Teaching Long and Short OO Words with Phonics Games and Interventions

Teaching Long and Short OO Words with Phonics Games and Interventions

Hey, y'all! For most of my life, I never knew that the letters "oo" had a long and a short sound. At some point I must have noticed that sometimes it sounds more like /u/ and other times like /ew/. But until I started teaching phonics myself, this was never something that crossed my mind. Now, it's something we talk about on the regular in my first grade classroom. And these oo words phonics centers help me to target this sound during our instruction. 

If this is still new to you too, the long oo sound is found in words like "moon" or "roof" (the /ew/ sound). The short oo sound is what we hear in words like "look" and "took" (the /u/ sound). Personally, I'm more concerned that my kids can read the words and hear the difference and less concerned about whether they know which sound is long and short. 

In our classroom, we teach the new phonics skill/spelling pattern whole group. Then, we break off into four different reading groups: teacher table (where we practice the skill in small groups), read to self, computers with our district's reading program, and phonics centers. 

There are a lot of options in each set of phonics games, but I don't put all of them out at once. This set has seek and find games, roll and read games, ABC order puzzles, spin and write graphing games, matching cards, read and write cards, and Bump and Scoot games. 

My students have the seek and find games, ABC order puzzles, spin and write graphing, Bump games, and read and write cards in their center choices--plenty of options to keep them busy and engaged. I keep the roll and read and matching cards for small groups so I can focus on different skill levels with different groups. And I keep the Scoot games for an end of the week assessment or for quiz-quiz-trade games during morning meeting. 

The kids love the mix of partner and independent games. 'Cause sometimes, you just want to play alone. I love that there are so many options that fit my lowest to highest readers. AND that each phonics set focuses on the specific skill we're learning about. 

You can find these phonics centers, games, and interventions in my TPT store here. It's also part of a larger growing bundle designed to last you the entire school year. You can check it out here. While you're there, be sure to follow me on TPT. I'm always adding new resources and freebies and you won't want to miss a thing!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope this helps with your own literacy centers in your classroom. Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon. 

Stay cozy,