Vowel Pairs When Two Vowels Go Walking Activities With Vowel Villains

These super-fun vowel team activities allow K-3rd graders to learn about vowel pairs in an interesting and unusual way, as students become "jailers"!

The ever-popular rhyme “When two vowels go walking the first one does the talking” is supposed to help students; however, so that children are not frustrated, it is extremely important to add “…sometimes but not always” after they recite it, as there are LOTS of exceptions to the rule!

Here's how I turn frustrating into FUN:

• To build vocabulary, improve fluency, as well as spelling, I teach the “rule breakers” right along with the words that follow the rule.
• Why... because of all of the exceptions your students WILL come across.
• How many exceptions are we talking about? You may be surprised to learn (shocked even, as I was) that this cute rhyme is true less than 50% of the time! What?!
• In fact, the more words you analyze, the lower the percentage will be.
• This leaves a ton of rule-breaking words out there that totally defeat the purpose of learning it, and will definitely frustrate & confuse your students unless you tackle things differently.

Hence the "Vowel Villains" portion of this packet.

How appropriate that the word villain is a "rule breaker" as the first vowel in the ai vowel pair, does NOT do the talking.

Instead of getting frustrated, when students are continually tripped up by rule- breaking words, students will actually get excited because they’ve found yet another “convict word” to include in their "jailhouse".

Believe me, your students will LOVE this approach to word work.

My first graders were constantly on the look out for rule-breaking vowel pairs.

They enjoyed determining if a word followed the rule or not, and took absolute delight in finding “culprits” that they could add to the jailhouse.

No more grumpiness when exceptions were found!

Teacher Comments:

• "This is a HUGE, clever, and quality resource that I used very successfully with regular instruction as well as intervention."
• "My small groups loved this resource. The activities made it more visual and hands on for them."

Another thing that I include in the packet is some Rhyme Time activities.

This is another quick, easy & fun way to build vocabulary and help students find more examples of words that fit the rule.

The Packet Includes:

• 4 large “When two vowels go walking…” anchor chart posters, with a smaller version showing all of the posters on one page, along with matching bookmarks.
• 8, large vowel digraph posters to use as headers for a word wall.
• “When 2 vowels go walking…” finger puppets. (Black & white + color, so that teachers can easily make samples).

The finger puppets provide a super-fun way to introduce the "When two vowels go walking" rhyme & help children remember it, as their fingers are actually "walking".

• A set of 8, Mix & Match, “build-a-bookmark” patterns.
• Completed samples, so you can quickly & easily make examples to share with your students to help explain what you want them to do.
• 360 (10-on-a-page) word cards for ai, ea, oa, oe & ee; including a blank set of cards so you can program with more words, plus a tip list of what else you can do with the word cards, including the “Kaboom” game.
• A variety of “rule breaking activities” including a rule-breaker song to the tune of London Bridge
• 11, “Lock Them Up” worksheets, with answer keys
• A “Jail the Rule Breakers” poster, with matching worksheet & booklet.
• ai, ea, oe, ie “I broke the rule” posters
• A set of rule breaker, “build-a-bookmark” convicts, in color plus black & white.
• 84 rule-breaking word cards, with a blank set to program more
• "Rhyme Time" activities, with worksheets & posters
• Directions, tips, samples, links & photographs

Teacher Comments:

• "This was great motivation for my students- focusing on vowel "rule breakers" . I had a lot of success using this resource both whole group and small group."
• "Love the fun activities. The kids don't realize how much they are learning because they are enjoying themselves. Great products and graphics."

I’m Diane from Teach With Me, hoping that your students enjoy learning tricky vowel combinations with these interesting techniques, as much as my students have.

Click on the link to see the matching “Ys Guys & Spies” packet.

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