ou ow have several sounds

Is this jaguar camouflaged in his jungle?

Let's look at the six sounds of ou and ow.

1. ou ow as the ouch sound: mouse, cow

2. ou ow as long o: crow, though, throw

3. ou as short u in much: enough, trouble

4. ou as zoo: you, cougar, caribou

5. ou as could, would, should

6. ou as: fawn, thought

1) Same-sound word families; ou ow as in ouch: 

out           doubt      loud      crowd    cow   how   ground     found      howl     count
snout       about      cloud    proud    now   wow   around   pound  prowl  amount
        

2) ou ow as long o; I am using the hard words. You will be able to think of the easy rhymes.
blow    show     throw          shadow     yellow    minnow    arrow      boulder     
glow    snow    though         swallow    mellow   window    narrow    shoulder   
slow    know    although      hollow       fellow     pillow      sparrow

3) ou as much, touch, double, trouble:
double  enough  rough   couple   cousin       
trouble  slough   tough   country  camouflage

Slough as in, the snake sloughed its old skin.
Notice slough as sloo: a marsh, a swamp, or to feel depressed, as in a blue slough

4) ou as oo in zoo: you, through, soup, group, cougar, caribou, kinkajou 

5) ou as could, would, should, silhouette

6) ou as fawn, bought, caught, thought:
bought    fought    thought
brought   taught    ought

I now use ebay as my website: Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up.  All of my books teach a special comprehension method proven to quickly help your child become a powerful reader. You want to be sure your child is ready for the challenge of the upper grades.

Feel welcome to write with questions, Thank you for visiting my blog, Mary Maisner

ou ow sound as long o

Can a toad sit on the shoulders of our gorilla?

Ou and ow can say long o as in blow, crow, shoulder, boulder. You read while your child points to each word.

Point and say the word list five times before moving on. Make up sentences using the words:

blow    sow   tow     snow   shoulder    though

glow    sew   toe     show    boulder     although

Sow as in, the farmer was sowing the bean seeds in the ground.

Sew as in, Mom sewed the button on my shirt.

Boulder as in, the toad sat on the flat boulder (rock, stone). 

Now try:
crow     throw         arrow      pillow      window

grow     shadow     narrow    minnow   hollow

Now try:
swallow     sparrow   mellow     doughnut           thorough    burrow

shallow      marrow    fellow       pizza dough      borough     borrow

Marrow as in, my bones have marrow inside them.
Thorough as in to do a thing completely, I cleaned my room thoroughly.
Borough as in a part of town, Brooklyn is a borough of New York City.
Burrow is the underground home of an animal: the star-nose mole has a narrow burrow.
Borrow as in, May I borrow your pencil?
Burrow and borough sound alike.

I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up.

They teach through stories and skills pages. All books teach an easy way to connect to comprehension, plus all tricky letter teams like ce are underlined in the words of the stories. None of my books are dumbed-down. All include my contact info so you can talk to a reading teacher when you need help.

Have a great day. Thank you, Mary Maisner

ou ow word list

How did our goat get up on this mountain tower?

Ou and ow often say the ouch sound, as in our, mountain, and tower. Read these words with your child and use them in sentences:

our     flour     power   tower

hour   flower   cower   scour

By the way, the word hour is from the ancient Greek word, hora, and has had a silent h since the time of the Roman gladiators.

Cower is probably from ancient Norse and Danish, meaning to squat down, make oneself small in a crouch, to cringe with fear: the mouse was brave and refused to cower as the coyote snarled and swung its paw. 

Scour comes from a Latin word meaning to run quickly while searching for something: the boy scoured the field for his missing key.

This ou ow rhyming word family also uses the ouch sound:

mount    mountain    surmount    count      county   counties   account

fount      fountain      dismount    amount   bounty   bounties   recount

Look at this ou ow ouch sound family, notice ge at the end says j:

lounge   scrounge         
l

I use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up for you.

All of my books teach a special comprehension method proven to quickly give your child the skills to be a powerful reader. And, all the tricky phonics through stories and exercises.
 
My wonderful graphics come from Corel software. Have a great day, Mary Maisner   

ou ow words in a short story




A mouse is hiding and watching this hound.
Will there be trouble?

Let's watch for the ouch sound in the story below. Ask your child to read it several times to himself. You may hear your child make a mistake; let it go. Your child will be able to fix it himself if he continues with the story on his own.

After your child has read the story to himself several times, ask him what is happening in this story? What animals are in it?

What is the mouse doing? What is the hound doing? What is a hound? Why did the mouse frown and turn quickly around? Where did the mouse go? Why?

What is the skunk doing?  At the end of the story, were all the animals happy? The story says the hound was astounded, what does astounded mean? Lost? Surprised? Injured? Do you suppose the brown-spotted hound learned anything? What?

Have fun with the story:

A mouse found a brown-spotted hound prowling about in the wild woods. The mouse watched, spell-bound, as the brown-spotted hound crouched behind a sleeping skunk. The mouse frowned and turned quickly around. The mouse jumped down a tunnel deep in the ground. Moments later a cloud of scent filled the air. The mouse counted a thousand howls as the astounded hound slouched away from the wild woods. The mouse knew the brown-spotted hound must be looking for his boy's house.
                                                                   The End

What does your child think would be a good name for this story?

I now use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up.

My Vowels book, rabbit hopping through the woods, will help your child become a reading star with all of the vowel patterns, including ou, ow, au, aw, oi, oy, ey, uy, igh, ough, etc. All of my books teach a special comprehension method proven to give your child the skills to become a powerful reader. All books include my contact info, email or call for help. 
Have a great day, Mary Maisner

ou and ow

Why does a coyote like to howl at the moon?

