How to Make Spelling Fun for Kids

Tips and Tricks to Teach Vowel Combinations and Diagraphs

Nov 27, 2008

After basic vowel sounds, move to vowel combinations and diagraphs, one at a time. Work with the long "ee" and the long "a", then explore the long "o" diagraph.

To master the basics of spelling, it’s important for a child to understand the vowel-sound correlation, one sound at a time. Begin with the basic vowel exercises like the ones described in "How to Make Spelling Easy for Children". Then move on to vowel combinations like the long “ee” diagraph and the long “a” sound. When these become easy, it’s time for the long “o” diagraph.

Creative Aids for the Activity

Begin by Exploring the “O” Sound

Hold up the graphic “O” in your arms and make a nice round “o” sound with your mouth. Ask your child to do the same. Together, say aloud some words with the basic “o” sound, like COT, HOT, POT, DOT. Then, make a game of exploring the sound in all its variations. Spend some time on this. Encourage your child to handle the graphic “O”, feeling the shape with her hands and making the sound with her mouth.

The Long “O” Diagraph : “oa” Words as in COAT

Continuing the exploration, take a blank card and ask your child to spell one of the words you have just used as an example for the basic “o” sound, say COT. Write out the letters with a sketch pen, leaving some space between the letters. Then, add a lower case “a” next to the “O” to make the word CoaT. Ask your child to read it out. Explore the sound, and explain how the “O” has taken the “a” along for company.

Pick up the cutout of the lower case “a”, and with some dramatics, make it sit on the bottom curve of the graphic “O”, inside it, so that it forms a capital “O” with a lower case “a” riding inside it. Play around with the “oa” sound. Discuss how the “o” is adding on a teeny-weeny “a” to make the sound. Ask your child to identify other “oa” words; make a game of it, enact the meanings. Examples you could lead her into would be MOAT, GOAT, BOAT, COACH, COAL. Say the words out, then spell them out and write them on the blank cards, one by one.

The Long “O” Diagraph : “OE” Words as in HOE

Once your child is fairly familiar with “oa” words, go back to the graphic “O” and ask him or her to think of another vowel that combines with “o” to form a long “o” sound. Could it be an “i”? Explore the sound, then reject it. How about “u”? Play with the sound it makes, then turn it down. Finally, lead to the “e”, and explore the sound of the “oe” diagraph. Spell out a word, say TOE, and write it out on a blank card.

Pick up the cutout of the lower case “e” and ceremoniously place it on the bottom curve of the graphic capital “O”. Act out together how the “O” is taking “e” for a ride in this sound. Together, identify some more words making a similar sound. Words you could use : HOE, DOE, FLOE, ROE. Write out the words on the blank cards.

The Long “O” Diagraph : “OW” Words as in NOW

For the “ow” words, begin with a nice round “o” and slowly introduce the “w” sound into it. Explore with your child what happens to the shape of the mouth, and how it changes. Identify a couple of words, say NOW, COW. Pick up the graphic “O” and ask your child to send the “w” cutout along for the ride. Then ask her to identify more words that make the same sound, and write them out. You could use words like HOW, BROWN, CROWN, FROWN, TOWN. Do not for now use words like GROW or SLOW – they make a slightly different sound and will confuse the child.

The Long “o” Sound : “Vowel Consonant Followed by “e” Pattern” as in TONE

Once you child is familiar with the different long “o” diagraphs, remind him or her about how the “a” sound lengthened in the “vowel consonant followed by “e” pattern”, like in HAT, and HATe. Explain how this happens with the “o” sound as well.

Explore with an example. Write out the word TON on a blank card. Then, add a small “e” at the end, and together discover how the “o” lengthens in TONe. Discuss how the “o” lengthens on account of the “e” that follows the consonant “N”. Together, think up other similar words, and write them out in similar fashion on the cards, adding the “e” in lower case to serve as a visual mnemonic. Examples could be : CON, CONe; DOT, DOTe; TOT, TOTe.For each, say the words out aloud before and after adding the “e”, and explore how the sound changes.

End the session using the graphic “O” and the lower case letters to do a quick recap of the “o” sounds. Use your creativity and imagination. Repeat the exercise a couple of times till your child learns to anticipate the words and enjoy the game. Then, it’s time for other sounds.

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