Evanne Zainea
Unit Plan- Vowel Review
Miss Betancourt’s Kindergarten Class/ Cesar Chavez Elementary School
November, 2013
Unit Topic
A-E-I-O-U. It’s easy to take these five simple letters for granted. However, through working at Cesar
Chavez I have come to recognize their importance in our everyday lives. Vowels are everywhere; they
are the building blocks for reading- the start of the fabulous start of scaffolding literate minds. I hope to
teach my class about these letters’ importance in my unit on vowel review.
What are some big questions that I wish for my students to ask? I want my students to look at words
and ask, “What vowels appear in these words?” “What sounds do they make?” “And where do we find
vowel and syllable sounds every day?” “How do we build upon vowels with consonants to create
syllables and, “How do we use those syllables to create words? To do this, I plan on having my students
hunt for vowel and syllable sounds around their classroom, dig through their names to look for vowels,
and meet various visitors who names have certain vowel sounds in them.
These big questions are questions that the students will learn to ask themselves for the rest of their
lives. They will continue to ask these as they learn to connect the vowels to consonants to make
phonetic sounds, discover that words cannot exist without a vowel inside of them, and realize how
different syllables are formed with these vowels. They will connect these sounds to reading as they
progress and, maybe, use them to pronounce large words and even foreign languages someday.
I’m so excited to see how these kids will connect vowels to their everyday lives. Learning vowels
will open the door to literacy for them. Once these children can start reading they will be able to be
shaped in so many ways. Literature has been very influential in molding my imagination and developing
my creative and higher-thinking skills. I hope that this will be the same for my class. At present, these
Evanne Zainea
Unit Plan- Vowel Review
Miss Betancourt’s Kindergarten Class/ Cesar Chavez Elementary School
November, 2013
students will be able to recognize vowels and syllables on signs, in their names, and at the beginning of
basic words. A whole foreign language--that of letters --will become less vague for them.
Right now, my students are using these vowels and syllables to recognize basic words. They are
learning how to combine syllables that they know, in order to read short stories- being able to read
syllables like Papi, Mama, Piso, Pila, and Sapo allows them to decipher entire books written for them.
This knowledge of vowels and syllables is also allowing literature that is not specifically in their age
range to become less of a mystery for them. For example, a student who knows the syllable “po,” can
now read the beginning of “possibilidad” and, with help from the teacher, sound the rest of the word
out. It is amazing to watch how this simple knowledge of syllables is helping students break down words
and phrases. Asking where vowels and syllables appear every day is allow students to read anything
they want. Before this unit started, my students simple knew how to recognize vowels and read the
beginnings of the words that start with them. Now, my students will know how to use these with many
different consonants to create syllables, which create words. As they continue on in the curriculum, my
students will learn how to sandwich their vowels in between consonants to create even more words!
Vowels and syllables also connect with many different subjects. Literacy allows children to read and
follow the various steps and directions that are involved in math, science, art, and music as well. Who
knows? Maybe the children will move beyond identifying letters, to identifying music note names.
Maybe they’ll use letters algebraically or to label lab experiments. At present, my students are
connecting syllables to math and counting the number of syllables in a word. They are connecting
syllables to art, reading different stories that combine learning color and syllables. They also connect
syllables to science, by writing out their vocabulary words. As they continue in their learning, my
students will do so much more to connect what they have learned in this unit to the broader curriculum.
Evanne Zainea
Unit Plan- Vowel Review
Miss Betancourt’s Kindergarten Class/ Cesar Chavez Elementary School
November, 2013
They will use their knowledge to decipher street signs; read recipes; write poetry, and, in their case,
learn English. The possibilities are endless.
Although I am excited about this unit, and thrilled to teach it to my students, I do foresee some
problems. Many have barely seen letters before, much less know what they are. Since letters are very
second nature for me, I know it will be hard to understand where my kids are coming from. I will need to
patient and explain everything in great detail for my children.
I’m very passionate about literature and thoroughly believe in the importance of both reading to our
children and turning them into readers. I know that this process begins with very basic lessons, such as
vowel sounds and identification. I’m glad that I get to have a role in my students’ exciting discovery of
literacy.