Vowel chart
A vowel chart shows the five vowels, a, e, i, o and u, with the short and long sound of each and a word that carries it. Below it sit the sounds a vowel makes with r and the vowel teams that spell the long sounds.
Free printable PDF, Kindergarten to 2nd grade.
One page, black and white, prints the same every time.
What is on the sheet
Short and long sounds
| Vowel | Short sound | Long sound |
|---|---|---|
| Aa | a as in cat, map, hand | a as in cake, rain, play |
| Ee | e as in bed, ten, nest | e as in feet, bead, he |
| Ii | i as in pig, sit, fish | i as in kite, bike, light |
| Oo | o as in dog, hot, top | o as in bone, boat, go |
| Uu | u as in cup, sun, bug | u as in cube, mule, huge |
Vowels with r
| Spelling | Sound | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| ar | the sound in car | star, farm, park |
| or | the sound in for | corn, fork, storm |
| er, ir, ur | the same sound in her, bird, fur | fern, girl, turn |
Vowel teams
| Long sound | Teams | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| a | ai, ay, a_e | rain, day, cake |
| e | ee, ea, e_e | feet, seat, these |
| i | igh, ie, i_e | night, pie, bike |
| o | oa, ow, o_e | boat, snow, home |
| u | ue, ew, u_e | blue, new, cube |
How the chart is arranged
The top table is the one for kindergarten and early 1st grade: each vowel with its short sound, the one a child learns first because it spells the three-letter words, and its long sound, which says the letter's name. Every sound has three key words, so a child who has forgotten the sound can read a word they know and hear it.
The second table covers the vowels that change when r follows them, which are taught in 1st grade. The third lists the common two-letter spellings of the long sounds, the vowel teams, with the silent-e spelling beside them, since both say the same sound.
Using it while reading
When a child stalls on a word, point to the vowel in the word and then to its row on the chart, and try the short sound first; if the word does not make sense, try the long one. That two-try habit is what the chart is for. For spelling, the chart runs the other way: a child hears the long a in "train" and reads the team row to choose between ai and ay.
The chart leaves out the vowel sounds that do not fit the five-vowel pattern, oo, ou, oi and the schwa, which come with their own lessons in 2nd grade.
Common questions
- Why does y not appear as a vowel?
- Y works as a vowel at the end of words like "my" and "baby", and the site's phonics pages cover it as its own skill. The chart keeps to the five letters a beginning reader is taught as vowels.
- Which sound should a child try first?
- The short sound. Most short words a beginner meets use it, and the long sound is the second try when the first does not make a word.