Y: The Sometimes Vowel

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

The letter y is both a consonant and a vowel!

To learn more about y as a consonant, visit our lesson under Additional Resources in the right-hand sidebar.

This lesson will focus on when y is a vowel.

When used as a vowel, the letter y can make an /i/ sound or an /e/ sound.

Learn about the /i/ sound first!

As you watch the video below, pay attention to the words that use y as a vowel to make the /i/ sound.

• Did you notice that all the words in this video have one syllable?

Write down two words from the video.

Clap the syllables for the words you wrote down. When you clap once for a word, that is a one-syllable word.

Now, learn how y can be a vowel that makes the /e/ sound as you watch the video below.

• Did you notice all of the words in this video had more than one syllable?

Write down two words from the video.

Clap the syllables for the words you wrote down. The number of times you clap, is how many syllables there are in the word.

When y is used at the end of a word with more than one syllable, it usually makes an /e/ sound.

• Can you think of a word not in the video that ends with an /e/ sound or an /i/ sound?
• Is this sound spelled with the letter y?

Move to the Got It? section to explore more words that use y as a vowel.