Teaching long vowels involves hearing, reading, and spelling words with lots of different spelling patterns. Teaching long ‘a’ words (as in acorn and rain) means teaching students the many ways long ‘a’ is spelled.
Just fill out the form on this landing page to grab our free printable long ‘a’ word list and cards. Then try some of the activities below to teach all the ways we read long ‘a.’
Teaching Long ‘A’
Long ‘a’ can be tricky simply because there are so many ways that letters come together to make a long ‘a’ sound. Address this by teaching word groups together. Start with ‘a-e’ (bale, same), then teach ‘ai’ (rain, claim), and then ‘ay’ (may, say). Teach long ‘a’ in open syllables when you tackle two-syllable words. And teach the less common spellings when students are ready for them.
The most common ways to spell long ‘a’ are:
- ‘a’ as in acorn and apron
- ‘a-e’ as in lane and mane
- ‘ai’ as in rain and explain
- ‘ay’ as in day and may
Less frequent ways to spell long ‘a’:
- ‘ei’ as in sleigh
- ‘ea’ as in break
- ‘eigh’ as in eight
- ‘ey’ as in hey
Check out our lists of long ‘a’ words and the activities you can use to teach them.
Long ‘A’ Words
A-E Words
These are words that have the ‘a-e’ pattern. The ‘e’ at the end of the word makes the letter ‘a’ say its name, or make the long ‘a’ sound.
ace, age, ape, base, blame, brave, cake, came, cane, case, cave, face, flame, game, gate, gave, grade, grate, hate, lake, late, male, make, mate, name, page, pale, phase, phrase, place, plane, race, rate, safe, sale, same, save, shape, snake, space, stage, state, take, tale, trace, trade, wave
AI Words
aid, afraid, bail, brain, chain, daily, dairy, detail, fail, faint, faith, frail, gain, grain, jail, laid, maid, mail, main, nail, paid, pail, pain, paint, plain, rail, rain, raise, sail, snail, strain, tail, trail, train, wait, waist
AY Words
always, away, bay, betray, bray, clay, day, display, gray, hay, lay, may, okay, pay, play, pray, relay, say, stay, stray, subway, sway, today, way
EA Words
break, great, steak, yea
EIGH Words
eight, eighteen, eighty, feign, freight, neigh, neighbor, sleigh, weigh, weight
EY Words
convey, disobey, grey, hey, obey, prey, survey, they, whey
Open-Syllable Words
In these words, the vowel is long because they have an open syllable.
able, acorn, acre, agency, agent, apex, apron, baby, bacon, basic, basil, basin, basis, cable, cradle, crazy, equator, favor, glacier, label, labor, lady, lazy, major, mason, naked, nation, nature, navy, paper, patience, patient, potato, radiant, razor, sacred, stable, station, table, tomato, vapor, volcano
Learn more: Open and Closed Syllable Words and Activities
How To Use the Long ‘A’ List and Cards
The first thing to do when teaching vowel patterns is to point out the letters and patterns that make the long ‘a’ sound. Choose a few, teach them until students master them, then use those words as references when students need to figure out which vowel pattern a new word is using. So, you might teach students the word weigh, and then when they hear freight, you can tell them the vowels make the same sound as in weigh.
Listen for Long ‘A’
Read words that do and do not have long ‘a.’ Have students raise their hand if they hear a long ‘a’ sound. This builds students’ phonemic awareness, or ability to hear sounds in words.
Listen and Write
Read words aloud and have students write the words. This activity, which engages kids’ ability to remember and apply spelling patterns, helps students build their memory of letters and sounds. The process is pretty simple: Say the word, help students hear and write each sound, then read the word again.
Word Sort
Use the cards to sort words according to long ‘a’ spelling patterns. Start with ‘a-e’ and ‘ai’ words, then build to more complicated spelling patterns and longer word lists.
I Spy
Display the word cards. Say a word or say the meaning of a word and have students “spy” the correct word. You can also divide students into teams and give each team a magnifying glass to turn this game into a relay.
Feed the Monster
Make a set of “monsters” out of empty tissue boxes. Put a spelling pattern on each monster. Then, have students feed the word cards to the correct monster. (The ‘a-e’ words go in the ‘a-e’ monster, the ‘ai’ words go in the ‘ai’ monster, and so on.)
Follow the Path
Create a word path with cards from one end of a table to another. Have students role a di and move a game piece that many cards. They’ll read the word on the card to move ahead.
Pool Noodle Phonics
Create a pool noodle spelling activity by cutting up pool noodles and writing letters on them. Either read a word or give students word cards. They use the pool noodle letters to create and read the word. Students can also work in pairs where one reads a word and the other creates it.
Learn more: Pool Noodle Phonics
Memory
It’s a classic game. Put the cards face down. Have students choose two words at a time. If the long ‘a’ spelling patterns match (cake and make, or day and may), they keep the pair. At the end of the game, have each student read out the words they collected.
Get Your Free Long ‘A’ Word Printables
Print copies of the word list and cards to keep on hand for spelling lists, teaching examples, and for games and activities like the ones above.