Grade 2 · Week 1short vowels
Pat and the Big Pig
Students read a short decodable passage featuring short-a and short-i CVC words, answer six comprehension and decoding questions, and use teacher and homeschool guidance.
On screen - your kid, alone
- 1Day 1 - Meet the story
- 2Day 2 - Word work
- 3Day 3 - What it means
- 4Day 4 - Fix & re-read
- 5Day 5 - Show what you know
Offline - with you
Print the pages for offline work together; the answer key is for you.
Start by reading the passage aloud together, then ask your child to find words with the short-a sound (like "cat" or "ran") and words with the short-i sound (like "big" or "sit"). A strong answer means your child can say the word, hear the middle vowel clearly, and sort it into the right group — for example, noticing that "pig" and "dig" share the same short-i sound, while "hat" and "bag" share short-a. After reading, have them copy four or five words from each group onto paper and tap out the three sounds (c-a-t) with their finger as they spell. If your child struggles, slow down and focus on just one sound at a time: cover the last letter and have them stretch the vowel out loud, then add the ending. Keep sessions short and warm, about ten minutes, and celebrate when they catch a vowel sound on their own — that noticing is exactly the skill this pack builds.
Pat and the Big Pig
Pat had a pig. The pig was big. Pat ran to the pen and sat with the pig. The pig had a tag on its bib. The tag said Jam. Pat had a hat and a bag. In the bag was ham and a fig. Pat sat down, and the pig sat next to him. The pig dug in the sand. It dug a deep pit. Pat was glad. Pat ran to fix the pit. A bat sat up in the tree. The bat was shy. Pat had jam on his hat. The pig licked the jam off it! Pat was mad, but the pig was glad. Pat won a red tag for his big pig. What a fun day!
What this lesson checks
- Sound correspondence: Which word from the story has the short-a vowel sound in the middle?
- Sound correspondence: Read this sentence from the story: 'The pig had a tag on its bib.' Which word in the sentence has the short-i sound?
- Sound correspondence: Which pair of words BOTH have the short-a sound?
- Sound correspondence: Change the vowel in the word 'bag' from short-a to short-i to make a new word that is in the story. What word do you make?
- Sound correspondence: Sort these three story words by vowel sound: 'ran', 'win', 'sand'. Which two have the same short vowel sound, and what sound is it?
- Sound correspondence: Find a sentence from the story that has BOTH a short-a CVC word AND a short-i CVC word. Write the sentence and underline the two words.