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How to teach vowel teams.
A vowel team is two letters that work together to spell one vowel sound: rain, day, seed, boat. There are many teams, so the work is to teach them in a sensible order, one at a time, rather than all at once. Here is how to introduce them so each team is secure before the next.
Start with the most reliable teams
Begin with teams that almost always say one sound: ai and ay for long a, ee for long e, oa for long o. A reliable team first gives the child an early win and a clear model of what a vowel team is before the trickier ones arrive.
Teach one team and its sound at a time
Introduce a single team, its sound, and a keyword picture, then read a set of words that use only that team: rain, wait, paid, trail. Point out where the team tends to sit in a word, such as ai in the middle and ay at the end. Keep new teams apart until each is steady.
Read it, spell it, then sort it
Read
The child reads words with the new team and keeps the vowel sound steady across the set.
Spell
You say a word, the child writes the team from its sound, choosing the right spelling for its place in the word.
Sort
Mix two known teams and have the child sort words by the sound they hear, which builds the habit of looking before reading.
Handle the teams with more than one sound later
Some teams say more than one sound, such as ea in eat, bread and steak, or ow in snow and cow. Save these until the reliable teams are automatic, then teach the child to try the most common sound first and flex to the next if the word does not sound right. The free decodable word lists keep one team per set for this reason.
This is one of the six syllable types. For how single sounds are spelled, see the free sound-spelling chart.
See it in action. In the Lillory app, the vowel team games (Level 8, Shape-Shifter Teams) are drawn on the map and on the way. In the meantime, see the full sequence on how Lillory teaches.