How to Teach Vowel Sounds to Kindergartners

Video Transcript

When teaching letters to young children, take plenty of time to cover each of the five vowels. These are very important for children. Oftentimes when children begin writing they'll leave out the vowel sounds in the middle. I like to call these the middle mystery letters. Take the time to show the children the sounds that each of the vowels make. I like to refer back to the classic letter people when I use the vowel sounds. When I practice A I always have my children make an A with their hands like they're sneezing, and we always say Ahhh-choo, so they learn that Ahhh sound belongs with A. When learning the letter E we like to pretend that we're exercising so the key - the children always go Eh, eh, exercise as they're learning that E says eh. I is one of my favorite letters to teach because the children have a lot of fun. We always teach children that I says "i" and we always go itchy, itchy, i-i-i, as if we're scratching all over our bodies. When we practice the letter O I always tell children that it's the sound that you make at the doctor's office, you always open up and say Ohhhh, and you can say that your mouth makes an O, so when they say the word mop, their mouth is in the shape of an O. The last vowel that you'll want to teach them is the letter U and we always pretend we're putting uh, uh, up our umbrella. So that uh, uh, uh will constantly be reinforced. It's best to teach the children the short vowel sounds first. These are the ones that they'll use more commonly in their three letter words that they'll learn. After the children have mastered their short vowel sounds, then you'll want to take the time to introduce the long vowel sounds. Tell the children that the vowels say their name when it's in a long vowel, this is the difference between being at and rake. Teach the children that the vowels can say either short or long and they'll have to use other visual clues to help them. When they're ready you may even choose to introduce the concept of a silent E that often makes the letter say its name. But again, begin with the short vowel sounds, they're easiest for the kiddos to master at first.