Simple Strategies To Help Your Child Become a Better Reader:

*Read your child’s favorite book over and over
*Discuss new words; ask your child if he/she knows what words mean
*Stop and ask about the pictures and about what is happening
*Read from a variety of children’s books: fairy tales, song books, poems,
information books, biographies, autobiographies, mysteries
*Read many stories with rhyming words and repeated lines; invite your child to join in on these parts
*Invite your child to read with you every day; make it a daily routine
*For beginning readers point word by word as you read to help your child
learn that reading goes from left to right

Vowel Combination

Vowel Combination
Compiled by Sonal Vartak

A Vowel Combinations
ai/ay
Together, ai or ay make a /long a/ sound.
Example words: aim, rain, braid, paint, ray, say, stay, tail, twain, praise, stain, and main
Other a vowel combinations
• ay as in day, say, play, spray, and tray
• au as in fault, gaunt, fraud, launch, pause, and sauce
• aw as in saw, paw, claw, dawn, and crawl
• augh as in caught, taught, daughter, naughty, haughty, and slaughter
• wa /wô/ as in want, wash, swamp, squash, squat
• wa /wă/ as in wax, wag, swam, and quack
• all as in ball, tall, hall, and small
• ald as in bald, scald, and alder
• alk as in talk, walk, chalk, and stalk
• alm as in alms, calm, palm, and psalm
• alt as in halt, malt, and salt
E Vowel Combinations
ee and ea
Together, ee or ea make a /long e/ sound. Sometimes, ea together makes a /short e/ sound or a /long a/ sound instead.
Example words (ee): peek, see, queen, sleep, cheese, street, meet, and team
Example words (ea /long e/): eat, sea, each, leaf, peach, mean, team, ease, and please
Example words (ea /short e/): dead, head, spread, health, and meant
Example words (ea /long a/): break, great, steak, and yea
Other e vowel combinations
• eu/ew as in sleuth, deuce, few, new, and shrewd
• ei/ey/eigh /long a/ as in veil, beige, they, whey, eight, and weigh
• ei/ey/eigh /long e/ as in seize, key, money, valley
• ei/ey/eigh /long i/ as in heist, eye, geyser, height
I Vowel Combinations
• ie /long e/ as in brief, field, grieve, and piece
• ie/ye /long i/ as in die, tie, dye, and rye
• igh as in high, thigh, night, flight, and wright
• ign as in sign, align, assign, and benign
• ind as in bind, kind, mind, grind, and behind
O Vowel Combinations
• oo as in boo, food, smooth, and moose
• oo as in book, look, good, and stood
• oa /long o/ as in oat, loam, groan, loathe, and loaves
• oe /long o/ as in doe, and hoe
• oi/oy /y/ as in oil, coin, voice, boy, and ploy
• old/olk/olt /long o/ as in gold, scold, folk, yolk, bolt, and volt
• oll/ost /long o/ as in roll, knoll, scroll, ghost, most, and post
• oll/ost /short o/ as in doll, loll, cost, lost, and frost
• ou/ow as in out, round, bounce, how, down, and browse
• ou/ow /long o/ as in soul, poultry, own, glow, snow, and owe
• ou as in you, soup, group, and rouge
U Vowel Combinations
• ue /long u/ as in cue, due, hue, rue, sue, blue, clue, flue, glue, and true
• ui /long u/ as in suit, fruit, cruise, juice, and sluice