Grade by Grade
B. Foundations of Language Β· Reading Words: Sounds, Patterns and Meaning

Sliding Vowels and the Sounds of oo: oi, oy, ou, ow, au, aw, oo, ew, ue

B2.1 B2.2About 40 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can read oi and oy (coin, boy) and ou and ow (out, cow).
  • I can read au and aw (sauce, saw).
  • I can read oo two ways: moon and book.
  • I can read ew, ue and ui (new, blue, fruit).

Words to know

diphthong
A vowel sound that slides from one sound to another inside your mouth, like oi in coin or ou in out.
vowel team
Two letters that work together to make one vowel sound.
position-based clue
A hint from where letters sit in a word. For example, oy usually comes at the end and oi in the middle.

Feel your mouth slide

Say "boy" slowly. Feel your mouth move in the middle of the vowel? It starts round and slides to a smile.

Now say "cow" slowly. Your mouth opens wide and then makes a small circle.

These sliding vowel sounds are called diphthongs (DIF-thongs). That's a big word! You can just call them sliding sounds.

SoundIn the middleAt the endWords
/oi/oioycoin πŸͺ™, soil, point, boy, toy, enjoy
/ow/ouowout, cloud ☁️, mouth, cow πŸ„, now, how
/aw/auawsauce, haul, August, saw, paw 🐾, straw
Sliding-sound teams and where they usually go

Position clue

oi, ou and au usually sit in the middle of a word. oy, ow and aw often sit at the end (and sometimes before n or l: crown, howl, lawn). This helps you read and spell!

In the MIDDLEAt the END/oi/coinboy/ow/cloudcow/aw/saucepaw
Each sliding sound has two spellings. The team in the middle (oi, ou, au) often changes to its partner at the end (oy, ow, aw).
Worked example

Let's read a sliding-sound word

Read: cloudy

  1. Find the parts you know. cl is a blend. ou is a sliding sound: /ow/. y at the end says /Δ“/.
  2. Read the base: /k/ /l/ /ow/ /d/ β†’ cloud.
  3. Add the ending: cloud + y.

cloudy: when the sky is full of clouds. ☁️

The two sounds of oo

oo can make a long sound or a short sound.

  • Long oo, /oo/: moon πŸŒ™, spoon πŸ₯„, food, school, igloo
  • Short oo, /ŏŏ/: book πŸ“–, look, foot, wood, cook

Try long oo first. If it doesn't make a word, try short oo.

spoonlong oomoon Β· foodschool Β· igloobookshort oolook Β· foot Β· wood
Two sounds for the same team: spoon has the long oo sound, and book has the short oo sound. Sort new oo words by asking "spoon or book?"

More spellings of /oo/: ew, ue, ui

The long /oo/ sound has other spellings:

  • ew: new, grew, flew, chew
  • ue: blue, glue, true
  • ui: fruit, suit, juice

In some words, ew and ue say /yoo/, like your name for the letter u: few, rescue.

Worked example

Let's read a short oo word

Read: The cook stood by the woodstove.

  1. cook: try long oo first, "kook"? Not right here. Try short oo: cook. βœ”
  2. stood: short oo: /s/ /t/ /ŏŏ/ /d/. βœ”
  3. woodstove: a compound word, wood + stove. wood has short oo; stove has silent e.

"The cook stood by the woodstove." All the oo words here use the short sound.

Remember: ow has two sounds

ow says /ō/ in snow and blow (last lesson) and /ow/ in cow and town. Read bow: it can be a bow in your hair (/ō/) or to bow to the audience (/ow/)! The sentence tells you which one.

Just for fun

Look at cow. It has ow in its name and oo in its favourite word: moo! πŸ„

Hands-on activity

Sound sort with spoons and books

You need: a spoon πŸ₯„ and a book πŸ“– (or pictures of them), and 12 slips of paper.

  1. Write: moon, look, food, foot, pool, hook, boot, wood, zoo, good, broom, cookie.
  2. Read each word. Does oo sound like in spoon or book? Put the slip beside the spoon or the book.

Answers: spoon (long oo): moon, food, pool, boot, zoo, broom. Book (short oo): look, foot, hook, wood, good, cookie.

Bonus round: find oi/oy and ou/ow words on toys and boxes around your home (toy, joy, mouse, brown).

Your turn

1

Read: coin

2

Read: toy

3

Read: mouth

4

Read: paw

5

Read: moon and book. Do they have the same oo sound?

6

Read: blue

7

Read: The boy found a brown owl.

More practice: warm-up

1

Read: out

2

Read: saw

3

Read: new

4

Read: look

5

Read: soil

More practice: on your own

1

Which spelling goes at the end: b__ with oi or oy?

2

Read: fruit, suit, juice. What team do they share and what does it say?

3

Read: August. What does au say?

4

Read: The crowd shouted loudly.

5

Read few and flew. Do they have exactly the same vowel sound?

Challenge

1

Read: She will bow on stage, then tie a bow on the gift. How do you say each bow?

2

Read: noisy, cowboy, lawn mower. Name each vowel team you used.

3

Make three words by adding a letter team to br__n, cr__n and dr__.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which word has the same vowel sound as boy?

2.

Which word has the short oo sound like book?

3.

What sound does ou make in cloud?

4.

Which spelling of /oi/ usually comes at the end of a word?

5.

Which word has the same vowel sound as saw?

6.

Which word has the long /oo/ sound?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Grade 2 students consolidate the vowel teams that are not long-vowel teams: the diphthongs oi/oy and ou/ow, au/aw, the two sounds of oo, and ew/ue/ui for /oo/ (B2.1). They use position-based tendencies (oi/ou/au in the middle; oy/ow/aw at the end) to choose between spellings (B2.2).

How to help at home:

  • Use the spoon/book sort for oo. Keep the two pictures on the fridge as reminders.
  • When a word has a team that can make two sounds (ow, oo), say: "Try one sound. Does it make sense? Try the other."
  • Point out position clues while reading: "See? oy at the end of enjoy."

Common difficulties:

  • Mixing up ow sounds (reading town as "tone"). Practise pairs: cow/crow, now/know, town/tone.
  • Reading oo the wrong way. That's normal; there's no perfect rule. Meaning helps decide.
  • Accent differences. In some accents, au/aw words sound a lot like short o (caught and cot). That's fine. Focus on recognizing the spelling pattern.