Vowel Combinations No-Prep Worksheets

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No-prep worksheets are great for those times you just need something to keep your students occupied for a while- and these vowel combinations no-prep worksheets are perfect for revision too!

As with the no-prep digraph worksheets, these worksheets are “color the vowel, read the word, draw your own picture to fit with the word”. By isolating the vowel sound, the brain identifies the different sounds the word is made up of and therefor can read it easier. Drawing the images help to consolidate the meaning of the word by making your own “picture” on paper and in your mind.

I have included the most common vowel combinations:

long a
long e
long o
long i
long u
oi/oy as in coin and boy
ou/ow as in house and cow
aw/au/al as in straw, Autumn and walk

These pages can be done independently(for assessment perhaps), or as a small group activity(teaching opp). In a small group one can use it to extend vocabulary during a mini lesson or revision of a certain sound.
I always include visual props, like a toy cow and a house for example, when we do vowel combinations. Make up a silly story. “The cow wanted to go into the house but it got stuck.” Imagining the cow stuck inside the house will forever pair those two together because it is the same sound, just spelled differently. Stories seem to help with retention of otherwise abstract concepts, especially for children with learning disadvantages.