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Step 5: Regular Vowel Teams (& Long Vowel Chunks Detour)

Regular vowel team poster. ie, ai, ay, oa, ow, oe, ea, ee, ie, ey
Regular Vowel Teams
Regular vowel team pyramid poster. ie, ai, ay, oa, ow, oe, ea, ee, ie, ey
Regular Vowel Team Pyramid
ea has three sounds: eat, bread, steak
ea has 3 sounds

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Definitions

Regular Vowel Team and Long Vowel Chunks Definitions:
VV stands for Vowel, Vowel, which is the Vowel Team syllable. Here we are learning the regular Vowel Teams, which are ie, ai, ay, oa, ow, oe, ea, ee, and ey. In step 9 we will learn the irregular vowel teams which are oo, oi, oy, au, augh, aw, ui, ue, ew, ou, and oe.
Long Vowel Chunks are specific combinations of a vowel(s) and consonants where the vowel consistently says its name even though it is most often a closed syllable. Some examples are igh, ang and old. See detour in yellow box below.

Teaching Videos and Written Stories

Regular Double Vowels
AE and the Pyramid

Written Stories

  • AE and the pyramid teaching story
  • AE and the pyramid teaching story FLIP UP ACTIVITY (Use this to retell the story and practice the sounds.)
  • Alternate story: (no video) After watching the e help his vowel friends say their own names, the vowels want to help too.  The vowels figure out that they can be much braver when a friend runs up and holds their hand and encourages them! So when it is possible, a vowel runs up to a vowel friend before a consonant gets there to trap him into a closed syllable.  If the vowel gets there fast enough he will hold his vowel friend’s hand and whisper: “you can do it – you can say your name!”  The first vowel becomes brave enough to say his own name. This story is fun and easy to act out as suggested in open, closed and magic e syllables.

PowerPoints and Google Slides PowerPoints for teaching short vowel words CVC Google Slides Icon

For the formatting of PowerPoints to be correct, click FILE, then DOWNLOAD, and download in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Teach Along the Way with Regular Vowel Teams Teach along the way with short vowels

TEACH ALONG THE WAY ●●●

Teach and add the relevant sounds/flashcards (ie, ai, ay, oa, ow, oe, ea, ee, ey, ui, ue) from the Big Sounds Pack to daily practice.

Some VV Explanations:

y and w are not vowels since they can not say their own names but they do work with vowels in regular vowel teams ay, ow and ey.

When we see two vowels next to each other often they are “holding hands” making one sound.
—-In regular vowel teams (ie, ai, ay, ue, ui, oa, ow, oe, ea, ee, ey) the sound is almost always the first vowel’s name. Except:
– –ie usually says long /ē/. The i begged “I want to go first, I want to go first” and the silly e agreed to let the i go first, as long as the e still got to say it’s name. ie only says long /ī/ in a few short words like pie and die. This is why “ie” is in the top row saying /ī/, and also in the bottom row saying /ē/.
– ea is our messed up vowel team and can say long /ē/ (meat), long /ā/ (steak), or short /ĕ/ (bread). Usually it says long /ē/ as in meat.
– ow says long /ō/, but in Step 9 we learn is also says /ow/ as in down.
—-In irregular vowel teams (step 9 – oo, oi, oy, au, augh, aw, ui, ue, ew, ou, ow) vowels come together to make completely new sounds.

Occasionally a word is split between 2 vowels and they are in different syllables like the word diet (dī/ĕt, open syllable /dī/, closed syllable /ĕt/ ) and fluid (flū/ĭd).

-ey says the long /ā/ sound in 10 reasonably common words: they, convey, obey, hey, survey, prey, purvey, whey, osprey and the English spelling of the color grey (in the USA it is spelled gray).

Long Vowel Chunks Detour! Detour

Detour!

Long Vowel Chunks (also found in “Teach Along the Way” ➜ “Long Vowel Chunks.”) Here you will find materials to learn and practice the long vowel chunks. Add new flashcards from the Big Sounds Pack to your daily practice.

