Spelling & Poetry Study Standard: RF.2.3 / RF.3.3 • Short a & Vowel Variants Student Worksheet
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LESSON 3.

Poetry & Phonics
1. Copy the following carefully.
2. Put the proper mark over each a which has the short sound.
3. Find two words in which a has neither the short sound nor the long sound.
Selection 1
And they ran, hand in hand,
Where the ripple meets the land.
— James Whitcomb Riley.
Selection 2
And just a trace of silver sand
Marks where the water meets the land.
— Sir Walter Scott.
1 Copy the following carefully.
Directions: Transcribe both poetic passages onto the handwriting guidelines below. Pay careful attention to capitalization, punctuation, and author names.
Selection 1 (James Whitcomb Riley):
Selection 2 (Sir Walter Scott):
2 Put the proper mark over each a which has the short sound.
Directions: Read the lines below aloud. Write the short sound mark (the breve: ˘ as in ă) directly above every letter a that makes the short sound.
And they ran, hand in hand,
Where the ripple meets the land.
— James Whitcomb Riley
And just a trace of silver sand
Marks where the water meets the land.
— Sir Walter Scott
3 Find two words in which a has neither the short sound nor the long sound.
Directions: Look closely at Selection 2. Identify and write the two words where the letter a is neither short (ă as in hat) nor long (ā as in hate).
Word 1:
Word 2: