Long I Vowel Reading Intervention Activities
This past week we focused on the Long I sound in my classroom. In my experience, learning to read long vowel sounds is one of the most difficult reading concepts for my first graders to learn. It takes practice, practice, practice! Reading long vowels is a skill we work on for several weeks to encourage mastery in my students. I have found that they always respond well to these new skills when I provide multiple different learning opportunities for each long vowel sound. We work on phonological awareness, blending, decoding, fluency, and spelling through our district curriculum. However, this is not enough to fully grasp the concept for many students. After teaching my district curriculum, I incorporate the following activities into my small group intervention rotations and afternoon literacy centers.
Long I Pumpkin Seed Manipulatives
I have been doing a lot of baking this month, so I thought I would save some of the pumpkin seeds to turn into letter tiles. I love finding FREE resources to use in my classroom. All I did was wash and dry the seeds, then write letters with a permanent marker. My students used primary lined paper to record the long I words that they made with the pumpkin seeds. This helped me to hold them accountable for their learning during centers.
Long Vowel Roll and Read Activity
During this roll it, read it, color it activity, students will roll a die to determine the word to read. Each time they read a word, they get to place a counter over the word. My students go crazy over the mini Target erasers that we all know and love. Such a great motivator for only $1! I like to laminate these worksheets to cut down on the prep work I have to do each year. I also LOVE Astrobrights paper since it adds such a fun pop of color to the worksheet. Click here to grab a 150 page pack of Astrobrights paper on Amazon.
Using Mega Blocks to Form Words
I put these blocks in a center to help my students use a tactile material to form a word. For this activity, my students focused on forming i_e words. They had to use four letters to form each word and place on the base. They recorded their words on primary lined writing paper. Click here to grab this Mega Blocks 80-Piece set on Amazon. 
Long I Cut and Sort
This long I cut and sort worksheet focuses on two specific spelling patterns. Students cut out each word and sort them into the correct box. Students whisper read the words aloud to practice reading long vowel sounds. I prepare my intensive readers for this activity by reviewing the spelling pattern prior to sorting. I have the students use two colored highlighters to identify and highlight the two spelling patterns. This helps all students to be successful during this activity.
Long I Write and Wipe
Write and wipe mats are one of my student’s favorite activities. It is also one of my favorites since it is reusable. They love to complete the activity mat so that they can choose a new card. Sometimes I think they completely forget they are learning! During this activity, my students choose a photo card, write the word that names the photo in the box, and use the word in a sentence. This resource also includes photo cards with the word written that my struggling readers can copy.
I hope that you are feeling inspired to take on the challenge of teaching long vowel sounds in your own classroom. If you want to use the resources referenced in this post, click on the links below:
Roll it, Read it, Color it Word Family Activities
Long Vowel Write and Wipe Activity Mat
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Written on November 22nd, 2017 by Laurin Brainard