Long Vowel Games for First Grade and Kindergarten

Long vowel games for first grade and kindergarten that make reading SO much fun!

Having engaging activities kids can play in order to learn and solidify their phonics skills make reading so much fun... but also teaching reading so much more fun!

If you are looking for ideas for long vowels with silent E, this post is for you. :) I have A LOT of pictures to share so be sure to scroll through!

For these activities, kids take the 2 dice and a game board to play. They can play independently or with a partner. There are 5 versions of the game board for each long vowel (a, i, o, and u).

They take the 2 dice and roll them to make a CVCe word!

When they read the dice to figure out the word they rolled, they get to COVER that picture once on their board.

Then, it's their partner's turn to roll! Their partner rolls and covers the word they roll on their own, different board.

Whoever covers all their pictures first wins! OR whoever makes 1 full line first wins - however you want to do it! Easy differentiation built right in! If they are playing by themselves then they win when they cover their entire board. :) 

If you're playing this with your child at home, I recommend getting a board for yourself and playing. It's just like if you were playing a board game with them and most kids love a little competition and will love it if you play it with them :) 

You can use any small object to cover the picture. I personally love math cubes because they're a great size and heavy enough to stay on the page.

Another option is to have them COLOR the picture they roll!

(If you spell it "colour" then, no worries, I also included a version with "UK Spelling" for you if you want these for your class)

I made all of the boards come in both a COLOR and in a COVER version so you have a lot of options!

Each vowel a, i, o, u has 5 boards with 20 pictures AND 5 boards with 12 pictures so you can also make this game much easier for beginning readers.

See how the activity looks so similar but is a much easier level? This makes it so easy to differentiate in the classroom where your students won't even notice that they have an easier level. 

If you're using these at home with your child, I'd start with these easy 12 word ones as you're learning each vowel. THEN, when you go through each long vowel again for review later, as they've built more skills and learned all of the CVCe families, pull out the 20 words boards for a challenge!

If any of your students are ready for the challenge boards, though, go for it!

I made them for vowels a, i, o, and u. I didn't make e because I don't know anyone that really teaches that sound explicitly. There aren't many words with the long E silent E sound that kids know and even fewer that have illustrative pictures so I typically skip it in my packs since it's not really taught. Or at least in my opinion. :)

So I showed you Long I! Let's look at the other vowels!

One thing I love most about these is that they focus on WORD FAMILIES so, as they play and keep rolling, they really start to memorize those chunks...

Which is AMAZING! You may remember I talked about this in my Short Vowels Word Family Rolls version of this post where I showed the short vowels version of these. Teaching sounds in word families really helps kids master the sounds faster, in my opinion, and makes it so much more automatic. I recommend trying it, especially if you have any struggling readers in your class or if you're teaching littles in general. :) 

See how, in the picture above this text, the dice say "wave"? You can also see another beginning sound letter is C. So they can also spell cave. You can also see "came" and that the dice could also roll "wame" which is obviously not a word. This is a GREAT thing and awesome practice for an entirely different and important reading skill - determining if a word is a real word or not.

Even though "wame" is not a word (or at least not one that is used where I am), they still have to blend it to read it. That's still blending practice and practicing sorting whether a word is a real word or not. 

If you want to extend the practice of this particular skill, you could have them fold a piece of copy paper in half then unfold it. This will create a line down the center of the paper. Have them write "Real" on the left side and "Not Real" on the right side of the paper. As they roll, have them sort and write the words. I recommend not having a writing component to this activity to keep it fun and light, but you do have that option if that's a skill you're working on specifically!

I love having these for Long O and U because those sounds, for some reason, don't seem to register as being as much fun as Long A and Long I seem to.

So it's nice to have these to be able to pull out and make O and U fun! I mean, how adorable is that mule? :) 

Okay, so now that you've practice the 4 sets of word families for each vowel... it's time for a challenge! Review what you've learned by adding ANOTHER piece. 

This set has 3 dice! AND practices the 4 long vowels at once!

Instead of focusing on word families with 2 dice, this set reviews ALL of the 4 long vowels you've practiced and learned.

See how you can see hive & gate in the picture above this text? This provides so much fun review.

This set has been a best seller in my TpT for years. It's a lot of fun and makes a lot of words! It does make a lot of non-words, too, so I do recommend doing the word family ones first. You can jump straight to this one, though, if you've already taught the long vowels. A lot of people have! :) 

It also comes in color and cover versions. This one has 4 easier level (12 pictures) and 3 harder level (20 pictures) game boards for easy differentiation!

Just like the word family rolls I've shown you, it also comes with teacher directions AND student friendly directions so you can make this independent during centers and to simply have a visual!

This is a great activity to do to consolidate their learning! It really helps you see if they mix up e/i (common) and little things like that. :) 

I love long vowels because they can read SO many words once they know both short and long sounds!

If you want ALL of the fun activities I showed in this post plus more, I JUST created this big bundle of them!

Long Vowels Word Rolls BIG BUNDLE

They are ALL also included in the even bigger Phonics Word Rolls MEGA BUNDLE as well as the Long Vowels ULTIMATE BUNDLE if you're looking for a ton of activities!

I also have each vowel available separately if you want to try out just Long A, for example, and see how your child/students like it, you can do that :) 

Long A Words Roll

&

Long I Words Roll

&

Long O Words Roll

& of course:

Long U Words Roll

as well as the review CVCe center:

CVCe Word Roll

Thank you so much for making it all the way to the end of this post! I hope you found some fun ideas!

