Every year Iβve taught Kindergarten, Iβve been able to teach long vowels in some capacity. Some years, I may just be teaching what a long vowel sound is and going over CVCe words. Other years, my Kindergarten students are able to identify long vowel patterns, read words, and even spell long vowel words! Long vowels are the hardest phonics skill that you may come across while teaching Kindergarten. Some curriculums or scope and sequences include teaching long vowels, some do not. So how do you know if you should teach long vowels in Kindergarten?Β
Focus on mastery, not just exposure
With phonics, itβs important to make sure your students have MASTERED each skill before moving to the next. My first year teaching Kindergarten, I was teaching my students R Controlled vowels and even Diphthongs, however they still struggled with spelling CVC words independently. Yes, they were exposed to many First Grade level phonics skills, but when it came down to the building blocks, they could not spell. After that year, I made sure that my students had mastered each phonics skill before moving to the next.
To master a phonics skill, students should be able to blend (or decode), spell it, and read it fluently- either on itβs own or in a sentence. By reading fluently, I mean they need to be able to read a sentence with that word in it accurately and at a regular talking speed. I donβt like using the word βquicklyβ anymore because then students will try to say the sentence fast and trip up on the words.
In Kindergarten, you want your students to be pros with CVC words. You can always add in blends and digraphs with short vowel words, and even short vs long vowel using CVCe words to challenge them. However, if they have mastered CVC words, digraphs, blends, and CVCe words, and you have a few extra weeks in the year, then they will definitely be able to learn some long vowels.
When should you NOT teach long vowels in Kindergarten?
So when should you absolutely NOT teach long vowels in Kindergarten? Basically, if your students are not able to write CVC words or are still having trouble identifying blends and digraphs, then itβs best to not worry about long vowels. I suggest you work on those skills instead with review weeks. You can add in some review weeks, and focus on past skills and making sure they have fully mastered those skills.
Hereβs a few tips for teachers who want to teach long vowels in Kindergarten:
Tip #1: Work on Phonemic Awareness skills with long vowels
Before you begin teaching long vowels, your students should be able to complete phonemic awareness skills using long vowels, such as orally blending, onset and rime, and orally segmenting words. You can read more about those Phonemic Awareness skills here. If you need help with activities practicing long vowels, the last few weeks of the Kindergarten Phonemic Awareness cover these skills with long vowels!
Tip #2: Just work on identifying patterns
If you think your students can handle long vowel words, then start with JUST identifying the patterns in a long vowel word, such as βayβ or βeeβ. You do not have to have your students reading and spelling words with long vowels. They will be doing a LOT of that in First Grade!
Tip #3: Use lots of modeling
When teaching how to decode long vowel words, use a lot of modeling to show the thinking process behind decoding. Hereβs a sample long vowel decoding routine:
- Show the students the word.
- Either point out the long vowel pattern or have students identify the long vowel pattern.
- Highlight the pattern.
- Talk about what sound that long vowel pattern makes.
- Model how to blend that word. For example β/s/… /ee/… /d/, seedβ
- What word is it? βseedβ
Once students understand how to decode long vowel words, they will start to decode them on their own. You can watch how to model sounding out long vowels in this YouTube video here.
Tip #4: Show them long vowels in real life
Even if you decide not to teach long vowels as a separate unit, you can still use words that they do know to point out long vowel patterns. For example, the word βseeβ. Your students know this word as a high-frequency word or sight word that they most likely learned at the beginning of the year.
Letβs say you are writing a sentence with the word βseeβ in it. Use that opportunity to teach them! Circle the pattern and show them that it makes the long e sound. You can even extend it by asking if there are any other words with that same pattern. They may be able to come up with a few more! If they can begin to spot them in real life, that is the first step. We did a lot of sort by color activities like this one below to help pick out those long vowel patterns. Soon, they were seeing them in real life and making that connection. βLook, the word βtodayβ has the βayβ pattern!β
Will you be teaching long vowels this year? Let me know what you decide! Remember every class is different and itβs okay to skip long vowels sometimes!
If you are teaching long vowels and need some help planning your phonics lessons and center activities, Iβve done it all for you! You can find the Kindergarten Phonics Long Vowels Unit here. It includes everything you need to teach long vowels for 5 weeks including pre-made lesson plans, phonemic awareness warm-ups, anchor charts, assessments, centers, worksheets, and more.
