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Physical Phonics Vowel Teams and Diphthongs – Multi-Sensory Learning

Do your students struggle to grasp vowel teams and diphthongs? Research shows that using a multi-sensory approach to learning, can help students learn the information in multiple ways and retain the information better.
I created Physical Phonics to do just that! Physical Phonics helps meet the needs of all of your students, no matter which way they learn best. I have found that students are not only more engaged when they use Physical Phonics, but they also retain the information and learn their sounds quicker. 
activities to teach vowel teams and diphthongs
Below are the teacher direction cards. You will use these cards to teach your students the vowel teams and diphthongs letter pairs and sounds, all while incorporating movement. This helps the brain learn through a variety of learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic movement.
posters with vowel teams and diphthongs sounds and images
The back side of the cards reminds you how to do the movement for each sound.
Lesson Example:
1. Say the Sound: First I show the students the card and tell them the sound the vowel team makes. We say the sound 3 times. I do this because learning sounds is the most important thing to help them become readers and I tell them the letters are how we show that sound. The picture of the little kid at the bottom of the card, lets students know that is what they will say.
2. Say the Picture Clue: Then I will tell them the picture clue and how we hear that sound when we see it in a word.  EX: seal has the sound /ea/ I will show them the hand motions we will do to help us remember the sounds. Then we’ll practice and say the sound 3 times, then name the pictures EX: /ea/ /ea/ /ea/ seal  I will then give the class a list of a few more words that have that sound and see if they can come up with any.
3. Finally you are ready to put it all together and practice the sounds again. Say the sound 3 times, then say the picture clue.   EX: /ea/ /ea/ /ea/  seal  (say all this while clapping your hands like a seal)

The most exciting part of my Physical Phonics Vowel Teams and Diphthongs resource is the movement!I created instructional videos that you can use to learn all of the movements, but the students really enjoy watching the video and playing along.
teacher doing hand motions to teach diphthongs and vowels teamsThe video is in alphabetical order, so if you teach the sounds in a different order, you can quickly just scroll to the sound you are teaching that day.  The first part of the video works on vowel teams, then I take a break and tell students it’s turn to learn their diphthongs. You can these videos with students in whole group, small group, or let them watch it during center time on your computer to give them extra practice.

These charts can be printed as is or blown up into poster size and will be a helpful reminder for your students. One set has the directions on it as a reminder for you, parent volunteers, or a substitute.  These would be great to hang up at your writing center, throw in centers for your students to use as a reference, or keep these at your small group table.
phonics charts for vowel teams and diphthongs

These students strips will be a great resource for your students that they can keep in their folders or you can throw into center tubs.

physical phonics student strips for vowel teams and diphthongs

I created a small set of just the picture cards to throw in centers, use in your small group, or send some home with students to get extra practice. Students could play memory with these cards and the cards below, match magnetic letters to the correct picture, or use a wipe off board to write down the sounds they hear.
picture cards showing the vowel teams and diphthongs sounds

I also made some simple cards with just the letters.

cards to teach vowel teams and diphthongs sounds

This student book is divided into 2 sections depending on which skill you teach first. It also has a list at the front of the book with all of the sounds taught. Simply print the pages double sides, add the cover, and then staple together. Easy-peasy!
paper book to teach vowel teams and diphthongs

Each page has the picture clue and the vowel teams or diphthongs at the top. If you want to differentiate this activity, you can have your students draw pictures that have that sound, they could just write words for that sound, or they can do both.

paper book to teach vowel teams and diphthongsI hope you really find that your students learn and retain their vowel teams and diphthongs sounds more now that you have incorporated some moment. You can find all of these resources in my Physical Phonics Vowel Teams and Diphthongs bundle.

I have also created a Physical Phonics for the  Alphabet, Blends, Digraphs, and R Controlled Vowels, and aWord Work Bundle as well.
These activities are also sold in my TPT store.

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