We have learned the sounds for short vowels a, i and e. We use Jolly Phonics - which I love - BUT the key words and songs for short e and i don't really work for the midwest. When we say INK the i sounds an awful lot like a long e. So INKY is not a very good name for a mouse meant to remind us of the short i sound. I renamed our mouse Itchy and he has a little friend named Itty Bitty. Itchy still got ink spilled on him, but it made him itch. Here is the song we use:
We have a similar problem with short e. The key word is EGG. Well, when we say EGG the e sounds similar to the long a sound. So we have a dog name Eddy that loves to eat eggs. We can still use the Jolly Phonics action and story pictures BUT our key word is Eddy. Here is the song we use:
Short i and short e can be difficult to distinguish. And since we always like to spell our sounds - not just read them - we practice a lot. Last week we sorted pictures according to the vowel sounds we heard.
We pulled out a picture from a doggie basket.
Said the word.
Listened for the sound.
Dropped the picture on the board with the vowel.
Pressed the button so the doggie would bark and wag and our wonderful work.
PS Just so you don't think I'm the worst photographer in the world, I purposely choose photographs where the students have their eyes closed and are thus non-identifiable.
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