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Diphthongs are any sound made from a combination of a vowel and a second letter or vowel. The beginning sound of owl is a diphthong made by the letter o and w when combined. Kids can learn the shape and diphthong sound of o when they make this lowercase letter o craft and transform the letter into an o.
Have you ever watched an owl fly? The fluttering wings of an owl are so graceful and strong. Owls usually fly around at dusk or in the night looking for food. Watch a video of an owl flying with your preschool student. It’s awe-inspiring and will get this lesson off on the right foot.
Brainstorm to find more words that have the ow sound. This sound can also be spelled with ou, and both spellings are considered the same sound. If you have stuffed owls or toy owls, you can bring those out, and they can join you on the hunt for items in your home with this sound! The diphthong sound o most often occurs in the middle of words such as gown, clown, down, how, couch, and chow. Dowel rod, mouse, house, and grouse are all great examples. To practice the short vowel sound of o, make our octopus uppercase letter O craft.
We have a fantastic list of letter o picture books and an entire section of that list is all books about owls. My favorite informational books are by the author Gail Gibbons. Ms. Gibbons has beautiful imagery combined with the informative text. Sometimes the text is too much for preschool children, but you can almost always “read” the books with young children by only reading the first sentence on each page. Once they are old enough to point out you aren’t reading the “whole thing”, they are old enough for you to read all the text. If you can only read one book from the list I recommend Owls by Gail Gibbons.
Playing with toys is always a fun way to reinforce what you’ve been learning. I love these different owl toys to go along with this lesson. You don’t have to run out and buy toys for every letter. Sometimes you can find puppets or other toys available to be checked out from your public library. If your location doesn’t have this service, look through inter-library loans. You may also have several owl toys in your collection already. Whatever you have will work.
As you read books about owls, make the owl craft, or go throughout your day, review the diphthong sound of o together and practice making the sound. Emphasize the ow sound, especially when pronouncing it in the middle of other words. Talk about the fact that some letters can make more than one sound, and list the various sounds of O your child has learned so far.
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