Vowel Fun (Freebie Time!)

Last week we had all kinds of crazy fun hanging out with some of our vowel friends, Jake the Snake and Al the Alligator. They made their way into our first grade class to help us practice long a/short a vowel sounds! My firsties loved thinking of long/short a words. We wrote them on these anchor charts and had these displayed throughout the week!

We practiced reading long and short a words in texts using these silly stories about Jake and Al. We read these in small groups at the horseshoe table. Students underlined the long and short a words they saw and then wrote them on the recording sheet!

At another station, the kiddos were on the look out for long a/short a words around the classroom! Did you know that magnifying glasses are equally as cool as king-sized candy bars? Yes, my friends, it is TRUE!      

These two stations were also a big hit! Left Picture: Students are given picture support (along with the text) in order to help them decide if their word is long or short. They then have to draw a picture of the word and use it in a sentence. Right Picture: This little lady is working hard at the Shake, Take, and Make station. You can’t see the bag of words, but they are there. She had to shake up the bag, take a word, and then make a sentence using that word.

This was definitely the favorite of the class. Students worked in pairs. They had to read a sentence, determine if the words in the sentence had long a or short a words in them. Then, they had to feed Al the short a sentences and Jake the long a sentences. Yum! Yum! You can find all of the activities above (plus LOTS MORE) in my All About Vowels Packet at my TPT store.

Also, be sure to grab these fun freebies. The Jake the Snake game is always a HUGE hit in my classroom. My kids were begging to play long after our reading block was over! You can grab the game, along with a few other fun activities, below. Click here or or on the preview to download.

Keep an eye out for other vowel packets in the near future!