Consonants and Vowels

Minilesson #2: Long & Short Vowels

Author: Dr. Diane NettlesPowerPoint Designed by: Dr. Christine Peterson

Minilesson #2: Vowels

• There are five letters in the English alphabet that are always considered vowel letters, and they represent vowel sounds, or vowel phonemes. These letters are: “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” and “u.” Complete the next few exercises to refresh your memory of the sounds these letters represent.

Minilesson #2: List #1Look at the words below. Each of the words, or a

derivative of the word, is in the reprint edition of the classic, The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter (1987). Say them out loud to yourself. All the words in each group have a phoneme in common. Discover this phoneme. Try to focus on the sound of the word.

tail gate ate frame rake

safe tablespoonful taken

straightaway

What vowel sound is common in the words above? Click here to find out.

Minilesson #2: List #2What vowel sound is common in

the list below?

Peter tree fields squeezed beans

meet knees thief each tea three

least speaking peas leaving

sneezed wheelbarrow underneath

Click here to find out.

Minilesson #2: List #3What vowel sound is common in the following list?

•pie•five•might•excitement•hide•tried

•fright•time•alive•night

Click here to check your guess.

Minilesson #2: List #4What is the common vowel sound?•go •potatoes•overheard•stone•close•hoeing

•scarecrow•rabbit-hole•dose•clothes


Minilesson #2: List #5What vowel sound is common in

the list below?• cucumber• beautiful• cute


Self-quiz for Minilesson #2In each of the following, which word does not belong? Click on the links to check your answer.

1.acornableateapple

2.sightsinhideline

3.ukuleleunicornunderuse

4.peachpetreadsneeze

In each of the following, which word does not belong? Click on the link to check your answer.

Self-quiz for Minilesson #2

In each of the following, which wordcontains a long vowel sound?

pain have car sat

fought hog mode love

eat when sieve egg

hit height igloo itch


Review for Minilesson #2• In this lesson, you saw examples of

“long” vowel phoneme in several words. Each of the vowels, “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” “u,” can represent a phoneme that sounds just like the name of the vowel. A word that contains a long vowel phoneme can be spelled in several ways. For example, the words “ate” and “eight” both contain a long “a” vowel phoneme.

• You can remember these phonemes by associating a word or name with each of them. One helpful way for children to remember them is to remember storybook characters whose names contain this vowel phoneme; this may be a helpful way for you remember them, too.

Minilesson #3: List 1To find out more about vowel sounds, look at the words

below. Each of them is from the book, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton (1939). Say them out loud to yourself to discover the phoneme that these words have in common.

that landing faster had gasoline sad gravel added

rather bang crash slam apple janitor caterpillars


Minilesson #3: List #2

What vowel sound is common in the words below?

red never cellars bettersseven electric left everythem together well

telegraphlessons telephone settled




dig hills filled it cities

pits big if in little this

milkman thick listen didn’t

winter Kipperville




stop jobs Popperville gotdoctor top Bopperville Kopperville not hot

forgottenrocking




Mulligan such dug cut trucks junk rust hundredsun up sundown much


Review for Minilesson #3

The short vowel phoneme is very common in children’s beginning reading materials, because short, three letter words, which are easy to recognize and remember, often contain this phoneme. For example, the letter “a” in the word “cat” represents the short vowel sound of “a.” Because of this, many teachers teach the short vowel phoneme early in the primary grades, usually in the first grade.

Self-quiz for Minilesson #3In each of the following which word does not belong?

1.hasbaconflatcask

2. city sicksinsign


In each of the following which word does not belong? Click on the link to check your answer.

3. Ukraineutmostbuthug

4. pestpenredmeter


pain acorn car sat

fine hog goat lake

eat cheese eel egg

height night igloo sky

In each of the following, which wordcontains a short vowel sound?

Review for Minilesson #3• In this lesson, you saw examples of

“short” vowel phoneme in several words. Each of the vowels, “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” “u,” can represent a phoneme that has a different sound from the long vowel sound. These phonemes can be spelled in several ways. For example, the words “plaid” and “pad” each contain the short “a” vowel phoneme.

• Again, you can remember these phonemes by associating a word or name with each of them.


A letter that is most often associated with consonants can also be considered a vowel. Take a look at the exercises in Mini-lesson #4 to see how this happens. Read the words in List #1, which are taken from Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester (1988). Pay close attention to the last syllable in each word.

Tacky Goodly Neatly Lovely

icy quietly politely heartysplashy pretty only

growlyespecially gracefully loudlydreadfully tightly


Look at the words below. What vowel phoneme is represented by the “y”?

shy my why sky


Self-quiz for Minilesson #4Which of the following words does not belong? Why? Click on the link to check your guess.

1.myyellowslyskylight

2. happystinkybeyondfunny


yonder why yippee yes

yelp canyon only yikes

Which word contains the “y” serving as a vowel? Click on the link to check your guess.

Review for Minilesson #4

The letter “y” can serve as a vowel. When it is in the final position in the word, it represents either the /e/ phoneme (like in “baby”) or the /i/ phoneme (like in “my”). When it serves as a vowel in the middle of a word, it represents one of the sounds of “i” (as in “gym” or “rhyme”).

The minilessons were prepared using the following reference:

Nettles, D. (2005). Literacy instruction in today’s classrooms: Balancing the whole, the parts, and the heart. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Consonants and Vowels

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