Today I’m sharing a set of free short vowel worksheets to help your child spell simple words.
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I use very few worksheets with my preschooler – almost none, in fact. However, we’ve spent many months learning about short vowel words in a variety of hands-on ways. So I created a simple set of worksheets for some beginning spelling practice.
Don’t get me wrong. I really don’t expect my four-year-old to sit down and spell words with a pencil and paper. He’s still learning to write letters correctly, and proper penmanship is not something we’ll spend much time on until he’s closer to starting kindergarten.
But he can use alphabet stamps!
Short vowel worksheets
We started with a short a page, because short a is often the easiest short vowel for kids to hear. After seeing the picture of a bag, he knew that a b was first. I asked him what was next, and he said a “g.” This was an excellent guess and not a surprising one. In the writing that he’s doing, he does not often put a vowel in the words unless I prompt him.
But I know he’s ready to move on, so I made sure he left a spot for the vowel.
Then we looked at the word again. In the photo above, he’s checking his work.
After determining that the missing letter was an a, he moved onto the picture of a van. This time he remembered the a on his first time through.
He completed this page and part of another before he’d had enough for the day.
But you’ll find a lot more in the pack! Here’s how it breaks down:
- Page 1: Terms of Use
- Page 2: Answer Key
- Pages 3-6: Short a words
- pages 7-8: Short e words
- Pages 9-10: Short i words
- Pages 11-12; Short o words
- Pages 13-14: Short u words
- Pages 15-17: Mixed practice
You’ll even find pages with words that have beginning blends and digraphs, like this one. For the word crab, for example, your child will need to hear both the /c/ and /r/ sound in the first part of the word. This will be quite challenging for early readers and writers, so be sure to give assistance when needed.
Don’t have alphabet stamps? No problem! These pages are designed to fit perfectly with my free printable letter tiles. My beginning blend and digraph tiles will fit perfectly, too.
Be sure to check out some of my other free printables for short vowel words!

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Word Slider Cards
$10.00
Word slider cards are a great tool for helping kids blend sounds together to make words. This bundle includes over 300 printable short vowel word slider cards.