Long & Short Vowel Sounds – Plus 2 Free Anchor Charts!
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Learn the difference between short and long vowels, when to teach these sounds, and the rules for these sounds. For extra classrooom help, print the two free vowel anchor charts, with capital and lowercase letters and bright pictures to teach the long and short vowel sounds!
Teaching Long & Short Vowels
Of the 26 letters in the English alphabet, the letters a, e, i, o, and u are vowels. The other 21 letters are consonants.
Every English word MUST include at least one vowel. That’s why knowing and practicing vowel sounds is so important when it comes to reading!
Children need to be introduced to these academic terms as early as pre-k, and they should leave kindergarten able to quickly and easily identify vowels and consonants in words.
This will be key as they begin progressing and coding words throughout elementary school!
Short Vowel Sounds
Short vowels are taught along with other letter sounds. Begin teaching short vowel sounds in pre-k and continue teaching them throughout all of kindergarten and the beginning of first grade.
👉 Rule: When there is one vowel in a word, either at the beginning or between two consonants, it usually has a short vowel sound.
Examples
- Short A words: cat, map, hat, an, flag, bam, rat, fad, had, wag, jab, pan, chap, ram.
- Short E words: leg, leg, pet, slef, hen, men, Zed, net, web, wed, west, hem, fed.
- Short I words: is, in, lip, rim, lip, slid, pin, lick, lob, fin, thin, Tim, pin, fig, fit, hip, hit, whip.
- Short O words: on, not, log, off, blog, mop, Tom, nod, slop, fox, fog, flop, hog, hop frog.
- Short U words: up, ugly, mug, mud, lug, slum, fun, slug, rug, pup, slub, hug, hum, jug, jot.
Long Vowel Sounds
Long vowels are usually taught after the first few months of first grade.
Students should have a firm command reading words with short vowels, digraphs, consonant blends, and closed syllables before long vowels are introduced. They’ll continue learning long vowel spellings throughout the next few years of elementary school.
👉 Rule: Long vowels say their name.
Long vowel sounds can be heard at the beginning, middle, or end of a word. Long vowels can be spelled with a silent e (VCe pattern), a vowel team, or in an open syllable.
👉 Although there are many different long vowel spellings, I focus heavily on the ones we find most frequently in text, marked with an asterisk (*) below!
Long A
There are 8 ways to spell Long A:
- a like baby*
- a-e like cake*
- ai like rain*
- ay like day*
- ei like reindeer
- eigh like eight
- ea like steak
- ey like hey
Long E
There are 8 ways to spell Long E:
- e like equal*
- e-e like scere*
- ee like bee*
- ea like read*
- y like baby*
- ei like reiceipt
- ie like cookie
- ey like turkey
Long I
There are 6 ways to spell Long I:
- i like lion*
- i-e like bike*
- igh like light*
- y like fly*
- y-e like type
- ie like pie
Long O
There are 5 ways to spell long O:
- o like no*
- o-e like home*
- oa like boat*
- ow like bow*
- oe like toe
Long U
Long u can actually make TWO sounds: ū (yoo) and ū (oo).
There are 5 ways to spell Long ū (yoo):
- u like unicorn*
- u-e like mute*
- ue like argue*
- ew like curfew*
- eu like eucalyptus
There are 7 ways to spell Long ū (oo):
- u like ruler*
- u-e like tube*
- ue like glue*
- ew like stew*
- oo like balloon
- ou like soup
- ui like fruit
👉 Tip: Do not teach all of the spellings above at one time. Instead, follow a systematic approach for teaching all of the spellings listed above.
Work on one spelling pattern at a time until students have mastered it, then move on.
If you don’t know where to start, the Recipe for Reading book helps parents and teachers practically implement Orton Gillingham methodology with students.
Printable Anchor Charts
To help teach these concepts to kids, print both of the two free posters that can be used as anchor charts. One is focused on short vowel sounds and the other is focused on long vowel sounds.
The posters are designed to help promote both uppercase and lowercase recognition for each of the five vowels.
Each poster includes a bright picture that matches the keyword and includes the vowel sound.
Both posters use words where the vowel sounds are found at the beginning, allowing kids to hear and identify beginning sounds in words.
The Short Vowel Poster includes:
- A a – /ă/ – apple
- E e – /ĕ/ – elephant
- I i – /ĭ/ – igloo
- O o – /ŏ/ – octopus
- U u – /ŭ/ – umbrella
The Long Vowel Poster includes:
- A a – /ā/ – acorn
- E e – /ē / – equal
- I i – /ī/ – ice
- O o – /ō/ – ocean
- U u – /ū/ – unicorn and /oo/ like ruler.
Related Posts
- Beginning Sounds Worksheet
- CVC Word Families Anchor Chart
- All About Open and Closed Syllables
- Long Vowel Word Lists: A, E, I, O, and U.
- All About Word Ladders
Download & Print
We’d love to hear about your experience using these anchor charts!
Please leave a comment below or tag us on Instagram @literacylearn.
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