Diphthongs and single vowels - word cards

Instructions

(1) Single word cards.
Cut up the cards and give one set to each group. Ask students to arrange cards in groups according to vowel sounds. This can be done to make students aware of the large number of vowel sounds in English and of the irregularities in English spelling. In this case, don't tell students there are twenty two-word pairs - let them arrange the words as they think fit. Emphasize that they will need to say the words aloud and agree on the pronunciation of the vowel.

(2) Dominoes
Cut up the sheet into twenty two-word dominoes (the top left domino will be pure | said).
One student lays a domino at random to start the activity. Students must then add the previous or next domino to continue the chain. Encourage students to say the words aloud rather than silently match them.

It is important that they do this one domino at a time; trying to match all the dominoes at once is very challenging. Matching one-by-one ensures that all students focus on every example.