I have A TON of long vowels activities. I show a lot of the pages from my Long I no prep worksheets pack and how you can turn phonics worksheets (for any sound) into reusable centers in this post if you feel like looking around some more! :) 

Phonics Sounds Binders

I also have a lot of other phonics posts where I try to share a lot of teaching ideas. For example:

Fun Teaching Digraphs Activities and Ideas

You can also see an organized list of my posts by category here:

Miss Giraffe: Organized List of Posts

I hope you find some ideas you love! You can also find all my social media on the right side of this page if you want to follow along for more! :) Thanks so much!

Fun CVC Word Families Games

Fun CVC Word Families Games make learning to read CVC words so much more fun!

Especially when they include rolling dice :)

I am excited to show you the phonics games I love for teaching kids how to read simple short vowel words and work on blending words in SUCH a fun way!

I made these because people really loved my CVC Words Roll game and told me how much their kids loved it.

I originally designed that first set thinking it would be a REVIEW of CVC Words for first graders after learning all of the short vowels.

Then, I started noticing that SO MANY kindergarten teachers were telling me that their kids loved it...

BUT - the kindergarten teachers were mostly saying how it was a perfect review for midway through the year and at the end of the year.

Since so many K teachers seemed to be using it, I tried to think of how I could make it a bit easier so their kids could play the games sooner in the year. I had only intended it to be a first grade activity, but so many K teachers were using it...

So I created Short Vowel Word Family Rolls!

Each set comes with a student friendly directions sheet so you can lay it out and they know what to do.

I was SO excited about these because, not only were they perfect for kindergarten (I've even had preschool teachers use them!), but they're also SO nice for first grade students who need that extra word family support.

For example, the picture above practices only TWO short U word families at a time: the -ug word family and the -ut word family. Some of the pictures on this sheet even repeat so that they get extra reading practice with those words. They only get to color/cover it once per roll so the fact that they can roll the same word twice gives them extra fluency practice and confidence, which I love.

Kids learn the word families SO quick because they really want to cover their picture (or color their picture, depending on which kind you're using) and because it's a game!

Also, they are only rolling TWO dice, instead of 3 like in the CVC Words Review Roll, so that helps it be a lot easier for blending.

Just like with the CVC Words Review Roll, each set of game boards and dice comes with a "Color" version and a "Cover" version. For the "Color" version, they get to color in the picture on their sheet:

One thing I was also really excited about is that some of the game boards have 12 pictures and some have 20.

For the game sets that practice ONLY TWO word families at a time, the game boards have 12 pictures.

Each short vowel's pack has a REVIEW set for that short vowels' word families. Those come with the standard 5 game boards with 12 pictures…. Then I also included 5 game boards with TWENTY pictures each for those ones for an even bigger, more fun challenge!

For example, this is the ALL word families set for Short U families in the “Cover” version:

There are 5 versions of the game boards in each set where they cover 12 pictures.

Then there is also a “Color” version of all 5 of the game boards if they would rather color the pictures than cover them:

But if you really want to challenge your little learners, give them the same activity using the same dice but with the 20 picture board:

There are 5 of those as well as 5 in the coloring version as well:

I think it’s so nice to have a lot of options so you can meet the child you’re working with at their level - that’s what makes it not only fun but efficient for learning!

Plus, you can also start easy and work your way up to the harder levels for a ton of practice!

For the color version, they color the picture they rolled. For the cover version, they cover it with an object. Pretty much any small object works!

Each center has multiple sets and each set includes 5 different game boards. This makes it so easy to play as a small group game or partner game. It also makes it super easy to play multiple times with different games boards by simply switching who has which one.

If you're playing with just one student, then woahh, you have A TON of games and game boards to play so many times. :)

You can also play these over and over anyway because the fact that they roll words makes every game different so they are truly an endless center. My favorite kind!

This is only some of them I laid out as an example:

Also, I don’t have a picture of it currently because I didn’t print them out but I also included UK spelling versions of all the sets for those of you who need “Roll and Colour” versions :)

There are A BUNCH of games so I tried to make them super easy to prep by writing what color to print the dice ON the paper, as you can see in this picture:

As you can also see, I have a furry teaching assistant who likes to help me cut out centers :) You may have seen him on this blog or on my IG before - he's quite the character and we had fun making them together. Do you have a little pup or kitty friend who supervises your center prep? Tell me below! :)


I hope this was helpful for looking at how to use my word roll games for word families! They are a lot of fun and make reading a game so I love them.

If you want them, they are here:
Short A CVC Words Roll
Short E CVC Words Roll
Short I CVC Words Roll
Short O CVC Words Roll
Short U CVC Words Roll

I also have a big bundle of them if you know you want them all!
CVC Words Roll BUNDLE

They're also included in the Phonics Word Rolls MEGA Bundle if you want even more of them. That bundle is huge and also includes long vowel word families and more! That's for the suuuuper fan of these :)





If you liked this post, you may also like:
Bottle Cap CVC Word Building Centers
CVC Word Rolls (to see the original one!)
Sight Word Sentences Fun Ideas and Centers

Thank you so much for reading!! :)

If you haven't already and enjoy reading my ideas, you can join Miss Giraffe's Class by filling out this quick form to get on my email list. I'd love to have you! :) 

Sight Words Sentences Cards Fun Ideas and Centers

Sight Words Sentences Cards Fun Ideas and Centers for First Grade, Kindergarten, or really any age that you want to teach sight words to! I could see these being fun centers in preschool all the way through 2nd grade... kids love building words at all ages :) I'm so excited to show you these sight word sentences cards and fun ideas for how to use them!!

