Looking for a fun way to practice those tricky vowel sounds with kids? This complement to our popular CVC word sort helps students sort, match and compare short vowel and long vowel words. The hands-on freebie is great to use as literacy centers, guided reading lessons or homeschool activities.

For more vowel fun, check out our Vowel Team Centers in our shop!

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Vowel Sorting

If you’re like me and love resources that can be repurposed for a range of activities, this pack is for you! I printed the set on cardstock to give it extra durability. You could also laminate it if you’ll be using the activities over and over again in a classroom.

After cutting out the parts, I grabbed the picture sorting mats to have my students focus on learning one vowel at a time. I had children pick up a card, say the word out loud and place it in the correct spot on the mat.

FREE Short and Long Vowel Sort - Playdough to Plato

There’s one set for each: A, E, I, O and U.

Once I saw that students could easily sort the long and short vowel sounds, I did a combined vowel sort working on all five sounds at once. I focused on a short vowel sort, a long vowel sort and then did a combined sort for revision.

For easy storage, I stapled a zip lock bag to the back of each mat to make it easy to find the right pictures when I needed them.

Roll and Say

The other activity I love doing is rolling the dice and asking children what word they can think of with that sound.

For example, if a child rolled long E she could name, “eat” or “jeep” or “leap”… It’s a simple, fun way to practice those tricky sounds!

To grab your free copy of these printables below and then hop over and download our Vowel Team Centers, too!

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12 Comments

  1. I really appreciate your creative activities. I’ve download so many of your things now, but I just wanted to let you know that there is a teacher out there who thinks you are amazing!

    1. Aww thank you so much, Lindsey, we are so encouraged by your kind words!
      Have a wonderful day!
      Warmly,
      Kimberleigh

  2. I think you are amazing too!! Thank you!

  3. I can’t download your long vowel game!

    1. Hi Lisa,
      Thanks for reaching out. I’m sorry you’re having trouble downloading. We never want that. Please check out our troubleshooting video HERE for help. You’ll also want to make sure you have the most recent version of Adobe Reader Other and that you’re allowing pop ups from our site. I hope that helps!
      Warmly,
      Ashley // Happiness Ambassador

  4. Hi Melanie,
    Perhaps try downloading it from a different browser. We recommend Chrome.
    If you’re still having trouble after downloading it with a different browser, email me at hello@www.playdoughtoplato.com and we’ll troubleshoot some more.
    Warmly,
    Kimberleigh// Happiness Ambassador

  5. Hi Morgan,
    Yes, you are correct. It’s an old post that we have on our list to update.
    But yes, by clicking the “here” button under “Ready to Play?” it should take you to the correct link.
    Warmly,
    Ashley // Happiness Ambassador

  6. We are also unable to download this short and long vowel sort. It looks amazing and our kindergarten team would love to use it. We have tried 4 computers and 1 phone and can’t get it to work. Thanks for any help. Can you share the link in the comments?

    1. Hi Deb,
      When you click the blue “Download Here” button, a pop-up should open. You can try checking to make sure your browser isn’t blocking pop-ups from the site or try using a different browser. If you happen to be attempting the download at school, your district’s web filter may be blocking the pop-up. Let me know if you’re not able to get the sort!
      Warmly,
      Sarah // Playdough to Plato Team

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