Hear a middle vowel

Supplied materials

• Paper and pencil, or a browser text area. All named people/events/records are fictional learning inputs.
• Worked case: Lowercase: a. Sentence: We can hop. Short word: cat.
• Primary check: Lowercase: e. Sentence: Is it wet? Short word: hen.
• An adult may read every direction and answer choice aloud; learners may respond by speaking, pointing or drawing.
• Complete letter-pair chart for adult-assisted pointing and naming: A/a B/b C/c D/d E/e F/f G/g H/h I/i J/j K/k L/l M/m N/n O/o P/p Q/q R/r S/s T/t U/u V/v W/w X/x Y/y Z/z. Name one pair at a time; do not require learning all pairs in one session.
• Sound chart with supplied familiar words: b/bat, c/cat, d/dog, f/fan, g/gum, h/hat, j/jam, k/kid, l/lip, m/map, n/net, p/pen, r/run, s/sun, t/top, v/van, w/wet, y/yes, z/zip. In these examples c and g have their hard sounds. Qu in queen commonly represents /k/ followed by /w/; x at the end of box represents /k/ followed by /s/, two sounds rather than one.
• Five short-vowel comparison words: a/cat, e/bed, i/sit, o/hot, u/cup. Five common long-vowel examples: a/cake, e/me, i/bike, o/home, u/cube. An adult models the local pronunciation. These are sample sound-spelling patterns, not a claim that each letter always makes only one sound. Practice reading map, bed, sit, log and cup, one word at a time.

Learn the idea

Many three-sound words have a vowel in the middle. The short vowels in cat, bed, sit and hot sound different, so the vowel changes the word.

An adult models the word. Stretch its three sounds and repeat the middle sound before choosing its comparison word.

Example to read or listen to: Lowercase: a. Sentence: We can hop. Short word: cat. The answer is short a, as in cat. Cat has short a. Use the spoken sound, not the vowel letter name.

1. Read or listen to the worked example. Say what the reading or writing task asks you to find. An adult can help with unfamiliar words.
2. An adult models the word. Stretch its three sounds and repeat the middle sound before choosing its comparison word.
3. Check the worked solution: short a, as in cat. Cat has short a. Use the spoken sound, not the vowel letter name.
4. Try the question and the practice questions. Point to the words that helped you choose before checking the feedback.

Check your reasoning

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Take it further

Optional extra practice: An adult writes: I see a red box. Point to its five words, circle the period, pair lowercase o with O, and say the middle short-e sound in red. Draw the box if you wish. Practice this lesson’s skill as you complete the task. Use this idea to check your work: Many three-sound words have a vowel in the middle. The short vowels in cat, bed, sit and hot sound different, so the vowel changes the word.

Nothing here is saved to an account or sent to a teacher. The answer download includes your current choice and any checked feedback. It does not include choices from the separate More practice section. Download that section separately.