I am in love with these sight words sentences center cards I made because, well, they took me a long time to make! ha :) That's not the only reason but I did take a ton of time to pair an engaging picture to illustrate each sight word in a simple sentence. They are great visuals for kids who learn through pictures but also have the building aspect for kids who learn by doing. Plus, even though it took me a long time, I just really enjoyed making them! I love great visuals so it was fun for me and I'm excited to show them to you!

So normally I use these sight words cards using bottle caps but today I want to show you some fun ways I use them using alphabet magnet letters!

If you want to see how I use water bottle caps to practice word building, check out my Bottle Cap CVC Word Building Centers post. Typical water bottle caps fit perfectly in the circles so they're a super easy way to recycle and learn at the same time! I made them for all the different phonics sounds past CVC words too so you can use them as a center all year.

What I want to show you is how I also love to use my alphabet magnet letters with these!

I recommend going to a craft store and getting a multiple compartment box like this to store your letters in! It makes word building so much quicker AND is great practice for kids when they find the letters or put them back to practice ABC order, letter recognition, etc. I bought a few of them so I could have multiple boxes of letters to grab and use.

Do you see how my sentences are very simple? This is something that was so important to me when making these cards. It drives me c.r.a.z.y. when sight words are used in hard sentences. Learning sight words is hard enough! If a kid is learning "my," they're not going to be able to read "My family lives in a house." Am I right?? ha! So I tried very hard to keep the sentences really easy to read, especially for the early sight words like "my" and "see" as seen below:

Have your kids use the magnet letters to put a letter in each circle to build the sight word. Then, I recommend having them spell it out loud while pointing ("m, y, my") then reading the sentence for it. They are just so much fun to build the words that kids don't realize how much practice they're getting. Plus, it's a huge sense of accomplishment, especially for struggling readers, to not only read the sight word.. but read a sentence that it's in. The pictures and the fact that the sentences are so simple really help with letting them be able to do that.

I also like to laminate and put the new sight words for each week on a binder ring. This makes it super easy to have all the new words that week available right away.

You can take the ring of words to the front of the carpet to use to introduce the new words by showing them the word, the picture, and reading the sentence.

Students can simply grab it and practice the words for that week. They could also use a dry erase marker to write the letters in each circle to spell each sight word. Then when they're done, go through and read each word and sentence and then wipe it when they're done for the next person.

You could also keep them at your small groups table to quickly go over them each day when you call a group back. You can hold it in front of you upside down and have the kids watch as you flip to each new word, read it together, then read the sentence together.

One thing I also love is to have all the new sight words for that week pulled out to start each group. When they come to your small group table, there will be a word at their spot. They will read the word and its sentence then you can have them either build the word with magnet letters OR write it using a dry erase marker. Then, they pass it to the right (the person on the end passes it to you and you pass it to the first person for seamless passing and no reaches across the table) and do the same thing for the next word. Simple but efficient and fun sight words practice!

It's actually a really awesome way for every single kid in your class to practice every single one of your new sight words for the week. You can do it at the beginning of your small groups to warm them up a few times during the week. Maybe the first time they build it with magnet letters since that takes the longest and will give you/them time to truly practice spelling the word, reading and recognizing it, etc. Then the next time they write it with a dry erase marker. Then the next time they can simply read it and read the sentences then pass to the next person. However you want to do it!

Speaking of writing on them with a dry erase marker, this is what I mean!

So this isn't the prettiest example because I didn't laminate these and instead put them inside a sheet protector but hey, it works! I know I try to show you fun teacher tricks a lot but this is what I call a lazy teacher trick... and I am not ashamed :)

Have kids use a dry erase marker to write the words' letters inside each circle. Having it broken down by letter really helps them solidify the spelling - that's why I encourage using these cards for your week's sight words in multiple ways during the week so they really get a lot of practice spelling the word. Make sure they read the word and the sentence each time too so they're truly internalizing it.

You can also use them to introduce your new sight words each week!

On Monday, put the sentence cards for the new sight words for that week in your pocket chart.

You could also put them on your easel or whatever you use to teach.

Call the kids to the carpet and introduce them to each new word. Show them the card - point to the word and read it. Then read the sentence for them and let them take a second to look at the picture (hold it in front of them like you would when showing them the pictures from a book you're reading to them). Then say, "Spell it with me!" and point to each circle as they say each letter in the word. Make sure they can see the card and you pointing as you do it. The words on the card are pretty bold so all of your kids should be able to see it if you hold it up. You could also project it if you have a camera that does that.

This is my favorite way to introduce new sight words because it has an illustrated sentence to go with each word. I personally learn a lot better when I have a picture to go along with something new I've learned so I think it helps a lot of kids too!

You can also spell the words with your students to practice the sight words.

Please note!! Super important! These letter cards DO NOT come with the Sight Words Sentence Cards. You can use your own letter cards or get mine in any of my Phonics Pocket Chart Centers sets. This is the Phonics Pocket Chart Centers Bundle but you can find all the individual sets within its description to buy a smaller set if you only want the letter cards. They come with each set. Although I really recommend those if you need more phonics activities - they're a lot of fun if you need pocket chart centers!

Anyway, I love to spell out the new sight words. You could also make it a center for them to grab the sight words from that week and spell them in the pocket chart like this.

They also just make a super fun center in general. Give kids the sight words you want them to practice and some magnet letters...

and let them build the words like this!

They make a great independent center like that.

I made A TON of sight word sentence cards so, no matter what list you use, I probably have your words :) Currently there are 224 words included!

