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Vowel Sticks Intervention Activity: How To!

There is so much to share and so little time to BLOG!  I've been wanting to share this resource for a years, yes you read correctly YEARS.  Better late than never.....


In my TPT store you will find a new resource: Vowel Sticks Intervention Activity.  This activity is inspired by my Orton Gillingham training from IMSE (Institute for Multi-Sensory Education).  I use this activity at least once a week in my intervention groups receiving multi-sensory phonics instruction.

In the training you learn the steps for the vowel activity.  Please visit my TPT store to purchase the Vowel Sticks Intervention Activity for $2! 

Here are my modified steps and stages. 

Stage 1: Students are being introduced to the activity and learning the process of call and respond.

  1.  Students remove the vowel sticks from the bag in a sequential and identical order, I use a, e, i, o, u.  (ideally you would only include the short vowels that you have taught to this point)
  2. Students sit with vowel sticks in front of them while the teacher has nothing in front of him/her.
  3. Teacher uses a predetermined list of vowel sounds to call.  Teacher says the sound and the students respond by holding up the correct stick, repeating the sound and saying the letters name.  It might sound like this "/u/, u says /u/".  The call doesn't matter as much as that it is the same every time.  The teacher needs to make a clear call expectation for the students and then keep it consistent.
  4. Once the teacher has run through the sounds needed to be practiced (they should each be practiced several times and not always in the same order) then students re-stack their sticks and put them back in the baggie.
Stage 2: Students are ready to move from single sounds to two sound syllables with the vowel sound in the initial position (i.e.: id, ut, ap, eb)
  1. Students remove the vowel sticks from the bag in sequential order.
  2. Students sit with vowel sticks in front of them while the teacher has nothing in front of him/her.
  3. Teacher uses a predetermined list of two sound syllables with the vowel in the initial position to call to the students.  The teacher now says the syllable and the students respond with the syllable repeated, letter named and the sound identified.  It might sound like this, "ut, u says /u/". 
  4. Once the teacher has run through the sounds needed to be practiced (they should each be practiced several times and not always in the same order) then students re-stack their sticks and put them back in the baggie.
Stage 3: Students are ready to move from two sound syllables with the vowel sound in the initial position to three sound syllables with the vowel in the medial position (i.e.: sit, wet, pot)
  1. Repeat the same process as before.
  2. This time you'll call what may considered CVC syllables, real or nonsense.  The possibilities are endless and in my resource on TPT there are suggestions to get you started.
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