Vowel Teams and Word Parts

1. Flash the vowel team cards one at a time. The class says the sound, not the letter names: ai is "ay," ee is "ee," oa is "oh," igh is "eye."
2. Write three words under each team on the board and read them chorally: rain, paint, snail; feet, green, sleep; boat, road, soap; night, light, bright.
3. Point at the "oa" in "boat" and ask: "How many letters? How many sounds?" Fish for "two letters, one sound." That sentence is the whole warm-up.

“When two vowels walk together, they make one sound. Two letters, one job.”

1. Write "unhelpful" in large letters. Do not read it. Ask who can read it straight away — most cannot, and that is the point.
2. Put a sticky note over "un." Put another over "ful." Ask: "What is left?" The class reads "help" at once. Everybody knows it.
3. Peel off "ful" and read "helpful." Ask what it means: "full of help," "it helps you." Write: -ful = full of.
4. Peel off "un" and read "unhelpful." Ask what un- did. Fish for "it turns it round" or "not." Write: un- = not.
5. Repeat with "repainted": cover "re" and "ed," read "paint," notice the "ai" team inside it, then rebuild: "painted," "repainted." Write: re- = again.
6. Do a third one fast with "careless": cover "-less," read "care," rebuild. Write: -less = without. Ask: "Is a careless person full of care or without care?"
7. Now write "said." Ask a child to sound it out: "s-a-i-d" gives "sayd." Say that this word breaks the rule, so we learn it by sight. Add it to the wall list beside "could" and "because."

“Cover both ends. What is left is usually a word you already know. Read that first, then put the ends back one at a time.”

1. Give each pair two sticky notes and this list on the board: unlock, replay, hopeful, sleepless, rebuild, could.
2. For each word, pairs cover the ends, read the root aloud to each other, then read the whole word and say one sentence using it, e.g. "I had to replay the game."
3. Walk round and listen for the root being read first. A pair reading "un-l-o-c-k" letter by letter has skipped the cover move; hand them the sticky notes again.
4. Take answers for "sleepless." Ask: "Which part has a vowel team?" (ee in sleep.) "What does the word mean?" (Without sleep — you could not sleep.)
5. Ask what happened with "could." Fish for: "It has no parts to cover — it is a wall word." Knowing when NOT to split is part of the skill.

“Root first, then the whole word, then what it means. If there is nothing to cover, check the wall.”

1. Students complete the printable. One sheet sorts words into columns by vowel team (ai, ee, oa); the other asks them to split longer words into prefix, root and suffix.
2. Remind them of the order on the board: 1. cover the ends, 2. read the root, 3. read the whole word.
3. Pull a group of three who struggled in guided practice and do the first four items with them using the sticky notes.

1. Write "unpainted." Ask one child to read only the root (paint), a second to name the vowel team in it (ai), and a third to read the whole word and say what it means (not painted yet).