I'm not sure how many sight words you personally introduce each week but I prefer 5-7 new words a week. That's a lot of new words each week so that's why I love having activities like these or my Secret Sight Words Centers to practice the words.

Like I said, give kids the new words for the week and let them go to town writing them, building them, reading them with their partner, etc.!

I wanted to say you can also use these for teaching certain concepts... not just sight words!

For example, in the beginning of the year, teaching color words is important!

Kids can take the cards for each color, build them, write them, etc. and get a lot of practice with spelling that color word. Since there is a picture to guide them, they'll figure out pretty easily what color word they're building.

You may also notice in this picture that there is a number word too! Number words are also really important for when you're first teaching about numbers (check out this post if you are: Building Number Sense in First Grade - no matter what grade you teach, if you teach numbers, I shared a lot of tips!)

I also love using these cards for teaching number words! I made a sentence card for numbers zero to ten. Kids can easily look at the picture if they have trouble figuring out which number it is then build/write the number word.

So for this number word (four), it is also a homophone! I LOVE using these to teach hard concepts like homophones because pictures are e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.!

When you're teaching homophones, show them the card for "four" and read the sentence and evaluate the picture together. Then, do the same for "for" and point out how the 2 words sound the same but are spelled different and have different meanings.

I also recommend this for to, too, two:

Those are definitely tricky ones!! If you teach homophones, these worksheets have also been one of the most helpful things for teaching homophones. I am all about words in context.. in simple sentences kids can actually read.. can you tell? :)

Question words are also a tough skill! When teaching question words, pull them out of your stack and use them to introduce them to your class. Point out how each sentence ends with a question mark.

You can also point out to them how each question word is at the beginning of the sentence, remind them about capitalization, etc. to make a little lesson out of it.

Then let them build them! :) This is also a great small groups lesson.

There are so many cards to choose from so you can really use them any way you choose. I just wanted to show you this one because that little mouse peeking at the cheese makes me giggle. It's the little things, right?? I think part of the reason why I love kids so much is because I am just a big one myself sometimes :)

What I love most is you start the year with some pretty easy words - like, my, see, to... then move on to some pretty tough ones that kids really start to depend on the picture and sentence to figure it out. As the sight words get harder, having quality pictures and easy to read sentences becomes a lot more important.

For example, "full" and "air" are not really easy to sound out for a lot of kids.

"Air" is a tough word. If they don't know the AI sound yet (or AIR sound), that's not one they're likely to sound out.. but having a sentence that shows a little boy jumping into the air that says, "I jump in the ___!" will help a kid use the picture and context to figure it out independently. Those are the magical moments!

Same with "drink" - that can be a tough word but the picture is of a little girl drinking milk so they will probably be able to figure out the word pretty easily.

This makes them able to be used independently. Kids can figure out the words themselves then be proud of themselves. What's more amazing than that?? Especially when your students who are struggling readers can look at a tough sight word and rather quickly know what it is. Love, love, love when that happens!

So anyway!! I am rambling yet again!

I hope you found some fun ways to learn sight words from this post!

If you want ALL 224 of my Sight Words Sentence Cards, grab them here:
Sight Words Bottle Cap Centers BUNDLE

I will put them *ON SALE* for a super limited time for those of you who read my blog regularly to grab them up!! :) 

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Miss Giraffe Blog Posts List
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Thank you so, so much for reading!!!!! Please feel free to leave a comment or ask questions - I love hearing from you guys! 

Short A Activities and Resources (including freebies!)

Short A is usually the first phonics sound you teach in kindergarten and first grade so I figured it'd be a great sound to show you teaching ideas and resources for!

I constantly get asked, "What do you have for [insert phonics sound here]??" in emails and questions on my TpT store so I thought it'd be fun to SHOW you! :)

Not to worry if you're already done with short a - all of these ideas and activities you could do with other phonics sounds and most of the resources I share I also have for the other phonics sounds as well!

This is a long post but it's filled with pictures and I promise if you read through it, you'll find great ideas and some awesome FREE stuff along the way too!

So the first thing I want to talk about are these pocket chart cards. I LOVE them because they can be used for so many different things! There are 39 different cards for short a alone so it's lots of practice!

My favorite thing is to use them as a pocket chart center. Put them in a pocket chart and have students build the words with the letter cards that are also included in the pack.

Students just grab a word card and build it with the letter cards. The vowels come in red like this or in black. If you want to make the center a little more challenging, you can easily just snip the words off the bottom to make them picture-only cards for students to figure out how to spell. For that activity, I'd put only the letters they need in the center so it's self-checking! :)

Can we just talk about my pocket chart for a second though?? I'm sort of obsessed with my monster pocket chart center.

I couldn't get a good picture of it - the lighting made it look faded green for the picture but it's bright neon lime in person with a glittery green mouth, big white teeth, and giant googly eyes! I promise it's actually cute in person. I wish I could get a better picture of the area! Basically... it's a big monster with a pocket chart in his mouth :)

I found this fun furry monster rug that's teal with lime and hot pink furry strands that stick out. Then I also fell in love with this little stuffed monster guy who's mouth is actually a front pocket so it's perfect for keeping the teaching pointer in but I wanted to show you that too. I wrapped a finger pointer in a green boa to make a monster arm for pointing to the pocket chart with!

Then I found these cute little monster buckets for only a dollar each that I put the pocket chart center materials in!

Anyways! Back to the pocket chart center cards I was talking about...

There are a ton of them and you can do SO MUCH with them!

You can use the sorting headers that come with the cards to make this a great sorting pocket chart center where they sort the picture cards by word family.

Or you can have them sort horizontally...

