PHONICS FRIDAY--OU/OW

Friday has arrived once again!  This week has flown by and summer vacation is now in full swing.  I am looking forward to time with my little guy and my soon to be teen if I can pry her out of her room!

Now it is time for PHONICS FRIDAY!!  Today let's talk about one of my favorite topics diphthongs:)  I just think the word is way cool and it has not one but two digraphs in a row!

What is it?  I teach my kiddos that a diphthong is two vowels that glide together in a continuous motion to make a sounds like /oi/, /oy/, /ou/, /ow/, etc.

Did you know that not only "y" but also "w" sometimes acts as a vowel?  Like in the diphthong--OW in the words now, plow, how, etc.

Here is a lesson that can be done whole class or small group on the Smartboard.  Keep in mind that I am an intervention specialist so I don't have a Smartboard but I create lessons that I do for class rooms that I go into that DO have Smartboards. 

 

 This lesson starts with a quick little video about OU-OW.

 

 

 Then I introduce the definition of a diphthong and review the patterns.  This past year I have been throwing in some "whole brain teaching techniques" by connecting words and motions to the concepts I am introducing.  

 

Here is a Fundations tile board that I found on Smart Exchange.  I use this to build words and review concepts.  You don't have to do Fundations to utilize this board. 

 

 I repeatedly review the learned syllable types.  OU and OW are a double vowel syllable or "d" syllables.  In the case of OU/OW the "d" stands for diphthong:)

 

During my lessons I give the kids opportunities to mark up the words to review concepts that we are learning and previously taught concepts.

I also try different ways to get the kids to look at words and talk about them.  All of these things then assist students when they are reading and they come to a word that they need to figure out or break apart.  It encourages them to look at words in a different way.

The final part of this lesson involves different activities that allow the students to interact with the pattern.  This allows you to evaluate which students are understanding the concept and which are not.

 

I hope you have found this PHONICS FRIDAY informative!  If you would like a copy of this lesson please click here.  I realize that not everyone has access to Smartboards so next Friday will include a PDF freebie of some sort.  I would love to hear any feedback from this week's PHONICS FRIDAY and suggestions of what you would like to see next week.

Thanks for reading!!  I hope to see you next week:)