Mastering Long A Vowel Teams with a Little Fun Along the Way

If your first grade students are working on mastering long a vowel teams, you will love this fun, free printable game to practice! After I explain what are vowel teams, you will have a chance to practice eigh words, ey words, and ei words. Simply print the long a vowel team activity and you are ready to read, play, and learn with grade 1 children.

Long A Vowel Teams

Imagine this: Your child is reading aloud, confidently sounding out words, when suddenly they hit a tricky one like “reign.” They pause, scrunch their face, and look to you for help. This is where knowing long A vowel team comes in handy! Teaching these vowel teams can unlock reading success for your child, making those tricky words a breeze. Today, we’re diving into the wonderful world of long A vowel teams—and don’t worry, we’ll make it fun!

Whether you are a parent, teacher, or homeschooler – you will love this fun activity to practice eigh sound words and ey sound words and ei sound words. Use it in the classroom, centers, or at home for a simple way to practice long a vowels.

Plus, don’t miss our free long a worksheets, printable long a sound words worksheets, and tons of free english worksheets.

What Are Vowel Teams?

First, let’s break it down. A vowel team is when two vowels pair up to make a single sound. Think of them as a tag team in the vowel world, combining to create one unified sound. These teams often create long vowel sounds, but they can also make short sounds depending on the word.

For example, in words like rain and train, the vowel team “ai” comes together to create a long A sound. However, vowel teams aren’t always predictable. Take the word read—the “ea” vowel team can make either a long or short sound depending on the context, like in “I will read” (long A) versus “I have read” (short A). Tricky, but once your child grasps it, they’ll be unstoppable!

Long A Vowel Teams That Are a Little Odd

Now, let’s talk about some of the less common vowel teams that make the long A sound. While “ai” and “ay” are the usual suspects, there are a few others you’ll want to be aware of:

eigh words

The eigh sound words in this activity are: airfreight, aweigh, deadweight, eight, eighth, eightieth, eighty, freight, height, inveighed, neigh, neighbor, neighborhood, neighborly, paperweight, sleigh, weigh, weight, weightless. This unusual team to create a long A sound.

ei words

This activity includes ei sound words like: beige, Beirut, deign, heiress, heirloom, feign, rein, reign, reined, reindeer, surveillance, their, unveil, unveiling, veil, vein

ey words

This ey sound words in this game are: conveyor, disobey, grey, greyish, hey, Monterey, obey, prey, purveyor, survey, surveyor, they, whey

Although these vowel teams are less common, it’s important to expose your child to them so they can read more confidently.

Long A Vowel Teams Game

Next up—let’s turn these tricky vowel teams into a game! Here’s how you can prepare

• Prepwork: Print out word lists that match your child’s reading level. Start with an easier page, then move to a harder one.
• Materials: Grab some Do-A-Dot markers (or bingo markers) and a die.

How to Play the Game

Here’s how it works:

• Roll the die and match it to the row.
• Read the word aloud in that row.
• Cover the word with your marker.

You can play until the whole board is filled, or race to see who fills a row first!

Long a Vowel Team

Finally, teaching long A vowel teams doesn’t have to be a chore—especially with a fun game to make learning exciting! By working through the common and not-so-common vowel teams, your child will gain confidence in reading words with ease. Plus, they’ll have so much fun, they won’t even realize they’re learning!