Another thing I like to do with the picture cards that kiddos love is building the words with magnet letters. Any time you tell them they can use the whiteboard (or whiteboard easel), you are immediately crowned the BEST TEACHER EVER... or at least for an hour. I know I say that about a lot of things but hey, a lot of things impress them. Use pretzel sticks instead of base ten blocks or go to recess 5 minutes early or let them use smelly markers and you're queen for the day. It's the little things. :)

Let them pick out cards and build the words with magnet letters on the whiteboard.

If you'd rather students stay at their seats during centers, you can also easily use a magnetic cookie sheet from the dollar store that are perfectly lap sized for students to put the cards on and build with magnet letters in their lap.

You can also just let students take the cards and a blank sheet of copy paper and STAMP them. Stamps are always an engaging activity! I LOVE these alphabet stamps because the letters are perfectly primary.

You can also put them around the room and have students find them and write them on a piece of paper. I call that activity "Find and Write" - super easy. Use that tack putty stuff to hang them on walls- it doesn't leave a mark and goes on/comes off easy and you can peel it off and reuse it.. I love it! So all you do is put the cards around the room, tell kids how many there are, have them grab a piece of paper and a clipboard, and have them search for them and hunt for them all. Fun, easy practice that gets them up and moving!

I also LOVE sand writing!! You can get colored sand really cheap at craft stores. Fill a pencil box with it for easy storage and have students put a card at the top and trace the word in the sand while saying the sounds in the word.

To make them a quick and easy matching center, snip the bottoms off and have them match the picture to the words as a little small group activity or literacy center.

You can also laminate them and put them on a binder ring so students can grab it any time they need for help writing or spelling or just to practice reading the words.

I like to put them on hooks so you can just grab the sound you want words for and take them to your seat or the writing center.

Speaking of the writing center, here's my little writing center! It's tiny and not too fancy but I like it. The "Writing Center" sign I just stole the letter headers from my black and white polka dots with pink trim word wall set - I have them in other styles/colors too but this is the pink & lime corner so I did pink :) - I like to take the letter headers from them to use to label stuff because I'm lazy and I like designing my own letters so they all match and aren't as huge as the ones you buy. ANYWAY!

As you can see, there are writing materials and a Short A words chart for students to use for writing inspiration and for correct spelling of the short a words. The short a word chart is in my short A no prep pack - I have one for each phonics sound in the no prep pack it comes in.

I just throw them all in an upside down binder in sheet protectors and flip to the sound that week. It's nice because kids can flip through if they want a different word that makes a different sound. Since they're black and white, you can also print one for each kid to color themselves and keep in their writing folder for reference.

I also throw my Themed Writing Charts in the binder for fun word choices by theme. They come in color & black/white too but I throw the color ones in there because I think the color helps spark the imagination :) They have fun themes like ocean words, bugs, farm animals, zoo animals, nature words, home and family words, foods, color words, etc.!

Other fun sheets in the writing center are these writing helper sheets that have the short a words on the side. They're also included in my no prep packs or I have them in a year set with all the phonics sounds. I recommend the Phonics No Prep Mega Bundle of all the phonics packs bundled instead but if you just want these writing sheets, they're in that year set I linked above. Please note that the phonics no prep mega bundle doesn't include the hands-on centers - if you want those, they're in the Short Vowels Ultimate Bundle!

As you can see, there is the one drawing box and writing lines option to write a story using the short a words on the side OR a version that has 3 different boxes each with its own set of writing lines which is good for your lower students or just for individual sentence writing practice.

There are TONS of other pages in my Short A Worksheets and Activities NO PREP pack as well - it has over 45 fun and differentiated worksheets and activities that are no prep - you can just print them and hand them to your students... which, let's be real, is such a plus. Teachers spend so much time prepping and anything you can just get and immediately use without any cutting/laminating/thinking is a dream come true. I have them for pretty much every phonics sound and the activities are consistent so once you explain them once, they can do them all year and all that changes is the phonics skill they focus on so students can spend all their cognitive energy on practicing that sound rather than how to do the activity.

As I say in this blog over and over, differentiating for all students - both low students AND high students - is really important to me so I try to include the same activities in different levels as much as possible.

For example, for these "Write the Word" worksheets, you could give your on level kids the sheet on the left and your higher kids the sheet on the right. You could also start with the easier and move on to the harder one if/when your students are ready.

Another example are these worksheets where your low kids do the sheet where they just have to trace the word and write it, your on level kids figure out the beginning sound then write the word, and your high kids have to figure out the beginning and ending sound to figure out the word.

 

There are a lot of great worksheets to challenge your higher kids that are fun for everyone too!

A few of my favorites....

Students put a paperclip on the spinner, put their pencil in the middle, and flick it to land on the word family to add to the next letter. They write it and if it makes a real word, they circle it!

Students start at the shaded box and read the short A words to go through the maze to figure out the sentence that matches the picture. It is SO FUN and one of my absolute favorites.

Crossword puzzles are also one of my favorites! You may be thinking it's too difficult but students are motivated to figure it out so they do! They just look at the picture and find the word that it is and write it in the boxes!

My Secret Word activity is also a popular one. You can get a few free ones for short a here. They're a little different than the one in the no prep pack (I used a different font for the letters they use).

Students look at the pictures and build each word. Then, for the 4th picture, they unscramble the letters they have leftover to figure out the secret word! Then, they build it and draw/color it.


To differentiate for your struggling students, I recommend a lot of word family practice and pictures to aid their understanding.

