Penny Slide Activity

Vowel Intensives are used to practice difficult sounds. It is a mini-review of any miscued sounds in the 3-part drill. (Vowel intensives can also be used when miscues occur in dictation words and sentences.)

*Vowel Intensives are for review only. They are intended for previously taught sounds which still pose difficulties for the students.

The three levels of the Vowel Intensive are:

• Level One: Pure sounds.

/ă/, /ĕ/, /ĕ/, /ă/, /ă/, /ă/, /ă/, /ĕ/

• Level Two: Word families.

-at, -ed, -em, -eb, -ack, -am, -ep, -ag

• Level Three: CVC words and syllables.

fam, nev, feb, mag, bas, neb, gam

Vowel Intensives can be used with any confusing sounds, single consonants, blends, or word families.

Vowel Intensive Activity Idea:

Penny Slide

Materials: index cards, pennies

• Give students two halves of an index card and a penny. Students are to write the review sounds to be practiced on the index cards then place cards about a foot apart on their desks. Ask students to slide the penny to the sound they hear (give them a starting sound). If you say the same sound twice, you should not hear any sliding.

• Challenge: ask your advanced students to take a turn saying the vowel sounds.

Written by Ingrid Hartig

Ingrid is an Education Consultant with Brainspring.

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