Overview 
The children will play a sorting game where they identify real words that contain a vowel and non-words that don’t contain a vowel.

Literacy Activities
Sorting words

• Open the file folder and label one side Yes and the other side No.
• Fill an envelope with shuffled word cards and non-word cards (found below).
• Explain to the children that every word must have a vowel and show them an example of a consonant-vowel-consonant word (CVC) and a non-word (no vowel).
• Have the children take turns choosing a card from the envelope and taping it to the Yes side of the folder if it has a vowel in it or to the No side if it does not have a vowel.     
• Have the children tell why they put their word on the Yes or No side.
• Ask the children to read all the words on the Yes side aloud.

Making mud

• On a whiteboard, write the five vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and a list of non-words that can be made into consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words (e.g., m_d or w_n).
• Let the children add a vowel in the blank between the two consonants to create a real word (e.g., m_d→ mud; j_g→ jog; w_n→ win) and say, “I’m making ___ (mud).”
• Repeat the activity with non-words that can be made into consonant-vowel-consonant-consonant (CVCC) words (e.g., p_th→ path; r_sh→ rash; s_nt→ sent).
• Have the children take turns putting a vowel in the blank to make a real word and then reading it aloud.

More Practice
Identify the structure of the word

• Remind the children that every word must have a vowel and write the vowels on the board.
• Write CVC, CVCC, and Not as headings on the board and then show the children a word card example of each category while helping them determine which heading it should go under.
• Have the children take turns sorting the word cards and placing them under the appropriate headings. 

Find the word patterns

• Write a few sentences on the board with examples of CVC and CVCC words in them (e.g., “The dog fell in the puddle.”).
• Have the children take turns using a crayon or marker to circle the CVC words and underline the CVCC words.