These are the steps I recommend following for your struggling students (or to scaffold for the class in general):

Start with JUST pictures first to help them hear the sounds in the words like -at in CAT.

Examples of this would be coloring by word family:

Or sorting pictures by word family:

Then add the task of matching pictures to words:

Each one of these focuses on only 2 word families at a time so it's not too overwhelming. Then there's one that practices all families together as a review.

NEXT, practice simply finding those words in sentences.

For circle and sort, they find the words in the sentences that belong in certain short a word families. These are great because even your non-readers are finding the words in context and sorting them. I recommend having them circle the words from each family in a different color using markers and writing them in that color at the bottom like I did. The color coding really helps them see it. After they circle and sort, they can try to read their sentences!


Now that they are ready for sentences, I recommend practicing them at a very basic level.

These are simple for your low students to feel successful writing their own sentences by first tracing it then rewriting it on the lines. The picture on the side will help them decode the sentence when they read it. It's a great confidence booster that practices both reading and writing short a words in real sentences which can be important for your reluctant readers and writers.

When you feel like they can move on to sentences, the picture matching cut and paste activities can be really helpful because they read the sentences and find the picture that matches. If they have trouble reading a word, the picture can give them clues so that makes it helpful. They simply glue it to the sentence that matches. :)

As you can see, you can step-by-step get them there! They may take longer but every student CAN do it. That is something I have always firmly believed.

Like I said, you can grab all these pages in my Short A Worksheets & Activities NO PREP Pack!

Alright, now for more of the FUN STUFF.....

Centers!

One of my favorite centers is SECRET CVC Words!

You may remember my blog post about my Secret Sight Words....

People told me how much they loved the sight words ones so I made them for various phonics sounds like CVC words, CVCe words, beginning blends, vowel teams, etc. and these are the CVC ones!

I LOVE them because kids get to be word detectives while also practicing reading CVC words AND practicing their beginning sounds. Students look at the picture to figure out its beginning sound and put their letter magnet underneath it. They do this for each picture until they spell the secret CVC word.

I actually love using bottle caps that I write letters on with a permanent marker because it's cheap, easy, and I don't care if letters get lost.

You can also laminate them and write on them with dry erase markers!

For an extra challenge, I also make a sign language version of this center! This is great for your students who need an extra challenge because they're practicing their words and technically learning a new language... your high kids will eat. this. up.

I include a Sign Language Alphabet chart in both color and black and white for students to reference as well. They'll have a lot of fun signing their names and friends' names and words around the room when they're done - trust me, you'll catch them :)

Speaking of names, I actually make these cards CUSTOM for the kids' names in your class too in case you didn't know! I LOVE making them and seeing all of the unique names around the country/world. You can order your class list's names here if you want them. After you order, you just send me a list of your kids' first names (up to 30). Any time you get a new student, just send me an email and I'll add it for you if you haven't used up your 30 names. You also get access to ALL of the names - I add all of the names teachers have ordered to the file alphabetized and hyperlinked so you can easily see if any of your students' names are already included to use less of your 30. You have up to a year from date of purchase to use all your names but you can always re-download the file to see what new names have been added... there are a TON of names in there already and I've been adding more like crazy as teachers send me their lists!

A great FREE center for your lower and ELL students are my free Short A clip cards!

Kids simply read the word in the middle and put a clothespin on the picture that matches the word. Easy practice!


Another center great for your lower students is this word/picture match pocket chart center. It's super simple - kids just match the word to the picture on the pocket chart and record on their recording sheet. This pack has all the sounds for the year in it but only SIX words per sound / recording sheet so it's a great center that won't overwhelm your lower kiddos.

Okay, okay, so I'm SO super excited to debut this one!
My blog post about my CVC Words Roll activity has been one of my most popular blog posts (and resources by far)... and that activity practices all 5 short vowel sounds by rolling the dice to make words. I get so many awesome emails from kindergarten and first grade teachers that love them! I kept noticing that the kinder teachers weren't using them until after winter break since they hadn't learned all the vowel sounds yet...

SO, I decided to make ones that focus on each short vowel so you awesome kindergarten teachers can use them right away!! I not only made dice and differentiated mats that will produce words from all 6 popular short a word families (at, ap, am, an, ad, ag), I also differentiated it down again by making 3 other short a centers that each focus on only 2 word families at a time! I love these dice, too, because they produce a real short a word most of the time.. and when they don't, it's great nonsense word practice!

I present to you.... Short A CVC Word Families Roll!!

This is the activity for all the short a word families where they roll the 2 dice (the onset and rime) to build their word! If that word is on their mat, they cover it! Cubes work great but any type of marker will work!

They always put the dice in the same color order - and there is a directions sheet for each center if they forget!

For the "Short A Roll" that practices all 6 short a word families, I made 5 mats in the 4 x 5 grid for (20 pictures total) AND 5 mats in the easier 3 x 4 grid (12 pictures total) so students can each have their own sheet to play in groups, partners, etc. It's a great partner game or game to play in small groups!

What I really love, though, are the ones that focus on 2 word families at a time to start out with. These are really targeted practice to get them working hard on those word families! Those centers each have 5 different mats in the 3 x 4 grid.

Also, you can do the Roll and COVER version like I showed above or there's also Roll and COLOR where they are black and white versions of all the boards and kids take turns rolling the dice and coloring in the picture they rolled on their sheet. I LOVE this version as an easy print and use center. They will love playing again and again.

So there's the center that practices all 6 families (-an, -ag, -at, -am, -ap, and -ad) at a time:

Then, there's 1 that practices -at and -am word families only:

and also 1 that practices -an & -ap only...

and one that practices -ad & -ag only!

