Vowels make more than one sound! Recognizing letters is a crucial skill for early readers. Recognizing the sounds they make is the next step. Help your child become a fluent reader and speaker with this short E lesson.

Bag, cat and cap are all examples of short A words that kindergarteners will be learning to read this year. You can support this learning with a guided exploration of the short A sound. Kids will be taught how to identify the short A within text, in addition to the corresponding sound. Check out our short A printables for more phonics practice.

Grammar is an essential part of the second grade language arts curriculum. This guided lesson teaches second graders how to properly use collective nouns, additonal nouns and verbs, and provides plenty of opportunities to practice these grammar rules in context. For more important practice with nouns and verbs, download and print the grammar worksheets that we suggest alongside this lesson.

This guided lesson focuses on short U, as in jump, sun, and duck. Kids learn how to recognize and read this sound, then practice with short U words. Breaking up lessons based on vowel sounds helps kids chunk concepts together, easing retention and boosting phonics skills. Once you are through with the lesson, consider downloading some of the accompanying short U printables for extended learning.

Understanding how to pronounce the short I sound, such as in pill and film, is important for first graders encountering words they don't know. This guided lesson teaches kids all about the Short I sound, and provides lots of examples of short I words. Targeted practice like this helps to reinforce kids' understanding of short vowel sounds and boosts phonemic awareness, upon which lifelong reading skills are based.