Long vowel chunks -ang, -ank, -old, -igh, -ind, -oll, eigh, -olt, -ild, -ost
Long Vowel Chunks

Tips Tips

Vowel Team Pyramid

We often hear the phrase “when two vowels go walking the first one does the talking.” This only happens around 50% of the time. The vowel teams taught in this section are the ones where the first one says it’s name. The rest of the vowel teams are in step 9.

NOTE: ui and ue both say the u’s nickname /oo/ (as in blue), but are not included in many of the stories and visuals since they are taught in Step 9.

Map Sounds to Letters

Map the sounds in the word to the letter(s) representing the sounds, even if it is not a letter combination that has been taught yet. Only an unusual sound/letter combination needs to be remembered “by heart.” Mapping the sounds to the letters is how we remember what words look like. See example below:

Map Sounds To Letters examples

Be sure to reinforce what you know and are learning about words, for example:
Schwa Sound: Any vowel might say /ŭ/. Point out that this happens in many common words like: the, of, was, some, from…

Key and Directions for Materials Key


KEY:
Blue Heart: Beginning, grades K-1K-1 Beginning
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-21-2 Growing
Pink Plus: intervention, challengeIntervention/Challenge

Bundle: Multiple types of materials (games, activities, stories…) bundled together.
Pack: Multiple pieces of the same type of material, for example a pack of books.

Directions for everything else:

More on the Directions Page

Sample Bundle


Practice Reading Practice Practice Reading


Regular Vowel Team BUNDLES and PACKS! Bundle

Regular Vowel Team Bundles

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Bundle ai, ay Words words, phrases, pyramids, games, stories
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Bundle oa Words words, phrases, pyramids, game, stories
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Bundle ow Words words, phrases, pyramids, game, stories
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Bundle ea Words words, phrases, pyramids, game, stories

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Bundle ee Words words, phrases, pyramids, game, stories
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Bundle ie Words words, phrases, pyramids, game, stories
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Bundle ey Words words, phrases, pyramids, game, stories

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Bundle Mixed VV Words words, phrases, game, stories, syllable practice

Regular Vowel Team Pack

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Pack Full Page Story and List ALL

Regular Vowel Team Bonus Activities Activity working together

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Student Practice Poster to Fill In (click here for reference poster)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Double Vowel Pyramid Flip Up

Word and Phrase Lists Lists icon

See Highlighting Word Lists.

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV regular words by type with visual (without ue, ie)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV regular words by type with visual (with ue, ie)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV regular word list by type

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay word list Aid, Day
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay words and phrases Wait for the Rain
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay phrases Afraid of the Chick
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay phrases Box (with timing option)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay phrases Quail
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeRegular Vowel Team VV ai ay words advanced vocabulary Strain with definitions

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oa oe word and phrase lists Toad (with timing option)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oa, oe word and phrase lists expanded Loaf of Bread

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ sound words Time to Mow
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ sound words and phrases Arrow
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ sound phrases Row the Boat

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ word list Tea
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ word and phrase list Leaf (with timing option)
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ phrase list On the Beach
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ā/ word list Break
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeRegular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ advanced sound word and phrase list Don’t Release That Creature!
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeRegular Vowel Team VV ea short /ĕ/ advanced sound word and phrase list Spread the Bread

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee word list See, Tweed, Beep
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee words and phrases See, Sheet
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee word and phrase list See the Wee Bee
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee phrase list Take the Wheel

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ie long /ī/ and /ē/ sounds word list The Thief Stole My Cookie and Pie
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ie long /ī/ and /ē/ sounds word and phrase list Zombies Like Movies and Cookies

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ey long /ē/ and long /ā/ word and phrase list Turkey (with timing option)

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV mixed word list Pay

Fluency Pyramids Fluency Pyramid

Pyramids are great for automaticity with words, feeling successful and fluency.

