

Fluency Pyramids Fluency Pyramid

Pyramids are great for automaticity with words, feeling successful and fluency.

Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1*CVC Pack CVC Mixed vowel PYRAMIDS Pack includes sight words: the, to

Games Games Icon

Game Directions

Board game for short vowel sounds
e i Sounds Game
Board game for short vowel endings.
Word Endings Game
Board game for short vowel words
CVC a Words Game

Spelling Lists icon

Practice with words from the lists, games etc., or use the lists below.
* Having learners spell with word chains where the coach says “change one sound in (chop) to spell (chip), now change one sound in (chip) to spell (sip)” is a powerful way to draw student’s attention to individual sounds in the words!

Word Chains: A Powerful Strategy

*Click here for directions and a sample CVC Word Chain Spelling List as seen here ➔

Small Books Small Books icon

Small Book: 8 page assembly directions, 4 page folding directions, OR use horizontal format for reading on the screen in distance learning.

Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1CVC Pack CVC 4 PAGE BOOK Pack: 20 Four Page Books, all horizontal format. Sight words needed include: the, she, he, me, we, I, go, hi, my, and in the last books fly, say, to, too. (also above)
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC 4 page BUG IN A JUG horizontal format
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC 8 page ZIP MAN horizontal and foldable formats with flashcards
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC 8 page SAM horizontal and foldable formats with flashcards
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC 8 page PAT THE PIG horizontal and foldable formats with flashcards
Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2CVC 8 page a, o DAN’S VAN horizontal format
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC 8 page THE RAT AND THE CAT horizontal and foldable formats
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC 8 page TED horizontal and foldable formats
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2CVC 4 page PUP IN THE MUD horizontal and foldable formats
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeCVC 8 page THE LOST PET horizontal and foldable formats (some sight words)
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeCVC 8 page ALL LOST with flashcards foldable format (some sight words)
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeCVC 8 page CAN A BAT PLAY foldable format (some sight words)

Full Page Story with List Practice Videos

Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2Word Families practice videos
Practice word families with Chris Jaglo! These are mostly 3 letter words with some blends thrown in. Click on the 3 dots and choose full screen. The sheet she is using is linked in the caption for each video. I recommend learners highlight the word families on the sheet if possible.

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