Last Updated on October 20, 2023 by Editorial Team
Words can be misinterpreted if the vowels are not used correctly. Vowels are an important part of any English word. Many famous personalities have left us with several quotes on vowels. Therefore, reading and making appropriate use of them comfortably is crucial to becoming a great reader and writer. Neither all vowels sound similar, nor is every sound written with the same vowel. For young learners, these peculiarities of the English language can leave them confused or even frustrated.
Do your students often find trouble with vowel sounds? Maybe they use ‘e’ instead of ‘a’, or ‘i’ instead of ‘e’? Or they may simply require more practice? Teaching vowel sounds can be challenging at times. But, there are no shortcuts to this because without differentiating between the vowel sounds, students won’t read, write, or even spell words correctly.
Fortunately, learning these vowel sounds does not have to be tedious. This post will look at some animated, fun, and engaging vowel games that will help your young student master the sounds easily.
Are games really needed for learning vowels?
Vowels are the sounds you make just by flowing air over your vocal cords, and their name comes from the Latin word vox, which means “voice.” Linguists believe they don’t require any friction because the sound is produced without the use of the tongue, teeth, or lips. To make distinct vowel sounds, you must change the shape of your mouth.
You can’t expect your child to know the vowels just by giving a technical description. So, how to get started? Easy! One can begin by having fun and playing online games and apps. These games and apps can benefit in the following ways-
- Students learn to decrypt and decipher unfamiliar words, as games help them understand a word and the various syllables. This way, little learners do not have to memorize the words that need an extensive vocabulary. ‘Rare words’ that are otherwise challenging to grasp for kindergarteners become easy, as they often hear the word in the games.
- Children become more fluent readers right from their inception. When they have fun reading vowels and multisyllabic words, they get into the habit of reading unfamiliar words faster.
- Classrooms can be super competitive for the student. Many children might even shy away from answering a question because of the fear of answering it incorrectly. However, when they play games, their only competition is themselves. This results in less awkwardness and better results.
- Games help in understanding the rules of vowels better. The child might be curious to know why ‘umbrella’ starts with ‘an’ but ‘unique’ would not have the ‘an’, even when both start with the letter ‘U.’ This rule of exception can be explained better with the help of games.
Fun online vowel games for kindergarteners
Unlike consonants, each vowel can make more than one sound or could be completely silent, having no sound at all. The distinction between long and short sounds is the most difficult aspect of teaching vowels. Many of the reading challenges we see in literacy classes at school are caused by confusion with the sounds or a lack of understanding of the role of vowels in words.
But don’t worry; we’ll help you out. Here are a few of the best vowel games for young learners to help them comprehend the differences between vowel sounds and master them rapidly.
1. Long and Short Vowel Sort
In this game, the students are challenged to sort all the pictures with long vowels into one cart and short vowels into another. This also helps them decipher letter-sound correlations. Thanks to its colorful arrangement and great animations, which keep the students engaged for longer periods.
2. Short and Long Vowels Games for Kids
This is a fun balloon-popping game that helps little kids learn vowels. Spending a few minutes playing this game will improve their skills with short and long vowel sounds. The gameplay involves reading the prompt displayed at the top and popping the balloon, which has a word containing the correct vowel sound.
Players can choose to practice between short vowels, long vowels, or both. Based on the selection, prompts appear on the screen. The catchy music and the fun challenge of popping fast-moving balloons are the highlights of this fun game, which can be played using a mouse or a touchscreen.
3. Vowel Pairs Cat Food Spelling
There is a central character named Roly in this online gameplay who is on the lookout for vowel-pair words. Students are supposed to create words with common vowels they are provided with to obtain food for Roly. But, because the clock is ticking, students need to act quickly. This game is so much fun that the kindergarteners will learn the vowel sounds without even realizing it. It is great for learning simple words and homophones.
4. Silent E Word Sort
Silent E transforms short vowel words into long vowel words. By spotting this typical spelling pattern, youngsters learn how to categorize long and short vowels in this phonics game. Children can enhance fundamental reading abilities in a fun way by practicing this important rule in this enjoyable school-themed game.
5. Short A Photoshoot
Challenge your child to locate things in this wonderful evening landscape that shorten the sound to help them develop vowel sounds. He’ll first peek through Officer Ice Cream’s special X-ray camera, then snap photos of all the goods whose names begin with the letter A. This game helps youngsters distinguish vowel sounds in words for genuinely good phonics practice even when they don’t see the words spelled out.
6. Spot The Silent E Words: Camping
Long vowels are important in first grade; let your youngster learn about silent e-words while having fun with this charming camping scenario! Early learners search the campground for silent e-words. Kids will be having so much fun playing detective that they won’t even realize they’re learning long vowel words.
7. Short Vowel Games
In this short vowel game, players are given a set of pictures and their names. But the challenge here is that each name has a missing vowel. Players must pick the correct vowel from the list of vowels displayed at the top and drag it to the empty space provided. If their choice of vowel is correct, the word is read out by a voice prompt. If incorrect, a buzzer sound tells them to try the challenge one more time.
The power of vowels
The way we perceive a language is greatly influenced by vowels. Focusing on them is especially crucial in English, as it is a non-phonetic language.
Knowing vowels is a prerequisite for understanding and writing in the language. Create a string of consonants and ask your young one to read it out. They will quickly realize that vowels give meaning to words and help them read properly. From the initial stages of their reading skills development, kindergarteners must be introduced to the power of vowels.
Once the students have a firm grasp of the vowels and the sounds they reflect, they can apply what they’ve learned. For young children, decoding words and learning the laws of vowels in context opens up a whole new world of learning and reading. One of the essential building elements along the route is the understanding of vowels.
Final thoughts
Initially, children find it challenging to learn short vowels and their sounds. Spelling tests just add to their burden, especially if they find it difficult to distinguish them. As a result, reading is difficult for them as well. When it comes to reading difficulties, children frequently have similar issues across grade levels. If the basics are not clear in the beginning, students may find it challenging to read fluently in the next grades.
It’s easy to teach vowels using fun online games as long as you remember to be consistent and have fun with them. Aim for at least 5-15 minutes each day for such fun sessions. It won’t be long before your young learner is reading it to you.
An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’,