Students will enjoy this fun decision-making game. Give each student five craft sticks. Instruct students to label both sides of each stick with a vowel letter. For example, one stick should have an "a" on each side. On the top, fold a piece of card stock into a square and tape. On each side of the card stock, ask students to draw two pictures of objects with the "a" sound. One side should have a short "a" picture, such as a cat. The other side should have a picture of an object with a long "a" sound, such as a nail. Then, ask students to listen as you say a word. They should hold up the stick with the same vowel sound that occurs in the word you have said.
The children will have an opportunity to be detectives for this educational activity. Begin by dividing the class into groups of three or four students. Give each group a set of colored pencils. Explain to the groups that they have one minute to write down or draw as many species of animals as they can. Tell students to underline all of the short "a" sounds with one color, all of the short "i" sounds another color and so on. Students should then create a "map key" that tells the reader which color stands for which letter sound. Ask students to present their finished page in front of the class and correct students as needed.
This activity encourages students to use context clues to fill in the vowels in words. Write a sentence on the board leaving a blank space where the vowels should be. Ask students to raise their hands to guess which vowels should be in the blanks. Students will enjoy taking turns trying to figure out the mystery message. This activity works well when you want to convey a request to the students, such as "Get out your science book."
Younger children enjoy the use of puppets in the classroom. Find or create two different puppets. Give each puppet a nickname that goes with the vowel sounds they enjoy, such as "long vowel Lulu" and "short vowel Sally." Perform for the children with the two puppets, giving a description of why the puppets like those kinds of vowels. For example, have Lulu say she loves getting mail. Sally can say she loves eating apples. Ask students to place items in a basket in front of each puppet that go along with a short or long vowel sound.