Howl With The Owls And Learn About Vowels!

Vowel Owls are a fun, hands-on way to teach Common Core State Standards:RF.K3b, RF.K2a, RF.K2d, RF.K3c.

Students sort the 570 CVC & Dolch word cards  into the various long and short vowel owl cups.

The Vowel Owls make a great "Word Work" Daily 5 activity. The cards are just the right size, small for little hands and easy printing. With 60 CVC words on a page, and 10 pages, you'll have enough cards to practice as a whole group.

I've also included a Vowel Howl game board, as another option for a fun way to practice long & short vowel sounds, as well as a list of other things you can do with the word cards, including games, + sorting the cards by rhyming sounds, to cover another Common Core State Standard.

Click on the link to view/download the Vowel Owl Packet.

Thanks for visiting today. Do you have a vowel activity you could share with us? I'd enjoy hearing from you. diane@teachwithme.com or post a comment here.

I hope you and your students get a hoot out of these activities and are enjoying a fun-filled fall!   It's brisk this morning and frost is definitely on the pumpkins.  Time to drain and bring in our garden hoses.  Wishing you a delightful day.

"Motivation is when your dreams put on work clothes." -Parkes Robinson

CVC Words On A Roll-Another FUN Way To Teach CVC Words!

Run off copies of the game boards on card stock and laminate them.

Click on the link to view/print a copy of the CVC Game Boards. 

There are 5 different game boards using 222 different CVC words!

For a nice group activity, print off a double set, so that all of your students can play with a partner at the same time.

You’ll also need dice and tokens.

Students choose a partner.  Give each child some sort of token to use to move around the board, a mini racecar is fun even for girls.

I sometimes use a Skittle or M&M and then let students eat it at the end of the game as a sweet treat.

I like to use large foam dice to keep the noise level down.  They also stay on the table better.

There are five different game boards.  Have students swap if they finish before the timer rings, or make the game last longer by taping two game boards together.

Children take turns rolling the dice. Whatever number they roll they move their token that many spaces.  When they land on a word they must read it. If they can’t, they move back that many spaces.

Just a “heads up” to remind students NOT to pick up the dice until their partner has READ the word, or they might forget what number they rolled and not know how many spaces to go backwards, if they are unable to read the word.

If their partner lands on the same word square that they do, that player must go back 3 spaces.

If they can read the word they land on, they can move ahead 1 space as a reward.

You can make the game more difficult by telling students that if they roll a 5 they lose their turn.

The game can get more interesting and even silly if you add the rule that if they roll a 6 they yell “Six & Switch!” and they take their partner’s place if it is to their advantage. i.e. their partner is ahead of them.

Show students that there are "short cuts" on the game board, so that if they land on a word that has another path under it, depending on the number they roll they can opt to take the "short cut" to get to the finish line quicker.

Play continues ‘til one child lands on the smilie-finish line or when the timer rings the child who is closest to the finish line wins the game.

To make the game last longer, you can tell the students they have to roll an exact number to finish.  i.e., if they have 1 space left to go out, they must roll a 1.

Give everyone a sticker for participating and a CVC Champion bookmark to the winners.

If you missed the FREE 101-page CVC Word Bingo Bonanza or the 338 traceable CVC word cards in past articles, simple scroll down to check them out.  

Since the CVC Bingo cards were such a tremendous hit, check back tomorrow, for 60 FREE Dolch Word Bingo cards for each of the 5 Dolch word lists from Pre-primer through 3rd grade!