Contributor: Melissa LaRusso. Lesson ID: 12157
There are long-haired dogs and short-haired dogs; long vacations and short vacations; long waits and short waits. Learn (and sing about) the "long and short" of vowel sounds and how to recognize them!
This girl has long hair in the first picture and short hair in the second picture. Do you know any letters that have a short sound and a long sound?
There are five vowels in the alphabet.
a, e, i, o, and u are all vowels. Sometimes the letter "y" is a vowel. To learn more about the letter "y" as a vowel, visit the Elephango lesson found under Additional Resources in the right-hand sidebar.
Every word you make must have a vowel in it. These vowels make two sounds, a long sound and a short sound. Watch The Vowel Song: Long and Short Vowel Sounds| Learning English for Kids, from Scratch Garden, to hear the sounds these letters make:
Tell your teacher or parent the sounds the vowels make. First, say the short sound, then say the long sound.
Now try to name a word with a long /a/ sound.
Very good!
Before you move on to the Got It? section, see if you can name words with long and short sounds of the other vowels: e, i, o, u, and maybe even y! Your parent or teacher can help you keep track!