Are you teaching the long U sound? You're in the right place! I'll break down all the different long U sound words and spelling patterns and also provide you with loads of educational activities and resources to set your students up for success. It's everything you need to know about the long vowel U in one place!
Teaching long vowel sounds is an important part of building early phonemic awareness and phonics skills. They are usually some of the first vowels we teach our students (after the short vowel sounds found in CVC words) since they make the sound of their letter names and occur in many common words.
But like anything in the English language, long vowels have many exceptions, variations and outliers, which is why it's essential to provide your students with a strong foundation. Students need explicit instruction in the different sounds, ways to write them, and the differences between the long and short vowel sounds.
The more time you spend on building phonemic awareness and helping students get really comfortable with HEARING the different sounds in words, the easier it will be for students to transition to reading and writing. Fortunately, I have a whole suite of resources to simplify the process and make teaching long vowels fun and interactive. But first - let's start with the basics!
What is the Long-U Sound?
Unlike other long vowels, the long letter U can be pronounced in two ways: /oo/ or /yew/. This can be confusing for students who are used to long vowels having a 1:1 correspondence between the letter name and sound. For example, Long A is always /ay/ and long E is always /ee/.
Because of this, you'll need to incorporate a lot of oral practice into your instruction. It's not just the different spelling patterns; your students need to practise the different long U sounds too.
There are some helpful rules about when to use each of the sounds of long U, which I'll explain in the spelling patterns below.
Long U Spelling Patterns
- u (flu, truth)
- u_e (avenue, tissue)
- oo (moo, snooze)
- ew (chew, curfew)
Long U Word Lists
My decodable word lists will provide you with page after page of words that fit the different long vowel sounds and their spelling variations. It's a fantastic resource when you need the right word in the middle of a lesson. The lists below are just a sample of those resources!
U Word List
The letter U is the most standard spelling for long U words, occurring 59% of the time. It is usually used at the beginning of a word or the end of open syllables and typically makes the /yew/ sound.
- flu
- emu
- duty
- jury
- truth
- tutu
- brutal
- computer
- cucumber
- educate
- fluent
- gluten
- human
- manual
- museum
- nuclear
- popular
- pupil
- scuba
- student
- tulip
- unicorn
- universe
U_e Word List
You'll usually find this split digraph spelling pattern in the middle of the final syllable. It fits the Bossy E or Silent E pattern where the U "says its name" because of the E at the end. The U sound may be either /yew/ or /oo/.
- cube
- cute
- fume
- mute
- rule
- abuse
- assume
- crude
- fluke
- costume
- dilute
- excuse
- include
- produce
- refuse
OO Word List
The "oo" pattern often appears in the middle or end of a word. It makes a consistent /oo/ sound, which makes it easier to learn than other patterns.
- boo
- coo
- moo
- ooze
- boom
- booth
- choose
- doom
- hoop
- hoot
- loop
- pooch
- boost
- kazoo
- moody
- roost
- snooze
- baboon
- balloon
- blooper
- broody
- cartoon
- groovy
- noodles
Ew Word List
You'll often find this pattern at the end of words where it makes the /oo/ sound.
- chew
- dew
- new
- brew
- crew
- flew
- newt
- spew
- threw
- fewer
- nephew
- screw
- shrewd
- brewing
- cashew
- curfew
- dewdrop
- fewest
- newborn
- sinew
- stewing
Other spelling patterns
- ue (blue, clue)
- ou (acoustic, cougar)
- UI (bruise, juice)
- o (to, today)
- ough (through)
- eu (feud)
- eau (beauty)
- ueue (queue)
- iew (view)
- ut (debut)
- ewe (ewe)
These spelling pattern posters are a fantastic option for your literacy center or word wall. They reference the most common spelling patterns and include visual reminders to help kids remember them as easily as possible.
For your own reference, print out these free spelling generalisation pages, which map out all the following spelling patterns and even include how frequently they're used and where they occur in words. They're a great memory aid when you're in the middle of lesson planning!
K-1st Grade Long U Resources & Activities
Now for the fun part! I've created lots of resources to help you teach all the vowel sounds and much more on The Hive, my all-in-one digital teacher planner, resource and digital learning tool library, and more! It includes hundreds of printable activities, slideshows and interactive apps that you can use in every part of the teaching day.
