Vowel Valley Teacher Guide
Vowel Valley Guide
3-Day Phonics Intervention: au & aw
Level
1st Grade
Day 1
Intro sound /aw/. Focus on phoneme-grapheme mapping and initial blending.
Day 2
Fluency at the word and phrase level. Rapid automatic naming routines.
Day 3
Sentence-level application and review through a printable board game.
Day 1: Intro & Mapping (20 min)
0-5 PA: Use tokens for "Say-It-Move-It". Target: law, pawn, haul.
5-12 Teach: Slides 1-5. Explain aw (end/before l/n) vs au (middle).
12-20 Work: Word Weaver worksheet. Model mapping "launch" with 4 boxes.
Word List:
paw, haul, saw, sauce, lawn, fault, launch
Day 2: Rapid Fluency (20 min)
0-5 Warmup: Rapid sound naming cards (au, aw, oa, ai, ee, ea).
5-12 Drill: Day 2 Slides word lines. Choral read, then "volcano read" (quiet to loud).
12-20 Pair: Fluency Flow Handout. Three 1-minute partner timings.
Phrases:
on the lawn, big claw, hot sauce, ready to launch
Day 3: Application & Game (20 min)
0-5 Sentences: Slides 3. Practice scooping phrases for meaning and flow.
5-18 Board Game: Paw Print Race. Monitor for correct /aw/ sound articulation.
18-20 Check: Whiteboard dictation: draw, pause, lawn.
Review:
Sentence Sprint handout (stars colored for 3x reads).
Fluency Flow Handout
Fluency Flow
Read across the row as fast as you can!
Name:
Word Level
saw haul paw fault lawn cause draw launch claw sauce jaw pause yawn dawn raw vault
Phrase Level
on the lawn a big claw
hot sauce ready to launch
to draw a cat it is my fault
a soft paw haul the box
1-Minute Timing
Read with a partner. Record scores below!
Try 1
Try 2
Try 3
Sentence Showdown Slides
SENTENCE
SHOWDOWN
Can you read the whole thought?
The cat has a sharp claw.
We will launch the toy jet.
Do not draw on the lawn!
It is not my fault we had to pause.
Put the red sauce on the fish.
GAME TIME!
The Rules
- Roll the die
- Read the word
- Move your piece
Be the first to reach the campsite!
Sentence Sprint Handout
Sentence Sprint
Name:
Read each sentence 3 times. Color a star each time!
1. The cat has a soft paw and a sharp claw.
2. I saw him haul the box to the lawn.
3. Will you put sauce on the raw fish?
4. It is not my fault that we had to pause.
5. At dawn, we will launch the big boat.
Super Scribe Challenge
Write a sentence using an au or aw word!
Word Hunt Exit Ticket
Word Hunt
Exit Ticket: Session B
Name:
1
saw
sat
sit
2
send
sauce
sun
3
help
hand
haul
Cut Here
Word Hunt
Exit Ticket: Session B
Name:
1
saw
sat
sit
2
send
sauce
sun
3
help
hand
haul
Teacher Guide
Assessment Key & Analysis
Answer Key
Row 1 saw
Row 2 sauce
Row 3 haul
Benchmarks
3 / 3 Correct MASTERY
2 / 3 Correct DEVELOPING
0 - 1 Correct NEEDS REVIEW
Next Steps
- Re-teach full-word blending if students guessed based on the first sound alone.
- Use word chaining (e.g., sat → saw) with letter tiles to build sound discrimination.
Assessment Logic: This version specifically uses distractor words with identical beginning sounds. Students must decode the entire word to correctly identify the au/aw vowel team.
