Stage 8 introduces R Controlled Vowel Digraphs at the beginning, middle and at the end of words.

Comes with loads of pictures & activities to help you understand & practice correct spelling with these tricky letter combinations 

• Like ar (car), al (palm), a (koala), ear (heart), au (laugh) etc

Skills that we focus on when teaching Long Vowel Sounds & Digraphs:

• Hear the common vowel sounds in the different words
• her germ first fur earth
• Understand that there are different ways of spelling vowel sounds that sound the same
• her germ first fur earth
• Understand that there are different sounds for vowels that are spelled the same
  
• four flavour journey flour
• Sound out words by pulling apart the sounds (segmenting)
• h-er g-er-m f-ir-st f-ur ear-th
• Read and match each sound to the correct letter/digraph, while paying particular attention to the correct spelling of the vowel sound
• read first hear f-ir-st spell first
• Put the sounds back together (blending) to read the word:
• f-ir-st makes the word first

  Activities included: 96 pages

• Looks Different Sound The Same Reference Posters: Become familiar with the different ways to spell the same sound. These don’t need to be memorised - many adults still don’t get these right! Read through the different words on each poster - can you hear the common vowel sounds?
  
• Looks the Same Sounds Different Reference Posters: Become familiar with all the different sounds that one digraph can make. Again these don’t need to be memorised but hopefully they help you to begin to understand how our language is structured... it’s super tricky! Read through the different words on each poster - can you hear the different vowel sounds?
• Reading & Spelling Activity Pack: Read through each word. Listen for the common vowel sound and pay attention to the spelling of the vowel sound. Sound out the words first (segmenting), spell the words and then read the words (blending). Use the letter tiles to first choose the correct vowel digraph spelling and they try and spell the word correctly without prompts. Laminate the pages or add them to a display folder to make them wipe clean
• What Rhymes With: Choose a picture tile and spell in out in the first row of boxes. What other words rhyme with this word?
• Spelling & Writing: Practice spelling and writing words with different vowel sounds on the dotted thirds. Choose a picture card and practice spelling it, making sure you choose the right vowel digraph.
• Matching Tiles: Match up the correct vowel digraph tile (cut outs) to each picture. Try your best to choose the correct spelling!
• Write a Story: Choose 3 picture tiles and place them at the top of the page. Write a short story using these three words.