Teach students the saying "When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking" and provide an explanation of the saying. Inform students that when two vowels are placed side-by-side in a word, the name of the first vowel is pronounced and the second vowel is silent. For example, the vowel pair "ae" is pronounced as a long /a/ and the vowel pair "oe" is pronounced as a long /o/.
Encourage students to identify the sounds of vowel pairs from a list of given words. Draw pictures that illustrate items of words that contain vowel pairs; a sea and a toe. Print the words that refer to the illustrations underneath the pictures and highlight the vowel pairs in the words. Hold up the index cards and have students identify the vowel pairs, say the words and enunciate the vowel pairs.
Create a vowel pair bingo game. Create bingo cards on card stock that illustrate vowel pairs. Distribute the bingo cards and bingo chips to students. Pronounce the sound vowel pairs make and if students have the vowel pairs on their cards, they mark them off with chips. The first student to mark a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line with bingo chips wins vowel pair bingo.
Play a vowel pair matching game with students. Draw pictures of items that contain vowel pairs on one set of index cards. On another set of index cards, print the vowel pairs that correspond to the pictures. Spread the vowel pair cards on the ground, face-up and place the picture cards in a face-down pile. One student at a time flips over a picture card and must try to find the vowel pair card that corresponds to the word. For example, if a child flips over a picture of a tray, she should match it to the "ay" vowel pair. The child who makes the most matches at the end of the game wins.