Those tricky vowel sounds! Shortly after students learn the letters and sounds of the alphabet we introduce the concept that some letters, when placed together (vowel digraph), make the long vowel sound. For example, when the letters “ai” appear together, they make the long a sound as in the word “snail”. “ay” also makes the long a sound. These are the two most common vowel digraphs that make the long a sound and are often introduced first. When children are learning to spell words it’s important for them to know the most common placement of the digraphs in the words. The “ay” is most often used at the end of a word and the “ai” in the middle. Just a little complicated for our beginning readers and spellers. Word sorting activities are a great way to introduce the concept of the long vowel spelling patterns. Using word sorts, students not only read the words but begin to see the patterns of where the phonics concept is used within the words.
I am a true believer in hands-on activities to support learning. That often means a little prep work on the front end, but you’ll end up with activities that will last for years. For the long vowel sound word sorts there are templates that you adhere to file folders (just glue them on with a glue stick) and then laminate. Simply cut your word/picture and word cards and you’re all set! Each long vowel sorting folder contains the most common spellings for that vowel.
There are quite a few cards for each vowel sound so you may want to differentiate the activity by choosing which words to use. For the long e vowel the sort includes word cards for ee/ea/y. The long i sort includes words for igh/ie/y.
The word sorts are great for not only small group instruction, but for independent practice too. To keep my cards organized, I place them in a baggie and then adhere them to the file folder with a brass clasp. The long o word sort contains words for the oa/ow/oe digraphs and the long u word sort contains words for oo/ui/ue/ui.
I purchased these file folder containers at our local Office Max. They work great for storing the files. I made a label for both the front and the back of the container so they store nicely on the shelf.
The word sorts can either be purchased as single files or as a bundle. If you are interested in the word sorting activities, just click the link below. We’ll get our kiddos learning long vowel spelling patterns in no time!
The Long Vowel Sounds Spelling Patterns Bundle can be found in my online Teachers Pay Teacher store.
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