Activity 6: Vowel Treasure Hunt (Tiggly
Submarine)
Suggested Pacing
About the Activity
When you introduce or practice vowels
Overview
Group Size
Kids will become vowel explorers and embark on a treasure hunt around the
classroom, searching for words that contain a certain vowel. When the class
comes back together, the children can share the words they found with their
classmates.
Teacher-Led
Learning Journey
Learning: Long and short vowels, phonics, nouns and verbs, word building
Thinking: Memory, Problem Solving, and Spelling Patterns
Creating: Expanding Concepts
Being Social: Working in a group
What You’ll Need
• A whiteboard/blackboard/
large paper
• 2 different colored markers/chalk
• Tiggly Words
• A tablet with the Tiggly Submarine
app
Tiggly Lingo
Literacy Vocabulary: Sounds, Vowel
Thinking Vocabulary: Thinkers
Creativity Vocabulary: Scholars, storytellers
Being Social: Share with others and Thinking Buddy
Skills Needed
Letter recognition, sound recognition, and beginning writing skills
Getting Ready!
Please play and preview the Tiggly Submarine app in advance so
you are familiar with the words that are incorporated into game
play.
Each child will need to have a tablet with Tiggly Submarine
installed on it and a set Tiggly Words manipulatives. If you do not
have a 1-to-1 program, you can have small groups of children
around each tablet, and ask each team member to hold one of the
manipulatives, take turns, and play together. Make sure all students
can hear the narrator in the app sounding out the vowels and
words
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Let’s Be Stretchy!
Have children play the Submarine app with the Words
manipulatives. The app is open for free play: children are
encouraged to explore and learn using any letter without
worrying about right or wrong answers.
Choose one vowel to focus on, and allow the children to embark on
their treasure hunt, searching for items around the classroom that
contain that vowel.
Children can use their Thinker Journals to write down the words of
the objects they find.
After they have had some time to explore, bring the children to the
rug and ask them to share what they’ve found. As they share their
words, you may write them down on the board, using a different
color for the vowel in each word.
More Stretchy Ideas!
To add another level, split the words into two columns: long vowel
sounds and short vowel sounds. You can encourage the children to
figure out which column their word belongs in by reading out and
emphasizing the vowels in the previous words from each column.
This activity can be repeated many times, each time with a
different vowel!
Add to your Thinker Journal
Have the children add to the list of words they already have in their
Thinker Journals by practicing writing the words their friends have
contributed to the class list.
Kids can then illustrate the words they have accumulated in their
journals, as well as thinking of some new words with the same
vowel.
Engage Parents!
Encourage parents to incorporate the vowel treasure hunt into
“family time” at home. Have them search for words with a certain
vowel at home or on the go!
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