letter sound /oa/

/oa/ Sound - Digraph

Objectives:

Learn and practise mouth formation for vowel digraph “oa” (/ō/ sound).
Blend phonemes to form words with the “oa” sound.
Substitute initial consonants in “oa” words to form new words.
Learn and use basic sight words with the “oa” digraph.

Listen to the video clip below to hear the sound of the /oa/ digraph.

video clip oa

Alternate vowel spelling

video clip 2

video clip 3

Let’s look at the letter sounds we have done so far.

/s/, /a/,/t/, /i/, /p/, /n/, /c/, /k/, /e/, /h/, /r/, /m/, /d/, / g/, /o/, /u/, /l/, /f/, /b/, /ai/, /j/

5E Phonics Lesson Plan: The Letter Sound /oa/

Grade Level: Grade 1
Duration: 1 hour
Phonics Focus: Long vowel digraph "oa" (as in boat, coat)
STEM Integration Focus: Observation & Engineering (build a floating boat)
Learning Objectives:

Learn and practise mouth formation for vowel digraph “oa” (/ō/ sound).
Blend phonemes to form words with the “oa” sound.
Substitute initial consonants in “oa” words to form new words.
Learn and use basic sight words with the “oa” digraph.

Materials Needed:

Mystery bag items
Mirrors for mouth formation
Letter cards/magnetic letters
Chart paper and markers
Printable “oa” word worksheets
Aluminum foil, water container (STEM boat challenge)
Mini story: The Goat on the Boat
Scissors, glue, crayons
projector, chromebooks, teacher's blogsite

ENGAGE (5–7 minutes)

Activity: Sound Discovery Mystery Bag

Present a mystery bag with picture cards (goat, coat, soap, boat, toad) and real objects (soap bar, toy boat).
Allow students to pull an item and guess what sound the items have in common.
Emphasize the /oa/ sound and introduce the vowel digraph oa. (blogsite activity)

❗ Mouth Formation Focus: Use a mirror to show students how their mouth moves when saying the /oa/ sound. (Rounded lips, tongue stays down)

EXPLORE (10–12 minutes)

Activity: Blending and Word Building

Use letter cards or magnetic letters. Blend phonemes:
- c + oa + t → coat
- b + oa + t → boat
Students manipulate the beginning sounds to make new oa words.

STEM Extension: Students engineer a mini boat using aluminum foil and test if it can float in water (science concept: buoyancy). Each boat must have a label with an oa word.

EXPLAIN (10 minutes)

Activity: "oa" Word Anchor Chart

Create a chart titled "The 'oa' Team". Add illustrated words:
- coat, boat, road, soap, toad, loaf, goal.
Clap syllables and orally segment words into onset and rime:
- b-oa-t, g-oa-l
Discuss how oa says the long /ō/ sound when found in the middle of a word.

Sight Word Focus: Teach high-frequency words that include “oa”: goat, road, soap, boat.

ELABORATE (15 minutes)

Group Activity: Word Swap and Read Aloud

In pairs or groups:
- Build oa words with movable letters. (magnetic boards and letter tiles)
- Change the first letter to create new words (e.g., boat → coat → goat → moat).
- Write their list in their “oa word boat” cut-out.
Read the mini story "The Goat on the Boat" (real or teacher-made).
- Ask questions about the story to reinforce understanding.

Differentiation:

Tier 1: Use picture-word match cards (low readiness).
Tier 2: Sentence-building with oa words.
Tier 3: Write their own 2–3 sentence story using “oa” words.

EVALUATE (10–15 minutes)

Three-Tier Assessment Activities

Tier	Activity	Skills Targeted
Tier 1	Match pictures to “oa” words (e.g., goat → picture of a goat)	Recognition, oral reading
Tier 2	Fill-in-the-blank worksheet with “oa” words	Phonics decoding, word usage
Tier 3	Write 3 sentences using at least 3 different “oa” words	Word formation, spelling, application

Example Questions:

What does the “oa” sound say?

Name three words with the “oa” sound.

Can you change the word “goat” to make a new word?

Vocabulary - Jolly Phonics

oak, oats, boat, coal, coat, foal, foam, goal, goat, load, loaf, moan, moat, road, soak, soap, toad, cloak, float, croak, groan, boast, coast, roast, toast

FOLLOW UP PRACTICE ACTIVITIES