[Squirl]

I have a group of kids (first grade) that are having some trouble differentiating between long and short vowel sounds. It's tough, though, because they have shown me that they know the sounds. If I ask them what sound they hear in a word (for example, the word cake... segment the sounds: /k/-/a/-/k/, tell the vowel sound: /a/, long or short? long), they can do it. But if I give them a group of pictures with long/short vowel sounds, they name the pictures but can't sort the sounds. This is causing them to have a tough time with the silent e spelling pattern. Any ideas on how I can help them remember which vowel sounds are long vs. short?

[shelmo77]

I tell my kids the long vowel screams its name. So with the CVCe I tell them the e stays quiet, but it is pinching the a to make the a scream its name. It helps some kids know the different.

[Squirl]

I tell mine the same thing, and they're pretty good at *reading* the words (some of them do still forget about the silent e when they are reading words, but they know the deal when I point out the e). My current issue is that they can't *hear* the difference... so more of a phonemic awareness issue than a phonics issue...