FREE Printable Phonics ou and ow Words Game

If your first grader is working on ou and ow words in phonics, you will live this super cute, free printable ow game! This ou and ow sounds activity is a great way to help grade 1 students learn to differentitate between ou ow words sounds. Simply print the pdf file with ow activities and you are ready to play and learn as you teach 1st grade kids to read, write, and spell!

ou ow words

Of all the syllable types, vowel teams are the hardest for me to teach. There are so many of them, and they all have different rules. Sometimes, there really aren’t rules and you just have to learn when to use each vowel team (like ey and ay both make the long a like in pray and prey). Thankfully, the vowel team we are working on today doesn’t have a lot of options and has a wonderful generalization, that works the majority of the time. Welcome to the ou and ow vowel team.

We have lots more english worksheets and phonics activities to choose from including reading ou phonics games. free words with ou game, and consonant blends game

ou and ow worksheets

Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> __________ <<. The ow game pdf file will open in a new window for you to save your freebie. Now print off  the no-prep cvc worksheets! These worksheets come in black and white.  

ou ow games

Let’s start with the easy one. The vowel team “ou” is most often found at the beginning or middle of syllables. Words like ouch and ounce start with the “ou” sound and the letters ou are used. Then you have the letters used in the middle of words like in couch, or in the middle of the syllable like sur/round.

Then we move into the next rule, and you would think it would be easy. And for the most part, it is, but we have a few exceptions. The generalization states that ow is used at the end of a word or syllable. BUT, we also use ow in the following situations.

1. When the /ow/ sound has just an n after it, it is normally spelled with ow. You can see this in words like gown and download. It is important to note that this only applies to words where the n is alone at the end of the word or syllable. Notice that count is spelled with an /ou/ because the n does not stand by itself.
2. Along the same line, when the /ow/ sound has just an l after it, it is normally spelled with ow. Check out the words growl and howl.
3. It is also important to notice that /ow/ is used when the next two letters are /er/ or /el/. Flower, power, vowel, and towel are some examples of that generalization.

ou and ow words

This game is super easy to play and is a fun way to practice when to use ou vs ow. There are also three levels, so you can choose which works best for you little one.

1. Level one is just pictures. They can look at the picture and decide whether to use an /ou/ or /ow/. For my little one, I had her write the words on a whiteboard before she could move to that space.
2. Level two has words spelled out with the /ou/ and /ow/ missing. All of these words are just one-syllable words.
3. Level three is similar to level two, but the words are two-syllable words.

ou and ow games

To begin, have player one spin the spinner. If they land on an /ou/, they move up the board until they land on a word that uses /ou/. Of course, if they land on /ow/, then they move till they land on a word that uses the /ow/.

Player two does the same thing, and this continues until one person is able to spin the letters to spell the last word on the game board.

It is a simple and fun way to work on when to use the /ou/ vs the /ow/.