Short Vowel Words Teaching Resources
Teach short vowel words this school year with printable worksheets, phonics games and more activities created by teachers for teachers like you!
Aligned with both TEKS and the Common Core ELA Curriculum, the resources in this extensive vowels collection provide everything you need to map out your lesson plans on these special words! You'll uncover Google Slides already made for your lesson plans, word study lists about specific vowel sounds, sorting activities that will help students differentiate between long and short vowel sounds.
New to teaching this part of the ELA (or ELAR) curriculum, or just looking for new ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Are Short Vowel Sounds? A Kid-Friendly Definition
Before we can dig into the words that contain them, it's worth taking a look at the definition of short vowel sounds. Here's a simple way to explain what you mean when you say short vowels to your class:
A short vowel sound is a vowel that sounds like the most common pronunciations of the letter's sounds. This makes it very different from a long vowel sound, which sounds like the name of the letter itself.
A short vowel sound is often found in words where the vowel is followed by one or more consonants.
What Are Short Vowel Words? A Kid-Friendly Definition
If a short vowel sound is one that sounds like the common ways the letter can be pronounced, then a short vowel word must be a word that contains one of these sounds. Right?
Well, yes!
Short vowel words are words that contain a vowel that sounds the way it's pronounced — rather than sounding like the name of that vowel.
Some common words where you will find these short vowel sounds include:
- Words with a Consonant-Vowel-Consonant (CVC) pattern
- Words with only one vowel that end with a consonant
- Words with two vowels separated by two or more letters — in this case, the first vowel sound is usually short
Short A Words — Examples for Kids
Let's start at the very beginning of the alphabet with some short a words!
When we say the short a sound, we push our tongues forward so the tip pushes against the back of the lower teeth. The result sounds like "ah" as in "cat" or "apple."
Here are a few more handy examples that your students are likely to come across in their early literacy explorations:
- Bag
- Hand
- Last
- Map
- Pan
- Sad
Short E Words — Examples for Kids
A short e sounds like "eh," as in bed. Some examples of short e words include:
- Red
- Jet
- Men
- Peg
- Less
- Wet
Short I Words — Examples for Kids
When "i" is short, it sounds like "ih." Here are a few short i words that you might want to use to demonstrate this to your class:
- Big
- Igloo
- In
- Fish
- Pick
- Sit
Short O Words — Examples for Kids
Some examples of short o words that your students may already know are:
- Hot
- Dog
- Top
Short U Words — Examples for Kids
There are plenty of short u words that your students likely use already, even if they don't know they have a short u! Here are just a few examples:
- Cut
- Bug
- Tub
- Bump
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Learn to Read Short E - Daily Phonics for Kids
Teach your students to read short /e/ CVC words with a daily digital phonics instructional slide deck.
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Apple Activities - Short and Long Vowel Sort
Supplement your phonics lessons with an apple-themed initial sound sorting activity.
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Short OO Words — Word Search
Explore words containing some of the most common “short oo” graphemes with this set of differentiated word searches.
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Spring Short and Long Vowel Sort
Practice distinguishing short and long vowels with a Spring-themed short and long vowel sorting activity.
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Short and Long Vowel Sounds Sorting Center
Distinguish between long and short vowel sounds with a short and long vowel sorting center activity.
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Short and Long Vowels Google Interactive Activity
Read and identify short and long vowel sounds and place the pictures into the correct columns.
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Differentiating Long and Short Vowels - Interactive PowerPoint
Practice differentiating between long and short vowel sounds with this interactive PowerPoint.
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Long and Short Vowel Sounds Dominoes
Distinguish between long and short vowel sounds with this set of 28 dominoes.
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Move It! - Long and Short Vowel 'U' PowerPoint Game
An active PowerPoint game to practice reading and identifying long and short vowel ‘u’ words.
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Move It! - Long and Short Vowel 'O' PowerPoint Game
An active PowerPoint game to practice reading and identifying long and short vowel ‘o’ words.
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Move It! - Long and Short Vowel 'I' PowerPoint Game
An active PowerPoint game to practice reading and identifying long and short vowel ‘i’ words.
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Move It! - Long and Short Vowel 'A' PowerPoint Game
An active PowerPoint game to practice reading and identifying long and short vowel 'a' words.
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FIND IT! Long and Short Vowels - Task Cards
Practice distinguishing between short vowel sounds and long vowel sounds with this set of 16 task cards.
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Long and Short Vowel Sort
A set of 40 sorting cards to practice long and short vowel sounds.
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Short Vowels or BUST! Card Game
This phonological awareness activity awards points for correctly identifying the words with short vowel sounds.
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Long and Short Vowel Sounds Board Game
Practice distinguishing between long and short vowel sounds with this set of 36 picture cards and vowel sound game board.
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Phonics Assessment - Long and Short Vowel Sound
Test your students' long and short vowel sound knowledge with this phonics assessment kit.