Year 1Vowel teams
oa words
The letters o and a work together to make the long /oa/ sound.
oa/ō/ as in oak
Words with oa
Tap a word to see its sounds and hear it.
oa at the start
oa in the middle
Read oa in a sentence.
Every sentence is checked against the sound.
- 1The goat ate my toast.
- 2I float in a boat.
- 3A toad sat on the road.
- 4The goat is on the boat.
How to teach oa
- Introduce the vowel digraph. Explain that a vowel digraph is two vowels that work together to make one sound.
- Model saying the target phoneme three times.
- Students repeat.
- Check articulation and correct mouth placement.
- Identify the phoneme in the example words.
- Explain the spelling generalisation: We usually use oa to spell the long /oa/ phoneme in the middle of words (e.g. boat, coat, road). At the end of a word or syllable, we usually use ow instead (e.g. snow, grow, throw).
Decodable stories with oa.
From the Phonicspal library. Sign up free to read them.
Make a whole oa lesson.
Slides, words and sentences, matched to the sounds your class has learned.