Phonics Activities for Diphthongs OU and OW
Is This You?
If you are anything like most teachers, you don't have hours to scour the internet to find supplemental diphthong ou and ow activities for your kids. You want resources that will help meet the needs of all your students and need to expose the same skill to ALL your students regardless of their academic ability. Plus, you want it to be engaging and fun to help your kids retain the skills you are teaching. I hear you! Your searching for supplemental material stops here.
I have a diphthong OU and OW resource that will help you teach and your kids learn the skill that you can get HERE or at the bottom of this post. The FREE Word Search is at the bottom of this post (in case you're looking for it).
- ou and ow Morning Work/Independent Sheets/Homework
- Sorts/Search/Games
- ou and ow Games for Homework/Class/ or Guided Reading Groups
- ou and ow Focus Words with Images (EL support)
- ou and ow Word Work (Phonemic Awareness/Sound Spelling/Decoding/Encoding Practice)
- ou and ow Word Families (Fun List to Take Home)
. . . and I learned from 13 years of teaching phonics instruction I needed variations with the activities so all students could complete the activities confidently and independently. So almost all the independent practice sheets have 2 options. The resource isn't meant for ALL. THE. KIDS. to do ALL. THE. THINGS. So don't fall into the trap that just because it's there you're suppose to use it.
Differentiating Diphthong OU and OW
The independent sheet above I made especially for a little guy who was ambitextrous, although he had difficulty with penmanship regardless of the hand he wrote with. I use to draw lines on his paper as one of the strategies for him to sound out the word and write the letters for the sounds he heard. His letters were HUMonGouS and all over the place. This sheet helped me reinforce tall letters and small letters as well as beginning and ending sounds and sound spellings. This sheet helped give him the support he needed (plus his desk along with several other flanked mine). At any given time I could differentiate which independent sheets I gave to who yet they were all practicing the same skill.
Extension: I always had the more advanced kids add endings like er,ed,ing,ful,ly to the basewords.
Teaching Diphthong ou and ow as a Pattern
I'm curious, do you teach diphthong ou and ow as a pattern or attach a story to it? Most teachers will attach the band-aid and "ouch" story with it. I found connections always helped and pointing out that ou was usually in the middle of a word and ow at the end helped them with spelling which helps them with writing and in turn . . .writing helped them with reading. What a lovely circle that is!
On-Sets and Rime
For those students having difficulty with the sound spelling, you may want to work more with the word families especially for your ESL learners.
Word-Work
I always let the students choose to work together or independently but they were in groups when they did the sorts and games. They are practicing, so it's okay if they help each other. That's the point. They learn from each other and talk during this time. I used the sorts and games for word work but they're great in guided groups too.
- 1 game helps with sound spelling
- 1 game helps with word-meaning and decoding
- ALL games help with phonemic awareness
If you would prefer the games in color, leave a comment below. I go back and forth between saving ink for teachers and "eye-catching" for kids. What do you think?
OU and OW Sound Spelling Assesment
I've even used these circle maps as a way to assess my kids awareness of the sound spelling. They seem easy at first glance but to get it right they need to know their stuff. To differentiate, have kids refer to the colored focus words included in the resource. To make it more challenging, have kids label the pictures.
Reading ou and ow Words in Context
There are activities included where students read the words in sentences but nothing takes the place of read alouds and pointing out the sound spellings in context. Most importantly, kids really need to practice the words in their reading. I always used our school resources or Raz-kids for students to practice reading the words in context in guided reading groups but this resource includes a student reader. Home reading and book boxes were student choices.
OU and OW Diphthong Word Search FREEBIE
If there is anything you want to know about how I use this resource or teach dipthongs ou and ow leave me a comment below and I'll get back to you. In the mean time, here is a fun ou and ow word search for your kids. Just click on the button, subscribe, and it will go to your inbox.
I was thinking, if you are here, you are looking for resources to help you teach and you probably don't want to buy or store a zillion resources. I think I might have something that will make your life easier and streamline things for you when teaching phonics. If you aren't about all the fluff and want something that works, you should really check out this post HERE. When I made that particular resource, I had one thing in mind. Helping teachers teach and save money. Let me know what you think!
Don't forget your FREE OU OW word search or you can purchase the entire unit below. You'll be sent a download link immediatly after purchase.
