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Games & Activities for Long Vowels

Vowels play an integral role in developing children's reading and writing skills, with short and long vowels helping kids understand letter-sound relationships. Unlike short vowels, long vowels sound the same or similar to the letter name of the vowels. Games and activities help educators teach students the concept of long-vowel sounds.
  1. Crosswords and Word Searches

    • Kids solve clues pertaining to long-vowel-sound words ending in a silent "e" in "Long-Vowel Silent-E Crossword," found at Surfing the Net with Kids. After reading the numbered "Across" and "Down" clues, kids click on the numbered spaces to fill in the answers. Rather than solving clues, kids search for long-vowel-sound words in "DJ Cow's Spelling Patterns," found at ICT Games. After selecting "a_e, i_e, o_e" from the list, kids\ find the words located on the right side of the screen. Words disappear from the list, once kids click on the first and last letter of a word, respectively.

    Image-association Activities

    • Students learn to associate long-vowel sounds with images in "Long Vowels," found at Sadlier-Oxford. After choosing one of the five vowels, kids drag to a box all images whose words contain the long-vowel sound for that particular vowel. For the "Long Vowel Sounds" activity, students choose "a, i, o" or "e, u." Upon seeing an image on the screen, kids click on the long-vowel sound represented in each image. For instance; if the image depicts a bow, students click "o."

    Matching Activities

    • Kids match long-vowel-sound pictures with their written-word equivalents in "Make a Match," found at Starfall. Students click cards one at a time to turn them over. If, for instance, kids flip over a card that says "rose," they must find the card featuring a rose image. Rather than match two cards together, children match pictures to vowel boxes in "Picture Match," found at ReadWriteThink. After choosing "Long-Vowel Sounds," kids click the vowel boxes that match the long-vowel sounds of the pictures. For instance; children click the "u" box if they see a picture of fruit.

    Poem Activities

    • Animated poems help students identify long-vowel sounds in "Poem Pack," found at the BBC site. Kids choose a poem and may read or hear it before clicking "Sound search" or "Find the word." In "Sound search," students click all the words with the long-vowel sound featured in the poem. For "Find the Word," kids read a line from the poem and click on one of three words that completes the line. Poems include "Daisy the Snail," "The Toad and the Goat" and "The Doctor's In."

    Time-Crunch Games

    • Children try to drag long-vowel sounds into their correct spots before time runs out in "Drag 'n' Spell," found at the BBC site. The first level of the game features picture clues for each word, while the second level shows the full word before quickly removing the long-vowel-sounds. Players move on to the next word after placing vowel sounds in their correct slots. Also at the BBC site, kids match long-vowel-sound cards to word cards in "Snap It." For instance; when the long-vowel-sound card reads "ay," kids click "Snap" if they see a card that reads "stay." Incorrect clicks cost players 1 point. Players adjust the slider on the right side of the screen to increase or decrease the challenge.

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