Integrate arts and crafts activities into the teaching of vowel sounds. Discuss the sounds different vowels make, and provide children with different objects or pictures that begin with the given vowel. Instruct them to color in the picture or use the objects to create a picture. For instance, when teaching the letter "A," slice apples in half, dip them in paint and have students use them to make apple print pictures; or when learning the letter "E" have children color a picture of an elephant or an egg.
Have children sort items that begin with vowel sounds. Write vowels on pieces paper and provide students with a variety of pictures or items that begin the each vowel -- oranges, elks, alligators and so forth. Review the sound each vowel makes and instruct children to sort the item and place them on the letter they begin with.
Play a non-competitive game of Identify the Vowel. Provide children with flash cards that display each vowel. When you say a word that begins with a vowel, students hold up the correct letter card.
Discuss vowels in the middle of words. State several simple rhyming words that contain vowels in the center of them -- sit, hit, mitt and pit, for instance. Ask students if they can identify the vowel in the center of the collection of words. By offering rhyming words, students hear the repetition of the vowel sounds and gain a greater ability to distinguish the vowel sounds.
Offer another vowel game in which students name vowel words. After stating a vowel, students name different words that start with or contain the given vowel. A point is awarded for each correct word and the student who collects the most points wins.