Kindergarten · Reading · week 22

Word Ladders: All Five Vowels

Read a chain of words that each change by one sound, moving across all five short vowels.

A word ladder changes just one sound at a time to build a brand new word. Start with hot. Change the middle sound: hit. Change the middle again: hut.

One small change, one new word, every single time. This week you climb ladders across all five short vowels.

📋 For the teacher
Teach it (10–15 min):
  • Say the whole word before and after each change so the shift in sound is easy to hear.
  • Change only one sound per step. Two changes at once makes the ladder much harder to follow.
  • Write each rung of the ladder on paper if that helps, one word under the next.
  • Let your child build a short ladder of their own by changing the middle sound of any known word.
Talk about it:
  • Which sound changed each time you climbed the ladder?
  • Which word ladder was the most fun to climb today?
  • Can you build a new word by changing just the middle sound of hot?

Mastery looks like: They read a word ladder correctly, tracking a single sound change across all five short vowels.

Common stumbles: Changing more than one sound at a time, which breaks the ladder; losing track of which sound changed between steps.

Homework for this lessonType it, write it with a stylus, or print it for pencil & paper.open →
Records attendance + 15 min of Reading for this learner.
← Back to todayAll coursesYear planner