Songs

NOTE:  If you sing this song, be sure that you are saying the vowel sounds correctly!  I edited the lyrics below, which I found online.  The original had substituted the short o sound for the short a sound.  A usually says "uh" when it is a word by itself in a sentence, or as in "a in adopt" or "a in banana" (first and last a's only).  Teach the short vowel sound as the basic sound; exceptions can be made later.

Old MacDonald Had Some Vowels Song

Old MacDonald had some vowels,
A-E-I-O-U!
And the very first vowel
Is the letter A;
Let’s see what it can do!
With an A-A here, and /ă/ /ă/ there,

Here an A, there an /ă/,

Everywhere an A, /ă/ --
Old MacDonald had some vowels --
A-E-I-O-U

Old MacDonald had some vowels,
A-E-I-O-U!
And the second little vowel
Is the letter E;
Let’s see what it can do!
With an E-E here, and an /ě/, /ě/ there

Here an E, there an /ě/,

Everywhere an E, /ě/ --
Old MacDonald had some vowels --
A-E-I-O-U!

Old MacDonald had some vowels,
A-E-I-O-U!
And the third little vowel
Is the letter I;
Let’s see what it can do!
With an I-I here, and an /ĭ/, /ĭ/ there,

Here an I, there an /ĭ/,

Everywhere an I, /ĭ/ --
Old MacDonald had some vowels,
A-E-I-O-U!

Old McDonald had some vowels,
A-E-I-O-U!
And the fourth little vowel
Is the letter O;
Let’s see what it can do!
With an O-O here, and an /ŏ/ there,

Here and O, there an /ŏ/,
Everywhere an O, /ŏ/,
Old MacDonald had some vowels,
A-E-I-O-U!

Old MacDonald had some vowels,
A-E-I-O-U!
And the fifth little vowel was the letter U;
Let’s see what it can do!
With a U-U here, and a /ŭ/ there,

Here a U, there a /ŭ/,
Everywhere a U, /ŭ/ --
Old MacDonald had some vowels,
A-E-I-O-U!

Written by Wendy Wiseman and Christopher Pennington

Edits in bold red by Jane Sjostrom

Notice the sign language these children are using -- great multi-sensory idea!  Notice that they sing the letter name AS WELL AS the sound, while making different motions, which is a great pathway to differentiating later between the long sounds and the short sounds!

However, do NOT say the short o sound in place of short a!  In this video, dozens of kindergarten graduates are singing the wrong sound for short a!

The short sound of a is still not very clear in this video, because some American dialects pronounce "wag" with more of a long sound than a short sound!