Phonics Step 5: Introduce the long vowel sounds using Chart 5.

Goals: In step 5, the primary goal is learning the long vowel sounds using clue words.


Remember, short vowel mastery is a must BEFORE proceeding to long vowels! Also, Steps 5 & 6 are taught together!


Long Vowel Sounds

List of Long Vowels

Long Vowels are marked with a symbol called a ‘macron.’



Step 5: How-To Ideas

In this step, students will learn that vowels have more than one sound. They will learn the long sounds and they will begin to distinguish between the short sounds and the long sounds by observing the markings over the vowels. Hence, our emphasis on marking the short vowels in Steps 1-4.

You will introduce the long vowel sounds in the same way that you introduced the short vowel sounds in Step 1.


 
 

Read the chart with clue words:

  • A says ā, ā   acorn
  • E says ē, ē   eagle
  • I says  ī,  ī   ice cream
  • O says ō, ō  open
  • U says ū, ū  uniform

Then read just the vowel sounds:







 





 





 





 





 

Reading Alert!

You can progress on to Step 6 BEFORE your child has mastered all of the long vowel sounds!


This completes our Step 5 ideas. Now let’s move on to Step 6.