Tricky and Long Vowel Sounds
This is the time to review the alphabet as vowels and consonants. Read our blog post about books that teach vowel sounds.
CVCe words are a part of the tricky vowel blends, I suggest introducing them after mastery of CVC words. Review Word Family worksheets and activities to practice long vowel sounds.
- Bossy r sounds include words with ar, ir, er, ur (car, shirt, her, hurt).
- Long a sounds include ai, ay, a_e (train, play, make).
- Long e sounds happen when these letter combinations are found at the end of a word: ee, ea, e_e, y (see, read, here, happy).
- Long i sounds happen when these letters are found at the end of a word: ie, i_e, igh, y (pie, like, night, my).
- Long o sounds include oa, ow, o_e (goat, snow, home).
- Long u sounds include ue, u_e, ew (cue, fuse, few).
- Short o sounds happen when these letters are found in the middle of a word: aw, au, al (saw, caught, walk)

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Rules to making long vowel sounds
- Vowels at the end of a syllable make the long sound. (ba/by, he/ro, mu/sic)
- Vowel teams can make the long sound. (beat, meat, seed, they, tie, dew)
- Silent e makes the previous vowel long. (like, make, tone)
- i and o make their long sound when they come before two consonants. (mind, bold, right)
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