Diphthongs! What in the world is a diphthong!? I remember very clearly asking myself that question in my Foundations of Literacy class in college. Diphthongs can be tricky to read since the letters shown in these words don’t make their usual sounds. The sound is an entirely new one that isn’t necessarily represented at all in the word. /oi/ for instance. I spend the whole beginning of the year year teaching short and long vowel sounds for o and i, then you put them together and they make /oi/?!? Way to get tricky, language!
Anyhow, I put together 6 new Print & Play Phonics Games to focus solely on those tricky sounds, diphthongs and I thought I would share a few with you up close:
In case you are unfamiliar with my Print & Play Games, all the games only require dice, crayons, cubes, a paperclip, and a pencil! They are designed for ease! I wanted teachers to be able to quickly print out a game from their computer and teach it so they can get back to efficiently teaching the other students in their classroom. The directions on the games are simple for students to understand and many of the same game-playing concepts are seen throughout all the games.
Spin & Sort:
This game can be played cooperatively or independently as students simply spin the wheel and find an image with the matching diphthong sound. There are 2 different versions of this game with different sounds!
Diphthong 5-in-a-Row:
This fun partner game has students rolling the dice to find the diphthong image at the bottom of the page. Students must find a word with the matching sound in the grid and place their block there. The goal is to be the first player to get 5-in-a-row! There are some fun additions like skip turn or the ability to remove another player’s cube that make this game a bit more challenging!
Roll, Read, & Tally:
This game is all about fluency. These sounds are hard and students need lots of practice decoding, reading, and re-reading these words! In this game students simply roll the dice, read the word they rolled, and put a tally mark next to it. Students play until one player get 5 tally marks in a row first!
I have 3 more games included in my Print & Play Diphthongs Games and I also added this unit to my Print & Play Phonics Games Bundle which includes 6 games for each of the following phonics skills:
Short Vowels (CVC)
Long Vowels (CVCe)
Long Vowel Teams
Digraphs
Consonant Blends
R-Controlled Vowels
and now, Diphthongs
You can see those games and download a FREE phonics game by downloading the preview below:
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Love your website! Great ideas and thankful for the simplicity to set up activities.
These games look great! I am especially happy about you concentrating on dipthongs!
Love your activities. Great assortment. Thanks for all your hard work.
Loves these games
I would love more fun activities regarding vowel teams and diphthongs.
Love the printable games!
Love your site!
I’d love to try the freebie but can’t find how to “download the preview” as suggested. Can you help?
Thanking for great games to help learning!
Thank you! I have enjoyed the other products I have used.
Thank you for offering this free sample of diphthongs.
thank you
I have found these activities very interesting.
Thank you!