In particular, there are some fantastic digital learning tools that you can pull up at a moment's notice to teach your students how to decode, encode and more, including:
Word Builder
Beedle
Roll A Silly Sentence
Four in a Roll
Tic Tac Toe
Flash Cards
Decodable Sentences
Spinner Picker
... and so many more!
- Elkonin Boxes
- Decodable Words
- Decodable Images
- Nonsense Decodable Words
- ... and more!
All of the activities below are also included on The Hive, as well as hundreds more phonics activities. It's truly revolutionary teaching resource that will simplify your instruction so much this year. Start your free 14 day trial of The Hive today!
Digital Lesson Slides
This interactive slide show is loaded with over 700 interactive slides that will help introduce the long U sound, teach the different spelling patterns, and help your students consolidate their learning through several interactive activities. It's a must-have for any primary teacher!
Word Mapping Mats
My word mapping mats all build on the foundation of orthographic mapping. The goal is to help students first connect with a word orally to trigger their existing knowledge, then have them break down the individual sounds and map them out with letters.
This Say It Map It Tap It Spell It activity is a helpful resource for the whole class!
Long U Sort
Unlike other word sorts that have students pick out the long U from the other long vowels, this long U group sort goes more in-depth and has them sort the different long U spelling patterns. There are three different versions to increase the complexity gradually over time.
Find & Cover
This find-and-cover phonics worksheet is an easy way to have students practise decoding long U words. They either say the name of the picture or read out the words in the word bank, then match them up.
Decodable Words & Sentences
After spending so much time building that phonemic awareness, it's time to work on those decoding skills. It's best to start off slow, having students decode words, phrases, and then sentences. I have several resources to help with this:
- Long U Decodable Words and Sentences (available in pastel or neutral colours)
OO or EW Worksheet
Picking the "oo" or the "ew" spelling can be hard to remember! These printable worksheets offer students a chance to consolidate all of their word mapping skills and really learn which one to use when.
There are also matching task cards which you could use with double-sided counters.
Hidden Word Mats
Who doesn't love playing a little I Spy? These hidden word mats practise matching images to written words but in a fun, interactive way that makes it feel like playing a game!
I Spy
Another version of I Spy that kids will love as they learn to decode words with long u!
Phonics Puzzles
Another playful way to get students decoding. These Long U Phonics Puzzles are all zoo-themed.
Read the Room
One of my favourite phonics activities is to have students find the correct word for the image on their worksheet by getting up and moving around the room! They love it!
Long U CVCe Words Decodable Drawings
Give kids a chance to be creative with directed drawings! As they decode, they figure out what they need to draw next to complete the scene.
These decode and draw pages are a great option too. They are differentiated so that students can draw the decodable word, phrase OR sentence.
Phonics Flip
This playful twist on Uno is a great way to practise phonics skills! Students look for word cards that match the graphemes in the word, so it really focuses on all the long U sounds.
Clip Cards
Spelling clip cards are a great way to help students remember which long U vowel teams are in each word. As they say the name of each picture, they must clip the correct spelling pattern and see if they get it right. The repetition can be really helpful!
Word Building Cards
These task cards invite students to do their own sound mapping without sound boxes or mats. They are given a picture of the word, then they must list out the phonetic sounds and match them to the individual letters.
This sort of practice is much more effective than flashcards and is great for small groups, independent practice and more.
Poppit Task Cards
Similar to the word mapping activities above, these poppit task cards focus on listening to the different sounds in an individual word. Students say the name of the picture, "pop" the number of sounds, and then try to spell it on their own.
Grapheme Detective
Like the "oo" or "ew" activity above, this printable worksheet has students figure out which spelling pattern matches each word. It requires them to write out both spelling variations, and work out which word 'looks right'!
This helps students tap into their visual memory and see quickly when a word is spelled right or wrong. Although visual memory isn't as great as oral memory, this can be really helpful later in the learning cycle.
Phonics Review Worksheets
Sometimes you need a quick way to review or assess what your students understand. This set of 25+ phonics worksheets will give your students a chance to practise their long U skills in many different ways. They can be used as a formative assessment, during small groups, for independent work, morning work, or even homework!
Open-Ended Assessments
When it's time to test what your students know, ditch the multiple-choice quizzes! These open-ended vowel assessments will require your students to generate a variety of words following different patterns to truly show what they know.
Alternatively, these phonics check-ins are a great assessment tool to check which skills students can and can't apply.
