Teaching the littles is so much fun! I love introducing the vowels to my literacy kiddos.
Welcome to another edition of…
I don’t know how you teach the vowels but we refer to them as the STARS 🌟⭐ of the alphabet! When I introduce the vowels I get all ‘extra’ and over the top and make a really big deal about how ‘famous’ they are… I talk about rolling out the RED CARPET for these special letters/sounds.
They are typically very curious at this point and want to know what in the world I could possibly be talking about.
Enter in….
I make a large star and write one vowel on each of the POINTS of the star then in the center write 5 stars of the alphabet. I have 5 small stars like the ones on the pencils up by my wall alphabet too so they see them there all year. Then I also make 5 stars like the ones you see and place them on popsicle sticks or pencils as props. We talk about how they are so special because every word has a vowel
( the ‘y’ as a vowel lesson comes later ) and how they are so lucky because they make 2 sounds and are super important to our alphabet and words.
This time around since we are virtual teaching and on zoom I actually wore this star as a badge. It was pretty big and obnoxious but I got my point across with it.
One of the early lessons is to write the kids names ( from your small groups ) on large chart/anchor paper. Then I ask them where these ‘famous’ vowels are in their name…can they find them???
I give them the STAR WAND of course to use to find the vowels in their name. THEY LOVE THIS!
Keep the momentum going throughout the year but especially these first few months reminding them that the vowels are the STARS of the alphabet. They will soon learn to recognize them and refer to them as a ‘star’. Also the fact that a star has 5 points and a vowel is written on each point is very visual and helpful to them as well. Have fun with it and let me know how you expand on these ideas!
This picture shows you that you can use this idea IN PERSON or ON LINE it doesn’t matter, the point still comes across and it’s a fun lesson on introducing vowels to the littles.
If you want to grab the song for yourself and other activities to reinforce this idea you can grab my short vowel pack here:
Happy teaching my friends!!!!
xoxo,