Ou and ow have several sounds; let's look at the ouch sound, as in out and cow.Try this ou ow rhyming word family with your child:

bout      doubt     out      scout    spout      tout

about    gout       pout    shout    sprout    trout

clout      grout      rout     snout    stout 

After reading this list several times, play the game: Can you point to trout and tell me a sentence with trout? And so on, through the words.

Gout is an illness affecting the leg and foot muscles. Grout is the paste seen between the tiles on a tiled wall.

Clout is power and influence: movie stars have a lot of clout. Rout is a battle in which one side trounces the other side. Tout means to praise someone or something: my mother was touting my drawing. 

Do the same with these ou ow rhyming families:

growl         howl     yowl       bowel   foul //    cow    brow    now     pow

prowl         jowl      towel      vowel          //    bow    how     vow     wow

A person's jaw has two jowls: the old man had strong jowls. Bowels are a person's stomach area. Vowels are a special group in our ABCs: a, e, i, o, u, y.

I now use ebay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up.

All my books use lots of color pictures and teach through stories and skills practice. All books blend tricky phonics work into the lessons as well as a special comprehension method. 

Good readers and struggling readers rapidly build better connections to comprehension with these tools. No grade-level marked on any book. My contact info is included, email or call for help.   Have a great day, Mary Maisner

its or it's quiz



My dogs think it's fun to watch the turtle. 

The word its means something belongs to it, as in, the dog wagged its tail.  It = dog.

Look closely at the different word: it's. Two words go together to make it's, as in, I think it's a turtle. (it is)

Help your child see the funny mark, called an apostrophe, inside the word, it's. The apostrophe is a sign that two words have been pushed together and one or more letters have been dropped.

When two words have been pushed together and letters have been dropped, as in the word, it's, the word is in a category called contraction. Two words have been squeezed into one word, contracted into one word.

Other contractions are:

can not / can't   and   is not / isn't. Does your child see the apostrophe in can't and isn't?

You and your child should be able to say the two words it is whenever you see it's. Try it:

1. I like this picture. It's fun to look at these dogs.   Yes, I can say it is.  

    
2. The turtle is little. It's smaller than the big dog.   Yes, I can say it is.    

   
3. The turtle is brown. It's brown.    Yes, I can say it is.  

Above, you can change it's to the two words it is and the sentences still make sense.

Below, let's think about the other word: its.  The word its means something belongs to it. Its is not two words pushed together. Its does not have an apostrophe. It does not make sense to say, it is in place of its.
Try it:
1. The dog wagged its tail.    Yes, it makes sense to say it is.  or  No, it does not make sense.

2. The dog tilted its head.      Yes, it makes sense to say it is.  or  No, it does not make sense.

3. A turtle can wiggle its tail.   Yes, it makes sense to say it is. or  No, it does not make sense.

No, in those three sentences it does not make sense to say it is in place of its.

Quiz: Which word would you pick:

1.The dog wiggled _______ head.     its   or   it's

2. The turtle was on _______ way to the pond.      its   or   it's

3. The turtle likes _________ pretty brown shell.      its   or   it's

4. The dogs think _________ funny to see such a small slow animal.      its  or   it's

5. The turtle hopes ________ only a few more steps to the pond.     its   or    it's

I now use ebay for my website. Search Instant Reading Help all my books will pop up. 

All books are full of color pictures and blend tricky phonics lessons with a special comprehension method for rapid success. Your child will love this method. My contact info is included, email or call for help.    Have a great day, Mary Maisner
(Answers: 1. its, 2. its, 3. its, 4. it's = it is; 5. it's = it is)

Add s or es

Say fish for more than one fish; fishes for more than one species.
My brother fishes in the river.

 There are four times you need to add es instead of s:

1. When a word ends with an s-like sound, as in fish / fishes.

2. When you change y to i, as in carry / carries.

3. Most words ending with letter f change to ves for more than one, as in wolf / wolves and half / halves.

4. Some words which end with letter o need es, others can be spelled either way. Tornados or tornadoes; but hero must be heroes; echo must be echoes. 

Let's look at words that end with an s-like sound. Say these words and hear the s-like sound at the end: bus, glass, fish, pinch, buzz, and box.

Let's look at box.  Add s and listen to your word: boxs. You would say boksssss. When you add es, your word sounds like box es; you heard the short vowel sound of e between the x and the s sound. 

Help your child hear the tiny difference between boxs and boxes; between busss and buses; between glassss and glasses. This tiny sound is the clue your child can give himself to remember to add e to words already ending with an s-like sound.

Notice face and place and fence end with an s-like sound. The e is already there, you say face / faces. Do you hear the little es sound? Yes.

Here are a few practice words: hiss, miss, wish, fish, dish, wash, smash, crash, rash, trash, squish, squash, push, bush, rush, pinch, bench, witch, switch, pitch, twitch, snitch.

Now try: buzz, fuzz, box, fox, ax, fax, tax, bus, fuss, class, toss, cross, boss, floss.

You might like to look at my books. I use eBay as my website. Search Instant Reading Help add ed, ing  (orange flamingos on the cover).

Also, Instant Reading Help plus your child's grade level.  Or Instant Reading Help Vowels.

There is not enough time at school for children to get the practice they need in order to really learn these important lessons.  All my book are full of color pictures and teach through stories and practice pages. All books blend tricky phonics work into the lessons, as well as a special comprehension method.
Have fun reading with your child,  Mary Maisner