Long A and Short A Resources

When initially learning the alphabet, we teach our students that each letter has its own sound. But they will soon find that some of the letters in the English alphabet make more than one sound. Vowels, like the letter a, make two sounds, namely the long and short vowel sounds.
The short a makes the vowel sound associated with the letter a. This can be heard in words like apple, clap, and mat. The long a sound makes the sound of the name of the letter a like in face, lake, and tape.
There are rules associated with what sounds vowels make in different situations. Teaching these to your students and having them practice using the resources provided by Education.com may help as they learn to read and write. The rules are listed below:

• If a word has only one syllable and the vowel is the first letter of the word, it will make the short vowel sound (e.g. as, at, or ant)
• If a word has only one syllable and the vowel is the first letter of the word, it will make the short vowel sound (e.g. as, at, or ant)
• If the vowel is the middle letter of a word and falls between two consonants (a consonant-vowel-consonant or CVC word) it will most often make the short vowel sound (e.g. map, cap, or mat)
• When a word ends in the silent e, the vowel will make the sound of its name (e.g. lake, tape, or fate)
• When paired with an i or y in a vowel digraph, the letter a will make the long vowel sound (e.g. rain, waist, day, or play)