How To: Identify Short Vowel Mouth Positions

• Lesson Objective: Identify the mouth positions unique to each short vowel sound.

• Grouping:  Small-group

• Methodology:  Five photos of the short vowel mouth positions are labeled with the corresponding vowel sound.

• Duration: < 5(warm-up)

  
  

Red Leather, Yellow Leather. Unique New York. Unique New York.

Familiar with these articulation warm-ups? The purpose of this activity is similar, although no tongue twisters are involved. Short vowel sounds can be challenging to differentiate, but knowing the mouth positions of each can help greatly. When pronouncing short a, our chin drops. A hand under the chin can emphasize this. For short e, place your fingers on the corners of your mouth while smiling. You can depict short i by touching the nose as it scrunches up a bit. Our mouths do not open as far in a grin as with /e/. When making the short o sound, our mouths conveniently form an <o>. Circle your finger around your mouth to draw the <o>. Lastly, short /u/ mostly occurs in our gut. Our mouths open a bit but what most differentiates this vowel sound from the others is the way our diaphragms contract. Place your hands on your diaphragm to feel the action.

As I've mentioned, a key component of mastery is repetition, repetition, REPETITION. We revisit short vowel mouth positions several times during the short vowel unit and beyond. I recommend scaling back to once per unit after students demonstrate mastery. It's a good idea to continue to revisit for reinforcement.

🖍 How the Routine Works

While working in small groups, students receive a mouth positions chart in a plastic sleeve. Each sleeve features a different order of vowels to prevent copying and memorization of the order of the vowels rather than the positions of the mouth. Students identify the mouth positions unique to each short vowel sound. On the backside, students sketch the mouth positions. Depending on time, students could engage in one or both of the activities. I encourage them to whisper or say the phoneme aloud as they write, making it a multisensory experience.

Check out the Interactive Unit Guides to see how this lesson fits within each unit. You can grab a copy of this activity here.