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay 4 mini fluency pyramids ai ay
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oa 4 mini fluency pyramids oa
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oa fluency pyramid goat, float, soak, moat, soap
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ fluency pyramid know, grow, yellow, rows, window
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ fluency pyramid each, heap, meat, wheat, cream, peanut, weak, tea
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ fluency pyramid eagle, squeal, scream, steal

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee 4 mini fluency pyramids ee
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee fluency pyramid see, feet, green, fourteen, bean
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ie long /ē/ 4 mini fluency pyramids ie

Games Games Icon

Game Directions

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai words game Snail Trail
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ay words game Snail Trail 2
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay Bingo, VV ai ay Bingo Flashcards
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay phrase game Wait for the Train
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay sentence game A Fun Day to Play

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oa word game Joe on the Boat
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oa word game Frog or Toad
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oa word game Float in a Moat
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oa card game I Have, Who Has?

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ word game Snow Will Blow
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ word game Yellow Fellow
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ card game I Have, Who Has?

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ word game Which Is Your Favorite Leaf?
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ word game The Eagle Flies
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ word game Eager Beaver
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ words in word families and phrases game Peaches
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea short /ĕ/ word game Mummies are Dead

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee word game Sweet Honey
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee words game Chicks That Cheep and a Few Sheep
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee phrases game Run with Glee

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ie long /ī/ and /ē/ word game Call For Help!

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ey long /ē/ word & phrase game Honey Can You Find my Key

Spelling Lists icon

Practice with words from the lists, games etc., or use the lists below.
* Having learners spell with word chains where the coach says “change one sound in (chop) to spell (chip), now change one sound in (chip) to spell (sip)” is a powerful way to draw student’s attention to individual sounds in the words!

Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeRegular Vowel Team VV Spelling *Spelling Vowel Teams Pyramid Teacher tells student that “ie” says /i/ in the following words, then reads the “ie” words.  Always have students read spelling words back when finished.
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeRegular Vowel Team VV Spelling oa Word Chain Boat to Toad
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeRegular Vowel Team VV Spelling ow long /ō/ Word Chain Low to Snow
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeRegular Vowel Team VV Spelling ea long /ē/ Word Chain Team to Peach
Green Star, Pink Plus: Grades 1,2 and/or intervention, challengeRegular Vowel Team VV Spelling ee Word Chain Bee to Sheep

Small Books Small Books icon

Small Book: 8 page assembly directions, 4 page folding directions, OR use horizontal format for reading on the screen in distance learning.

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay 8 page Nimo and Sagal horizontal and foldable formats
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay 8 page No Rain and Hail for Today horizontal and foldable formats
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ai ay 8 page Ray and Gail’s Play horizontal and foldable formats

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oe oa 8 page Joe’s Boat foldable format

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ 8 page Can You make Bow and Arrow Plants? horizontal and foldable formats
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ sound 4 page What Grows Under the Snow? horizontal and foldable formats

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ 8 page with flashcards How Little Flea Got Big foldable format

Blue Heart Green Star: Beginning, grades K-1 and/or Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee 8 page with flashcards I See a Bee foldable format
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee 8 page The EE Sheep horizontal and foldable formats
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee 8 page Green Weeds and Seeds horizontal and foldable formats
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee 4 page EEL horizontal and foldable formats

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ey long /ē/ 8 page Joey and Mickey horizontal and foldable formats

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV regular mixed 8 page Green Peas horizontal and foldable formats
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV regular mixed 8 page This Week horizontal and foldable formats

Full Page Stories with Lists Full Page Stories with Lists

See Highlighting Word Lists

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV Full Page Story and List ALL Pack (also above)

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ay list and story May’s Play Date

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV oa list and story My Goal

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ list and story Pillow Fight
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ow long /ō/ list and story Bubble Gum

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ list and story How to Go Sea Fishing
Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ea long /ē/ list and story I Like Peaches

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ee list and story The Queen’s Sweet Sheep

Green Star: Growing, Grades 1-2Regular Vowel Team VV ie long /ē/ list and story Zombie

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