SO much reading practice!! And who doesn't love dice?? They can play it over and over again.. it can even get competitive! :)

You can grab it here: Short A CVC Word Families Roll
I made a set for each short vowel so they can keep playing it for the other vowels and then play the CVC Words Roll version with all the vowels mixed as an awesome review later!


Another center that I love is the PUZZLES center!! Can you believe I made it so far down this blog post without mentioning puzzles?? I'm pretty sure almost every concept I've blogged about has puzzles!

So one puzzle idea I like as an easy activity for fast finishers is flipping a real puzzle upside down and writing the words on the back! Grab 3 pieces that fit together and write a short a CVC word on them. Do it for as many words as you want them to do (the more you do, the more challenging the activity). I recommend making a baggie level A (6 words), baggie level B (15 words), and baggie level C (30 words)... this will keep them SO BUSY putting the words together, it's amazing.

Make sure you skip at least 1 piece all around the ones you pick as 3 that go together so they only will match up with the letters they go with to spell each word. I took a 1,000 piece puzzle and made a ton of these for different words!

You may remember I also made numbers 1-100 puzzles in my number sense blog post that people really seemed to love so this is a lot like that :) Just get a puzzle at the dollar store, flip it over, and voila!

I also have ready to go puzzles I made for practicing the CVC words with picture help that are a lot of fun. These are the Short A CVC Puzzles!

They come in 3 varieties:
1) Sorting pictures under the correct word family
2) Looking at the picture and building the CVC word under it
3) The same as #2 but with the word included for support

They're an easy way to get your students building CVC words in a hands on way and allowing for differentiation.

For more challenging puzzles, I LOVE using these Short Vowels Reading Fluency and Sequencing Puzzles!

Students read the fluency passage and then sequence the events of the story at the bottom. Simple, right? It's awesome targeted phonics practice, fluency practice, and sequencing practice.... and it looks like a game!



Okay so now what do you do in....
Small Groups

Warm up
First, you need to warm up! Pick the word family you want to work on and build their stamina from there. I love my Roll and Read Word Families set for this. There are 56 different differentiated sheets for short a word families alone (the other short vowel word families are also included). Here's all the A ones (each stack has 8 different levels):

Each word family comes with 2 levels of words also in 2 levels: with helper red text and without... and 2 levels of sentences also in 2 levels: with helper red text and without... so essentially there are 8 levels for each word family.

So let's say Monday, for your warm up, you play Roll and Read where it focuses on words from the -at word family with the red helper font to help them blend. Then, once they're getting that down, give them the sheet with black only text. Tell them how they're such super smart readers and they're doing so well with the red that you think they can do the black only text - gasp! :) If they're still struggling with the red, obviously don't move on to the black & repeat it again the next day - always go at the pace your kids are challenged but not frustrated by. :)

Tuesday's warm up - do the helper red words again but this time, if you feel like they're ready, give them the sentences with helper red next like this:

Wednesday: Repeat Monday (words with red then black only words) but with the Level B sheets. For your high group(s), start the Level Bs on Monday.

Thursday: Repeat Tuesday (words with red then sentences with red) but with the Level B sheets.

Friday: Black words then black sentences in whichever level you think they can handle! You could do the As then the Bs.

These are great to throw in as a center as well for lots of reading practice! That set includes the leveled roll and read activities you see above for the following word families: am, at, ap, ag, an, ad, ack, ig, in, im, id, ip, it, ill, ick, en, ed, et, ell, est, ent, ot, op, og, ob, ock, ug, ub, uck, and unk. I also have more packs of them in my store for long vowels and other phonics sounds if you want even more - I actually sell them all in a big bundle here that has over 1,000 pages.

Okay so now you're all warmed up and it's time for...

Small Group Reading

You want targeted phonics practice where everything they're reading is practicing that phonics skill - in this case: short A!

I have little readers for phonics sounds that are in color and black/white that are great for small groups... you probably already have some from your reading curriculum and those are probably perfect! One of my short A readers that I wrote is The Fat Cat.

On Monday, print the reader from your curriculum or my reader, and have students go through and underline, circle, or highlight all of the short A words they can find in it while "reading" it. They should be reading it but some might skim. Have them read it out loud in front of you as they mark the words. I think highlighting (with a light color like yellow) is best because it highlights the word without making it distracting by putting lines through it by accident. Once they have highlighted all the short a words, have them read through it again. It should be smoother this time! Allow them to take the books back to their seat to color and bring back to you when they're done (or when centers are over).

On Tuesday, read the book they highlighted and colored together in a small group. Then, partner them up at the table and have them read it with their partner. Then, let them take the book home to read to their family!

On Wednesday, bust out the fancy schmancy color version of the books to read again in small groups. Read the book together and focus on comprehension. Ask questions. Have them ask questions. THEN, the fun begins... dun dun dun! Bring out a little sand timer and tell them to put their finger on the first word. Say, "Ready... set... go!" and have them read the book as fast as they can. Holy moly will this build their reading stamina and they think it is the most fun thing in the entire world! Say "stop!" when the timer runs out and have them put a little tab (or strip of sticky note you rip off, whatever) on the word they left off on. THEN, say they're going to try to beat themselves. Yes, beat themselves. This is how you make it competitive and fun but not against each other. They're trying to better themselves - not compare themselves to their friends next to them. Plus, they should be touching each word they read so their eyes stay on their book and they obviously want to read fast so there's no time to look around :) Another solution to any reading insecurities is that if you finish before the sand timer runs out, you flip to the first page and keep going because oh-my-goodness-you-finished-it-and-are-even-doing-it-again that way there isn't a kid ever reading by themselves or start to hear the other voices fade. Trust me, just try this.

