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  • Vowel Teams and Diphthongs Skill Explainer

Flash Card Demo: Vowel Teams 'ai', 'ay', 'oi', and 'oy'

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Produced by Reading Universe, a partnership of WETA, Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book
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Two vowel teams that we like to introduce at the beginning are the vowel teams, 'ai' and 'ay', and the vowel teams, 'oy' and 'oi'. These are great to start with because they follow the same pattern and there are not a lot of exceptions to this rule. So it's a really clean one to start with with students and make it kind of concrete. So for 'ai', 'ai' says /ā/ at the beginning or middle of words. So we would say 'ai', train, /ā/. 'ay says /ā/ at the end of words. So we would say 'ay', hay, /ā/. Notice when I do the 'oi' and 'oy', it's the same verbiage. 'oi' says /oi/ at the beginning or middle of a word. 'oi', boil, /oi/. 'oy' says /oi/ at the end of a word. 'oy', toy, /oi/. 'oy' also has a couple rule breakers, specifically in these two syllable words. We find 'oy' in the middle when normally would come at the end. And those few words are royal, loyal, oyster, and voyage. And we like to say, "The royal loyal oyster went on a voyage." That's a great sentence to help us remember those rule breakers.

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Support Materials

Vowel Team and Diphthong Flash Cards with Pictures (5x7)

Print these 5x7 letter flash cards with pictures to help students practice vowel teams, like 'oa', and diphthongs, like /oi/.

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