Sorting mats for short and long vowels

Today I’m shorting a set of free sorting mats! They’re perfect for helping kids learn the sounds of short and long vowels.

Have you seen our popular consonant sound sorting mats?  I use those to review beginning sounds. When I created the set, I didn’t include vowels because there are very few words that start with vowels… at least, very few words that can be represented with pictures.

But due to popular demand, I’m now sharing a set of mats that will help your students distinguish between short and long vowels. These mats will help them listen to the vowel sounds within the words.

The set includes ten mats and a set of nine pictures for each one.

I started by having my Four do an easy sort: he sorted pictures for short a and short o. He already knew the sounds of these letters, but if your child needs help you can put down the first picture for each mat as a clue.

We moved on with a harder sort: short e and short i. Those sounds are always harder to distinguish.

He needed a fair amount of help with this sort.

Finally, I had my Four sort short i and long i. You can see that he put the “nine” on the short i mat. I had him say the word “chick” and listen to hear if “nine” had the same sound.

To make the activity more challenging, give your child more than two mats at a time. Maybe your child is ready to sort pictures for all five short or long vowels.

There are so many possibilities with this set! I hope you get a lot of use out of them!

To prepare:

• • Print the mats and cards. Laminate for durability. (We love this laminator!)
  • If desired, put clear Velcro dots on the backs of the cards and on the mats. If you’re going to get a lot of use out of the mats, I think it’s worth the expense. Kids love them!
  • Store the mats and cards in a gallon plastic bag.

Enjoy!

Check out our other sets of free sorting mats!

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