On Thursday, it's time to start really reading sentences in a text and comprehending. Give students a fluency passage focusing on the word family you're working on. I have an entire set of Short Vowel Word Family Fluency and Comprehension Passages that covers all the short vowel word families where each passage focuses on a specific family.

Each sheet has a reading passage that focuses on a specific family, a picture to aid comprehension (each also comes with a version without a picture for easily distracted students or for assessment), and 2 comprehension questions at the bottom.

Have students highlight the short a words as they read it out loud. Once they've highlighted it, have them either read it out loud by themselves (or to their partner or as a group) then let them go to their seats to color their picture and bring it back to you when they're done.

On Friday, read the passage together. Then, have them take turns reading it to their partner at the table. Next, go through the comprehension questions together. Read the question with them, have them think for a moment, and then talk about it with their partner. Once all the partners have agreed, have them share out to you and mark it. Then, it's sand timer time! :) Have them circle the word they ended on.. then do it again and underline that one.. then tell them to take it home to their parents and read it to them.


Okay so it's Friday now. 
You're tired. You've sounded out cat 9,348,234 times and your kids realize that the weekend is a mere few hours a way and are getting antsy in their pants-ies. So what do you do??

Um, crafts and games obviously! But where you learn stuff. :) Can you tell by my writing skills deteriorating toward the end of this post that I feel like it's Friday?!

One of my favorite Friday games is...
MUSICAL READING CHAIRS.

It's simple and so much fun. Grab a stack of index cards and write as many short a words on them as you have students in your class. For example, if you have 22 students, make 22 cards. Have students bring their chairs to the carpet and put them along the edge of the carpet. Hand each kid a word card and tell them to take it to their chair, sit down, and read it. Then turn on the music! They set their card with the word facing up on their chair and start walking around the inside of the circle. When the music stops, they grab the card in the chair they're in front of and have to read it before they can sit down. It will be an explosion of reading words! The beauty of this game is you can have them go around and around a bunch of times without taking chairs to get people "out" for lots of reading practice. Once you start removing a chair each time like the traditional game, it has nothing to do with reading skills.. it's just whoever gets to a chair first like normal. Make sure you have a don't-go-after-a-card-someone-else-is and we-don't-grab-out-of-others'-hands talk before you play, of course, because it's Friday and they're 6. :) It is a ton of reading practice and kids LOVE it.

Once they get out, if you would rather them be doing something productive rather than watching the rest of the kids finish, have them work on their little short a books! These come in a small pack with just the short vowels or in a big bundle with all the first grade phonics sounds and blends for the year.

Each page has a word, a picture of the word to color, and lines to write a sentence about their picture using the word. These are another great little book to take home to their families.


Oh, I forgot to show you the word families review books! These are another great Thursday or Friday activity once they've gotten the different word families down. There's a book for -ap, -at, and -am and a book for -an, -ad, and -ag. What they do is they color and cut out the short a pictures. Then, they sort them and glue them under the correct word family flap. They make awesome little books that are fun to read afterward.

These are also great to put into interactive notebooks!

I also include a pre-made version that is already sorted for you to use if you have any students that you think would struggle but you still want them to be able to do the activity. You can also use it as an example one and then throw it in the library later! Or you can just do that one with your students for an easier activity or for the sake of time. I do think the sorting challenge is the best part though so I recommend doing it that way if you can!

Okay so now it's craft time!!

Again, you're tired. TIRED. It's Friday... and you're a teacher. Saying you're tired is like saying pizza is delicious. Obvious. True. Understated... no matter how many explanation points you use.

But the kids want fun. "FUN FRIDAY!" they proclaim. Okay, okay, let's do a craft.

Bust out a No Prep Writing Craft (of which I have over a hundred writing prompts - and more coming! - in this growing pack for all different themes, topics, holidays, genres, etc.) that uses a sound like the phonics sound you're working on.

You literally just hand it to them... they write on the lines, color the picture, cut it out, and glue it on a piece of construction paper and looky there, you've done a craft! They make great bulletin boards or something cute to take home to show their parents and be proud of.

For short a, I recommend "Cats" or "Crabs" :)

Another fun Friday center is building words with pipe cleaners and the much adored alphabet beads. You can bring out those short a pocket chart cards AGAIN (I told you there's a million ways to use them) and have them build the words on pipe cleaners.

Even more fun is writing sentences using the beads! Challenge them to write little sentences using their new words and show you!

.... and Phew!! I actually have a lot more I want to share but this post is already SO LONG so I'll save them! Thank you so much for reading through this if you're at this point. I really hope you were able to get some great ideas, a few free items, and maybe even some resources!

Want to get a bundle of almost all of these resources??

I linked where you could get everything in the post individually but I did want to share with you that you can get almost everything you saw bundled to save you a ton in my Short Vowels Ultimate Bundle so that'd be a really easy way to get a lot of the fun stuff I shared about as well :)

It has all the short vowel CVC word rolls, CVC puzzles, roll and read word families sheets, short vowels reading passages, short vowel no prep packs, short vowel fluency puzzles, the little books, and more! And you'll have all those activities for all of the short vowels :) AND it's a growing bundle which means I still am adding more short vowels things to it as I create them and raising the price accordingly so the sooner you get it, the more you save.. I love growing bundles because you get things not only at a bundled discount but free stuff too as things are added!

Thank you so much for your time! Happy teaching, friends! I'd love to hear from you in the comments!

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