ABCmouse.com’s Award-Winning Reading Games to Learn Vowel Sounds
ABCmouse’s interactive reading games can help teach kids learn all the phonics fundamentals they need to become successful and confident readers, including short vowel sounds, long vowel sounds, and consonant sounds. Best of all, our fun reading games span the entire range of early reading.
From the beginning of preschool through the end of second grade, you can rely on ABCmouse to help your child learn the fundamentals of vowel sounds.
Our reading games are available on Mac, PC, Android, iOS, and Amazon-powered device types, so that your child can access ABCmouse, whatever the time or wherever the place.
ABCmouse.com has also won several important awards, including: • Parents’ Choice Gold Award • Mom’s Choice Awards Gold • Teachers’ Choice Award
And while awards are nice, the true measure of success is how many children using ABCmouse are learning and growing, so we asked the people who know best: their parents.
In a study surveying more than 5,000 parents who use ABCmouse with their children, 85% of those parents reported a significant positive impact on their child’s learning.
Finding the Best Short and Long Vowel Sound Activities for Kids
Short vowel sounds are often considered the “soft” sounds of the vowels a, e, i, o, and u.
For example, a short vowel words list could include the words cat, bed, fill, box, and cup. When a single vowel occurs between consonants, it is often the short vowel sound.
Long vowel sounds are vowel sounds that are pronounced the same as their letter names.
For example, the words cake, keep, bike, boat, and cute could be in a long vowel words list. Long vowel sounds are made with pairs of letters, such as ee and oa, or with the vowel-consonant-e pattern as in the words rake and zone.
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In searching for the best short and long vowel sound educational activities, you may look at programs that are interactive and provide engaging practice with learning vowels and their sounds.
Many ABCmouse vowel activities focus on identifying vowels and their sounds, along with distinguishing between short and long vowel sounds.
It is important for children to understand the different vowel sounds in order to improve fluency and vocabulary when reading.
ABCmouse provides a variety of interactive books, games, and puzzles that offer children a range of ways to practice short and long vowel sounds to help develop their literacy skills.
To help your child develop a better understanding of short and long vowel sounds, ABCmouse offers many fun and interactive vowel games, including: • Word Search Games • Vowel Sound Puzzles • Cutout Puzzles • Vowel Sound Games • Read-Aloud Books
Why Choose ABCmouse?
Parents and teachers recommend ABCmouse for its animated and engaging program, which captures your child’s attention through bright colors, lively cartoon characters, and interactive games.
ABCmouse’s early childhood and elementary curriculum is created by expert teachers with decades of experience in early literacy instruction who also know how to get children excited about learning.
Using original songs, puzzles, art activities, and printables, ABCmouse can help your child practice vowel names and vowel sounds, both of which as essential for building a foundation for literacy.
ABCmouse activities can help to build on that strong foundation that will continue to grow with your child as he or she progresses through the ABCmouse experience.
Vowels vs. Consonants
The alphabet is made up of 26 letters: 5 vowels and 21 consonants.
Vowels in English are the letters a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y when it comes at the end of a word. Vowel sounds are made without closing any part of the mouth or throat.
Consonants are all the other letters in the alphabet that are not vowels, such as b, c, d, f, t, and z. Consonant sounds are made by blocking air using your teeth, tongue, or lips. For example, say the sound for the letter B, “buh.” Your lips come together to block air to make the sound.
ABCmouse’s early childhood and elementary curriculum contains many activities and games designed to help your child practice short and long vowel sounds.
Activities and songs on ABCmouse, such as “The Letter U Song,” can help your child learn the difference between vowels and consonants, which is a key skill for beginning readers.
Reading aloud will help your child practice proper mouth and tongue formation when sounding out vowel sounds and consonant sounds so that speech is clear and understandable. Your child can practice reading aloud with ABCmouse’s books.
Long Vowel Sounds
Long vowel sounds refer to vowel sounds that are the same as their letter names.
Long vowels in English are the easiest to pronounce correctly; when you name a vowel, you say its long vowel sound.
When a vowel is paired with another vowel, it often makes a long vowel sound, as in the words road and team.
Words with the vowel-consonant-e pattern, as in hide and mule, have a long vowel sound.
ABCmouse has many activities and puzzles for identifying and using long vowel sounds.
Short Vowel Sounds
Short vowel sounds are the vowel sounds you hear in cab, bell, chip, dot, and bug.
When a vowel is followed by a consonant, it usually makes the short vowel sound.
ABCmouse’s short vowel sound activities include the series Carnival of Fun, which provides an entertaining environment for your child to practice short vowel sounds.
Diphthongs
A diphthong is a single vowel sound that is formed by combining two vowel sounds.
Your child can learn and practice diphthongs through ABCmouse’s variety of activities, including a Spelling Cutout Puzzle.
The vowel sounds in the words boy, coin, brown, and loud are the most common diphthongs. These are special vowel sounds that your child will encounter in many age-appropriate books and activities.
Teaching Vowel Sounds with ABCmouse
Once young readers have a foundation of oral vocabulary, phonological awareness, and alphabet knowledge, they are ready to begin associating letters and sounds and then reading words and sentences.
The process of learning to read by associating letters and sounds is called phonics.
ABCmouse’s curriculum provides children with a variety of vowel sound games, songs, and activities designed for teaching vowel sounds and then allowing children many opportunities for practice.
Repetitive practice is important for beginning readers because through repeated exposure, they can begin to develop some automaticity, or the capability to recognize words automatically, in reading.
There are many fun vowel sound activities featured in the ABCmouse curriculum, including: • Missing Letters: Vowel Sounds • Crossword: Vowel Sounds • Find It: Mr. Little • Word Search Games • Spelling Cutout Puzzles
Do you want to know more about creating an amazing learning experience for your child with ABCmouse’s reading program for kids?
Visit ABCmouse.com today!