Suggestions for Teaching the Vowels in First Grade

Learning Objectives:
§ Identify the five vowels.
§ Describe how vowels are ‘singing’ letters – they can sing different sounds whereas most
of the consonants don’t.
§ Write and memory read simple key sentence for each “singing” letter from an image
from a story told.
§ Begin to say correct short vowel sound when reading the vowel letter.
§ Identify and spell some short vowel CVC words.
§ Neatly print letters.
§ Begin to neatly print words with correct spacing between them.
§ Continue memory reading.
§ Identify and spell 12 new sight words.

Overall Teaching Suggestions:

1. Share how unique the vowels are.
The vowel sounds transport our souls out of our bodies. They sing! They sing different
sounds! How magical!! Ask the eurythmy teacher for her support in bringing these unique
letters by emphasizing the vowels during your block. Share stories that describe the soul
gesture of each vowel sound. You may want to create a simple sentence that summarizes
the story that the students write. Here are stories I chose. I wanted to give the children an
experience of the singing nature of each vowel, so I included the soul gesture of the
archetypal vowels along with the long and short vowel sounds. I taught them in this order:

A: Sweet Porridge (Grimm’s story), /Ah/ is feeling of wonder. Sentence from story: You
are an angel always at hand.

I: Isaac and His Lantern story, long I is picture of space between the physical depths of
outer reality to those heights of spirit that lie behind or between sense impressions and
even words, of complete stillness. Sentence: I tend to the light within.

O: Aurora Weaver story, long /o/ is picture of “embracing the fruits of the world.”
Steiner shared that “O expresses the feeling that we have when we place ourselves in an
intelligent relationship to something which at the same time called forth our wonder.”
Sentence: Oh, thank you for this cloak of gold.

E: The Boy and the Tree, Long e is that of maintaining the balance between the forces of
uprightness and selfishness. Sentence: Fir tree you are a blessing to me!

U: Jorinda and Joringel (Grimm’s story), /oo/ is picture of going through the eye of the
needle. Sentence: Walk through, be true!

2. Introduce the vowel letters with concrete images

Audrey McAllen shared that children need a concrete image for the English vowel letter
names first. Here are her suggestions: Angel for A, Eagle for E, Icicle for I, Opal ring for O,
Unicorn for U.

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 I used the eurythmy gesture images from my stories to show how the letters are formed:
Ana in AH gesture for A, Isaac standing tall for I, Aurora in O gesture for O, Fir tree with 3
branches for E, and Joringel with U gesture for U.

I suggest that you place more focus on the concrete images and kinesthetic cues for the
short vowels. Here are my suggestions:
Apple for short a. When you bite into an apple, you say short /a/
Egg for short e. Show egg as a fist on side. An older person who is hard of hearing says,
‘eh’ with hand to ear which looks like an e.
Octopus for short o. shape of your mouth when you say short /o/.
Itsy imp for short i. He stands up straight with his tassel on his head.
Umbrella for short u. Show umbrella upside down without its handle after a gust of wind
knocks it out of your hand.

3. Practice encoding and decoding the short vowel sounds using these concrete images as
anchors for the children. April’s video of her song and hand gestures is perfect for practicing
the short vowel sounds in a fun and creative way

4. Space out the introductions and practice of the letters E and I and also space out the letters
O and U. The short vowel sounds /ĕ/ as in edge and /ĭ/ as in igloo are very similar and hard
for students to distinguish. Never introduce them back to back. Likewise, the vowel sound
/ŭ/ as in umbrella and /ŏ/ as in octopus are also similar. Space them out as well.

Suggested Rhythm for Introducing the Vowel Letters

Example: Letter/O/

Day 1
1. Tell a story that has the feeling of joy or surprise, stressing the sentence that you will
use such as Oh, thank you for this cloak of gold.

Day 2
1. Before class write the sentence on the BB with all the Os highlighted in a color.
2. Lead the class in a review of the story with emphasis on the feeling aspect. Talk about
the thoughtfulness and love of the main character with the children.
3. Recite the sentence from the story with the children, doing eurythmy gesture for for oh
and cloak.
4. Show the sentence on the BB. Read it to them, pointing to each word. Have them
memory read it with you.
5. Share how the gesture of the main character became a symbol – the letter O – and write
on the BB. Highlight how it begins “in the heavens” moving clockwise. Show lowercase
o. Talk about how he looks just like his mother!
6. Have them practice air writing the capital and lowercase O with you. Then have them
trace it in a sand box, write on printing paper, paint, etc.
7. For bookwork, lead them in a drawing in their main lesson book of Aurora in the
archetypal gesture of O.

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Day 3
1. Introduce the short O sound verse. Share how there are many words that have the short
sound of O. Introduce the image for the short vowel sound. (in this case, octopus). This
poster then is put up with the alphabet display as a guide for decoding and encoding.
2. Have them “read” the text along with you as a volunteer uses the pointer stick to guide
the reading.
3. Ask volunteers to find a word in the text with a higlighted O in text and point to it. Some
children may be able to read the word. Otherwise you read it for the class to repeat.
4. If time, practice writing Oo on practice paper, slates, outside, etc.
5. For bookwork, lead the children to copy the sentence into their main lesson book.

Day 4
1. Recite the short O verse.
2. Practice short o sound with one of a number of activities. Example: You say a CVC word
with a short O sound in the middle. Partners use consonant letter cards with a vowel O
card to spell CVC words w/partner. You write the list on the BB.
3. Read the sentence together and/or in rows. Do an analysis activity.
4. For bookwork, lead the student in drawing an octupus, writing short o and the word
octopus. If time, ask volunteers to think of a word that has the short o sound to write in
the book.

Day 5-on
6. Lead the students in practice activities to support their long term memory of the letter
O/ short /o/ relationship.

A Few Considerations
Once you have introduced short /i/ and then short /e/, emphasize their pronunciations often.
Usually, a third of a class will need this support as it is more difficult for them to differentiate
between the two sounds. Referring to the key pictures (such as imp and egg) will be a great
support. Watch out for how they pronounce short /u/ and short /u/; these sounds, too, can be
confused one for the other.

There are 15 different vowels sounds in English language. It’s important for you to be very
comfortable with knowing these sounds and how we can make those sounds.

Long
Short e ē i: Pete
a a æ hat
Short
Long i i ɪ kit
a ā ei hate
Long
Short i ī ɑi kite
e e ɛ pet
Short
o o ɑ hop

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 Long
o ō ou hope
Short
u u u cut
Long
u ū ɪu: cute
Short
oo oo ʊ book
Long
oo ōō u: boot

oy oy oi boy
ow ow ɑu cow
ir ir ɹ bird

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