Diphthong Worksheets OU OW OI OY

About this resource

Picture on the page, two letters missing from the word. The child says the picture, then circles the

two letters that fit, writes them in two big boxes, or, on the Read It pages, reads the word and

circles the picture. Two diphthong sounds, spelled four ways (oi, oy, ou, ow). Every student page is

pencil work only (nothing to cut or glue there); the one cutting page in the file is the binder

organizer's divider tabs, for the teacher to assemble once.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (29 pages)

• 12 student pages: 3 sets (oi & oy together, then ou, then ow) x 2 pages (Circle It, Write It) = 6,

plus 6 Mixed pages with no letters given (Mixed Circle It x 2, Mixed Write It x 2, Mixed Read It x 2)

• 13 pictured words across the four spellings: 5 for oi & oy together (coin, oil, soil, boy, toy),

4 for ou (cloud, mouth, house, mouse), 4 for ow (cow, owl, crown, clown). 10 are Google Noto/Fluent

pictures, checked in both sets before use; 3 (oil, soil, toy) are drawn for this pack because no

single Noto or Fluent picture names them one way

• Every child page has a "My name" line, one short direction with a small icon (a speech bubble on

Circle It, a pencil on Write It, a book on Read It), big letters and pictures, and a star to color

when finished. No adult text on a child page. Only the 3 set Write It pages and the 2 Mixed Write It

pages have write boxes: two per word, about 0.7 in tall, one letter each. The 3 set Circle It pages

and the 2 Mixed Read It pages are circle-only, with nothing to write

• 2 answer-key pages (generated from the same data as the worksheets), 1 picture key of all 13 words

that also names the real diphthong words this pack leaves out and why

• 1 tracker (one student, three sets plus Mixed), 1 class progress grid (16 rows), 1 team note page,

1 home page (all four spellings, all 13 pictured words), 1 filled example, 1 phrase bank

• 1 binder cover and spine label, 1 page of six cut-apart divider tabs (Set 1, Set 2, Set 3, Mixed

review, Answer keys, Tracking) — drops straight into a phonics binder

• Start Here, a how-to-read-a-page page with all three page types shown blank and answered, a

contents page that gives every page number, and a "What's next" back page

The Three Page Types

1. Circle It: the picture, the word with a gap, three chips. One chip is the right spelling; two are

look-alikes. A look-alike is never allowed to spell a word a K-2 reader knows (oil would become

owl), so the choice is about the spelling, not a trick.

2. Write It: the same kind of word with two big boxes, one letter each. On the single-spelling ou and

ow set pages the direction names the letters; the mixed-spelling oi & oy set page and every Mixed

page show a small letter bank instead of naming them in the sentence.

3. Read It: the other way round. The word is printed and the child reads it and circles the picture.

The wrong pictures come from other spellings and start with the same letter where possible.

Two Sounds, Four Spellings

oi and oy both spell the sound in coin and boy; ou and ow both spell the sound in cloud and cow. Set 1

teaches oi and oy side by side on purpose, since so few picture words exist for oy alone (boy, toy —

joy, soy, enjoy, annoy and destroy have no picture a K-2 child names that way). Your district's or

program's scope and sequence decides the order you teach the four spellings in.

Type In, Or Print

The name and date lines, the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the home page are type-in

fields in any PDF reader. The circles and the letters students write are pencil work, and every

child page prints clean in black and white. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or

PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Kindergarten through second-grade classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher

with a student who is ready for diphthong sounds spelled with two letters. Your district's or

program's scope and sequence decides which spelling comes first.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

Diphthong practice paper with the record-keeping around it. It is not a reading assessment and not

a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. The invented student in the example is

labeled as invented.