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Year 1Vowel teams

oo words

The letters o and o work together to make the long /oo/ sound.

The letters o and o work together to make the short /oo/ sound.

Plan a lesson on ooSee the words

Words with oo

Tap a word to see its sounds and hear it.

oo in the middle

oo at the end

See every oo word in Phonicspal

Read oo in a sentence.

Every sentence is checked against the sound.

  1. 1The moon is cool.
  2. 2Look at the book.
  3. 3We zoom to the zoo.
  4. 4A good cook stood here.

How to teach oo

  1. Introduce the vowel digraph. Explain that a vowel digraph is two vowels that work together to make one sound.
  2. Model saying the target phoneme three times.
  3. Students repeat.
  4. Check articulation and correct mouth placement.
  5. Identify the phoneme in the example words.
  6. Explain the spelling generalisation: We usually use oo to spell the long /oo/ phoneme in the middle of words (e.g. moon, food, spoon). At the end of words, we often use ue (e.g. blue, glue, true) or ew (e.g. flew, grew, threw).
  7. Explain that the vowel digraph oo can also represent the short /oo/ phoneme (e.g. book, look, foot, good).
  1. Introduce the vowel digraph. Explain that a vowel digraph is two vowels that work together to make one sound.
  2. Model saying the target phoneme three times.
  3. Students repeat.
  4. Check articulation and correct mouth placement.
  5. Identify the phoneme in the example words.
  6. Explain that the vowel digraph oo can also represent the long /oo/ phoneme (e.g. moon, food, spoon, boot). Explain that students will learn this pronunciation in a separate lesson.

Other ways to spell /ōō/

Decodable stories with oo.

From the Phonicspal library. Sign up free to read them.

Make a whole oo lesson.

Slides, words and sentences, matched to the sounds your class has learned.

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