Phonics and word study are a crucial part of learning to read and what better way to practice it than with Dipthong Puzzles. This free printable diphthong games is a fun way for first grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd graders to pracice puting sounds together to form words with phonics skills. Plus, these diphthong games are FREE!! Simply print pdf file with diphthongs worksheets and you are ready to play and learn!
Diphthong Games
According to the Webster Dictionary, diphthongs are ” two vowel sounds joined in one syllable to form one speech sound”. If that nice definition didn’t quite work for you, let me give you some examples. It is the oy sound in boy or the oi sound in voice. But we can complicate matters even more and say that the ew in jewel is also a diphthong even though the w is not a vowel. Isn’t English is so much fun? One way to help young children improve their reading fluency is to teach them the sounds the two letters in a diphthong make, and the more they are exposed to these words the more comfortable they will become with these sounds.
This dipthong game makes it fun for kids to practice listening for dipthongs in words whiel having fun with a phonics activity for kids in grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3. Whether you are a parent, teacher, or homeschooler – this free printable dipthong games is sure to make improving reading and spelling skills a snap!
Looking for more phonics language arts worksheets? Don’t miss our sh and ch worksheets, fun Consonant Digraph Game, puzzle ​digraph activities free, and more!
Free printable diphthong games
Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> _____ <<. The pdf file will open in a new window for you to save the freebie and print the template.
Diphthong Worksheets
If children are unfamiliar with diphthongs and the sounds they make, these puzzles with will be very frustrating. I advise introducing diphthongs and playing with the sounds and words before you start the puzzles. We began our study of each diphthong with a fun interactive notebook activity. It had us reading the words, coloring in pictures, reading texts with the word, doing word searches, and filling in the blanks of a story with words that had diphthongs.
We continued our study with games that gave us a little more practice reading words with diphthongs.
When I finally felt he was very comfortable with the sounds, we moved onto these puzzle pieces.
Diphthongs Games
Sure dipthongs worksheets are easy to prep, but they aren’t as much fun. Kids love playing games to practice concepts so these diplothong puzzles are a favorite with kindergarten, first grade, and 2nd grade kids.
Unfortunately, printable puzzles do require a little prep work, but with the right steps taken they can last a long time and be used over and over.
- First, print off the diphthong puzzles on cardstock paper
- Next, cut them out
- For added durability, laminate
- Finally, sit down with your Kindergartener, First grader, or second grader and get ready for some fun learning
Diphthongs exercises
The diphthong puzzles review 9 different sounds. For each sound, there are four words. Also included are six blank puzzles. This allows you to add a few extra special words if you so desire. The sounds and words used with them are as follows…
- au – author, pause, sauce, haunt
- aw – hawk, yawn, shawl, crawl
- ew – jewel, blew, grew, chew
- oi – voice. foil, hoist, point
- oo – scoop, stool, tool, moon
- ou – mouse, count, couch, south
- ow – clown, growl, crowd, bow
- 00 – wood, hood, cook, book
- oy – oyster, toy, joy, coy
Activity Time
If you were to drop all those words in front of a young child, many of them would just sit and stare. They would be quite overwhelmed with the task in front of them. I highly suggest only giving 4 to 8 diphthong puzzles at a time. You could work on one sound at a time and only have them work through 4 puzzles. Or give them four puzzles with 2 of the diphthongs that sound the same….. such as oi and oy. Really want to challenge them? Then hand them eight puzzles with all different sounds. The options are endless!!
The goal for the diphthong puzzles is to get children to sound out the words, recognize the letters that make each sound, recognize the sounds each diphthong make, and then put it all together to make a word.
Some children will need very little instruction and can easily do this on their own.
Other children will need you to sit down with them. They may need you to break apart the word for them and say each sound separately. The more you work through the words, gradually release the responsibility to the student. If at first you have to say the words and break them apart, then after a few have the child say the word and try on their own to say the sounds in the word. Try to do less and less for them until they are able to succeed on their own. Before you know it, they will be comfortable spelling diphthongs by themselves. Enjoy!
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Phonics Activities
Start with our guide on how to teach phonics step-by-step. Don’t miss our cvc activities and sight word worksheets and games. Then take a peak at these fun, free phonics activities for early readers!
- I Spy phonics worksheets – work on beginning blends, digraphs, and vowel teams
- Cute beginning sounds worksheets
- Printable Trigraph Reader – with trigraph word list pdf or Ending Blends Activities – lp, ld, lk, lf, lt Game, Ending sounds worksheets
- Free Printable Long Vowel Games and Trace and Color by Blend Worksheet
- Short Vowel Worksheets and Transportation Word Family Sliders
- Long Vowel Worksheets or Crack The Code CVC Word Worksheets
- L Blends Worksheets or Beginning Sounds Games
- Short a Books and Middle Sound CVC Words Activities
- Free Printable Game for Schwa Sound Practice
- Floss Rule Worksheet and Blends Clip Cards – blending cards free pdf
- Short o Worksheets, free Long and Short Vowels Worksheets pdf, and phonics oo sound worksheets
- Ending Blends Worksheets – lp, lk, ld, lt and Free final stable syllable worksheets
- SH, CH, TH Words Digraph Games or Hot Cocoa Beginning Sounds Winter Phonics Activity
- Free Printable Th Worksheets and 26 Free ABC book with pictures pdf free download
- teaching glued sounds ng word clip cards
- ck k spelling phonics activity
- Do-a-Dot Marker Beginning Sounds Worksheets pdf
- 5 Free printable magic e games
- Don’t miss our 3000+ language arts worksheets or our 5000+ 1st grade worksheets
Free Dipthong Puzzles
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