How to Teach Short Vowels to Help Read and Spell CVC Words

When teaching phonics in Kindergarten, it is so important to incorporate phonemic awareness practice within phonics skills. In taking some time to work on identifying beginning, middle, and ending sounds in a CVC word, my students have always been more successful and confident when it comes to reading and spelling CVC words. Knowing how to isolate those phonemes (aka sounds) in a word, helps students have a better grasp. In addition to our 5 minute daily warm-ups, we do many other activities in the classroom so students can practice isolating the middle sound and naming the short vowel sounds in a CVC word.

Why do we need to teach short vowels in CVC words?

Phoneme isolation is identifying specific phonemes (sounds) in words, such as first, middle, or last sound. Phoneme isolation is the first step to getting students ready to do phoneme segmentation tasks. First, you will want to work on the beginning sound, then the ending sound, and finally the middle sound. Once your students are able to isolate and identify each sound, it will make reading and spelling CVC words much easier.

When students are starting to spell CVC words and sound out words phonetically, there are 2 common problems. Either they will mix up short vowels, like /e/ and /i/ or /a/ and /o/ or they may spell the word leaving out the middle sound altogether. By taking the time to really focus on identifying that middle sound, you will help alleviate that problem.

How much time do you spend on teaching middle sounds?

When teaching middle sounds, I also teach how short vowel sounds at the same time. It just makes sense to focus on these 5 sounds, as there are so many words that students will sound out with a short vowel sound in them. Dedicating a week per short vowel sound has worked really well when teaching middle sounds. We focus on the short vowel sound, practice isolating it, and also practice word families all in the same week. You can find the short vowel and middle sounds phonics unit with a detailed scope and sequence in this phonics unit here.

How to Teach Short Vowel sounds in CVC Words

When you are beginning to isolate sounds, you will want to teach all of the short vowel sounds in CVC words. I do this quickly with these flashcards saying “A makes the /a/ sound.” Once they are able to start isolating and identifying the middle sound, you can add “What word has the middle /a/ sound?” and have students come up with a few words.

You can also play some phonics songs to help your students learn their short vowel sounds. Vowel Bat is definitely a hit and really helps them learn those sounds quickly. Here is a short vowel and middle sounds YouTube playlist with Vowel Bat along with some of my other favorite songs.

Isolating the middle sound orally

As they are learning the short vowel sounds, they can practice isolating the middle sound in a word. I teach isolating and segmenting the words using this slinky method. I say the beginning sound and pull apart the middle sound slowly, really stretching it out. Isolating that middle sound is really tricky, so teaching them to really draw the sound out helps them hear the sound better. For the ending sound, we clap our hands back together to say the ending sound. This is how I teach my students to isolate that middle sound, plus we get to practice the beginning and ending sound too.

Identifying the middle sound in a word using pictures

Once students can isolate the middle phoneme orally, you can do some phonics picture sort activities. Show a picture and have students stretch out the word to identify the middle sound. Then, they sort it under the correct vowel sound. This is a great way to practice those short vowels, so students don't mix them up later.

If you are teaching CVC spelling down the road and notice your students are starting to mix up e/i or a/o when spelling CVC words, pull out these picture sorts again. It is important to continually review phonics skills, especially when you are noticing students having trouble with a past skill.

For more activities to practice identifying and isolating the middle sound, check out this blog post here: 3 Activities to Practice Isolating the Middle Sound.

Done-for-you Short Vowels and Middle Sounds Phonics Unit

If you are teaching short vowels in CVC words and need some help planning your phonics lessons and center activities, I’ve done it all for you! You can find the Kindergarten Phonics Middle Sounds Unit below. It includes everything you need to teach short vowels and identifying middle sounds for 5 weeks including pre-made lesson plans, phonemic awareness warm-ups, anchor charts, assessments, centers, worksheets, and more.