If you are looking for a fun and engaging activity for teaching children oo sound words, I have the perfect oo sound activity for you! This activity is simple to prepare and especially good for active and wiggly kids. It is a multi sensory phonics activity that uses movement to help your child learn the oo sound quickly and easily – and have fun doing it! In this post I will show you how to teach your child both the long oo sound and short oo sound through a playful activity that you and your child can enjoy together. Read on for the complete instructions for learning the sound of oo!
Is Your Child Ready to Learn the OO Sound?
The oo sound is one of the common sounds of American English so I recommend introducing this sound to your child early on in his journey to learning to read. However, before teaching your child the sound of oo, you want to make sure she has mastered a few skills. Before learning the oo sound words, Your child should know all the consonant sounds. The consonants are all the letters in the English Language that are not vowels. Your child should also know all the short sounds of the vowels. The vowels are a, e, i, o, and u. And lastly, your child should be able to sound out cvc words. Cvc words are words that follow the pattern vowel, consonant, vowel. If your child has all of these skills, you can teach her the sound of oo!
What is the Sound of OO?
You might not realize it, but the digraph OO actually makes two different sounds – it has a long vowel sound and a short vowel sound. Usually when we think of the sound of OO we think of the long oo sound, as in the word loop. Some more examples of long oo sound words are: moon, soon, food, pool, scoot, and mood. The word book has the short oo sound, and well as the other oo sound words in the letter group ook: look, took, shook, nook, cook, etc.. Some other examples of the short oo sound words are the word soot, foot, and good. You can refer to the video below if you are unsure of the two sounds of oo.
The activity Spooky OO will help your child learn and remember both the long and short OO sound.
Materials Needed for Teaching the OO Sound:
- 15-20 ping pong balls – you can find these at Walmart or a sporting goods store, but I found that Amazon had the best price.
- a washable marker (or permanent marker if you don’t mind permanently marking your ping pong balls)
- 2 medium size baskets or bins (2 shoeboxes or boxes of a similar size would also work)
- OO Spider and OO Ghost printable (you will find the free printables below)
- Tape
Instructions for Teaching the OO Sound with Spooky OO:
It’s easy to get kids engaged in this fun activity for teaching the sound of OO, and the preparation is super simple and quick! Spooky OO is great as a one on one homeschool activity, literacy centers, or for small groups in a classroom setting.
- Print the OO Spider and the OO Ghost (optional – laminate them if you would like to reuse them)
- Tape the OO Ghost and Spider to a basket, bin, or box
- Write OO words onto the ping pong balls with the washable marker. See the word list below for oo sound words that you can use. (Note: there’s a chance the washable marker could stain the ping pong balls, so if that is a concern you’ll want to test a spot first).
- Short oo sound words: book, look, took, cook, hook, foot, good
- Long oo sound words: tool, fool, pool, boot, moon, soon, noon, boo, moo, loop, hoop, cool, food, roof, boom, goof, goop
- Teach your child the sound of OO. There are two sounds that OO usually makes: it makes the OOOOO sound that a ghost makes (the sound at the end of the word boo), and it makes the oo sound that someone might make when they see a yucky spider (the sound in the middle of look). Here is a video to help you with the sounds if you are unsure:
- Explain the activity: tell your child the she will read the OO sound words on the ping pong balls. She can try each OO sound to see which one fits in each word. If the OO is making OO like boo, she will throw the ball in the basket with the OO Ghost on it. If the OO is making the sound in look (or the sound you might make when you see a yucky spider!) she will throw the ball in the basket that has the OO Spider on it. Here’s an example video:
- Time to play! Do the activity for as long as your child would like. Help him as much as he needs. Remind him to look for the OO in each word and remind him of each sound of OO as often as he needs. When he gets tired or loses interest in the Spooky OO activity, you are done for the day! Be sure to keep the activity light and fun. This is meant to be a joyful and connecting experience for you and your child. If there is a lot of frustration, back up, slow down, and come back to the concept another day. And don’t worry! Your child will get it when he is ready. If he isn’t getting it, give it a week, a month, or a couple of months and then try again. In the meantime, work on solidifying the skills that your child has already learned.
Thanks for visiting! I hope you and your child had fun with this activity. Please come visit again soon!
You might also enjoy these fun phonics activities:
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