1. a_e

2. ea*
There are two kids on the teeter totter. One wants to say “ee” the other wants to say “_e_” . Put your hand straight in the air, and balance your other one on the tips of the other fingers (Like a time-out signal) and go back and forth saying “ee” “_e_”.

3. _e_

4. er

5. i_e

6. ee
Draw the ears and whiskers around the sound of “ee”. Tell them it looks like a squeaky mouse that says, ee,ee,ee. Put your index and ring fingers at the sides of your mouth and pretend your mouse teeth are chomping up and down as you say ee.

7. _o_

8. _a_

9. au
Aunt Unice says, “Au, you are so cute.” Place your hands on your cheeks as you say it. You can make a connection to the letter u by saying that each arm of the u is a side of the baby’s cheeks.

10. _u_

11. ar

12. _i_

13. e_e

14. ow *
Windmill your arm in the shape of the letter o, just like a boxer winding up. Say “ooooooooooaaaaaaaa”. Then, punch your arm and say “ow”!

15. ai
This is the sound of ay. Tell the kids to put their thumbs up in the air, and just like the Fonz, say “aaaaayyyyyy” as you move your arms thumbs in a circle in front of your chest.

16. o_e

17. or

18. ay
This is the sound of ay. Tell the kids to put their thumbs up in the air, and just like the Fonz, say “aaaaayyyyyy” as you move your arms thumbs in a circle in front of your chest.

19. ur

20. oa
Oh, Canada. Circle your arm in the shape of the letter o. Sing, oh, oh, oh, oh.

21. ue
The letter u is a stinky vowel. He toots, and his vowel friend says “uu, you”. Wave your hand in front of your nose as if waving away a nasty smell.

22. ou
This is the sound of ou. Tell the kids that the letter o is the tide pool where the crab lives. Tell the kids that the crabs arms look like the shape of u. Tell them to make their arms llook like the crab arms and pinch, p inch, pinch saying ou, ou, ou.

23. ir

24. ie*
The eye on the letter eye will help them with the “I” sound. When the mouse sees the cat’s eyes, he says ee. Thus, the two sounds: ee and I. You point to your eye. The mouse says, I see you, “ee,ee,ee” . Make the mouse motion with your hands and teeth as you say ee.

25. u_e*

26. * oo

27. ui
The letter u is a stinky vowel. He toots, and his vowel friend says “uu, you”. Wave your hand in front of your nose as if waving away a nasty smell.

28. oy
Here is the second little pig, with an o-shaped snout. He is the end pig. He goes up and down the letter y looking for his tail. He says oy, oy, oy. Make your piggy snout again and wiggle your tail.

29. ew
This skunk sprays a stinky smell that makes you say “ew”. See the ew smell going across the screen. Wave your hand in front of your nose, saying e-w, ew.

30. oi

31. al
Spread arms and say “all” . I will eat ALL the candy.

32. aw

33. wa
In most words, “wa” will say “wah”– the way it does in water. Have them pretend to hold a cup of water (it’s the letter a) and drink. I usually say “wah, wah, wah, wah” in the tune to Beethoven’s 5th symphony.

34. wor_
Hook arms together and wiggle like a worm. Worth, word, work, world, worry, worship, worse, worship, worm, etc. are words with this sound.
Wore and worn are exceptions to the rule.

35. war_

36. _y*
The letter “y” should be taught from the very beginning as having a “ee” sound. If you try and pronounce any word that starts with y, (ex. Yarn) you may do so by starting it with an ee sound. If kids are taught this from the beginning, then they will automatically do it when they come to words where y is in an ending position, such as happy, funny, etc. If you do this, then all you have to do is teach the few small words where y says “I” as a family– ex. my, by, try, cry, fry, etc.

37. _le
Put the back of your hand to your forehead as if saying “woe is me”, and say , “I feel ill”

38. _ed*
Ed has three sounds-- ed, d, and t. I tell the kids, that Ted is Ded (those are the two letters that make it say ed). On the /d/ sound i hold up the pretend sword, on the “ed” I plunge it into my heart, and then on the /t/ I rub my eyes like I am crying tears t,t,t,t.

39. _ing
Put your hand on chest and sing, “ing, ing ing, ing, ing,ing, ing” (I sing it as you would a scale, going up one pitch at a time) The letter i is the microphone. Try having them plug their nose as they sing– they will discover that ng is a nasal sound and cannot be produced unless air comes out your nose.

40. ough
This is a ghost sound. The gh is silent. Two of the most common sounds for this vowel is “oa” and “uff” . I say the big bad wolf saw the pigs and went Oh!!!! (rub tummy) and then (uff, uff, uff)– as if he is trying to blow their house down.

41. igh
This is a ghost sound– the gh is silent. I like to teach this sound as a word family with ight– fight, light, right, sight, tight, etc.

42. eigh
This is a ghost sound. I wiggle eight fingers and say “ay” in a spooky manner. This reminds them that the word eight is spelled with this vowel.