Are you looking for some fun, easy to use diphthong activities for 1st grade? Today, I’m talking all about diphthongs, what they are, and simple ideas for teaching them! If your students have mastered vowel teams, then it’s time to work on learning diphthongs!
What is a Vowel Diphthong?
A vowel diphthong is two vowels together that make a glided sound. The sound is an “unexpected” sound, that does not correlate with the common sounds of the letters like most vowel teams do.
Common vowel diphthongs include oi, oy, ou, and ow. Many curriculums also include au, aw, oo, and ew as vowel diphthongs, while some curriculums consider these to be more complex vowel teams.
I like to introduce the vowel diphthongs in pairs. Oi and oy are a great place to start! Then, I introduce ou and ow. Next, I like to work on the two sounds of oo. I teach au and aw next, and ew last. This isn’t necessarily the “right” way, just what always worked for me and my learners.
Diphthong Activities for 1st Grade
Sorting Words
Give students a variety of word cards with the chosen sounds and have them sort the words.
Building Words
Word building is a key activity to increase students’ ability to work flexibly with letter sounds and analyze words for their individual components. Use letter cards or magnetic letters, have students build words. It works great to have students change the words one sound at a time.
To prepare for this activity, make a list of 8-10 words that include the target sound(s) and then change the words one letter or chunk at a time. Next, give learners a set of letter tiles or magnetic letters to use for the activity. Dictate the words one at a time and have students change only the needed part each time.
Read Connected Text
It is so important that children read connected text to build their phonics skills! After all, reading and writing are the ultimate goal of phonics instruction! We also want students to reread text to build fluency and develop comprehension skills. If you need some child friendly text for practicing, check out my Diphthongs Reading Passages. Learn more about how to use the Decodable Phonics Passages.
Complete a Word Hunt: Diphthong Activities for 1st Grade
Students look through a book or passage and find words that follow the phonics skill being taught. Students can write the words they find on a sticky note. Want to make it even more fun? Provide students with removable highlighter tape or wikki sticks to find the words.
Play Diphthong Games
Playing games give students repeated practice in a fun and engaging way! Games make a great way to keep children learning while you work with other learners or small groups.
Build a Word Game
In this activity, students add the missing diphthongs. I like to use magnetic letters with these cards, or you can use the included letter tiles.
Four in a Row Diphthong Activities for 1st Grade
Four in a row plays like Bingo. Students flip over a picture card and try to find the matching word on their page. Words can be covered with counters (to play over and over again) or mix it up with fun paint daubers!
Roll and Read
In this game, students roll a die with the diphthongs on them and then find a word with the matching diphthong. If they read the word correctly, they add it to their pile. They see how many word cards they can gather. Use a blank die and write the diphthongs with a sharpie, or I have these fun cards that fit into these large cloth dice.
I hope this gives you some easy-to-use ideas for teaching diphthongs. I also have some ready to use resources available in my TPT store!
