LumiraWhat is a vowel team?
In a vowel team, two or more letters combine to spell one vowel sound. English has many of them and several spell more than one sound, so each team needs explicit teaching and plenty of practice in real words.
The air vowel team — word list
Every word below appears in the decodable book on this page, so a reader who practises the list will meet the same words again in context.
- chair
- dairy
- fair
- hair
- haircut
- pair
- repair
- stair
Free decodable book: Decodable Vowel Team AIR
This is an original Lumira decodable reader, written so that a child can sound out nearly every word using patterns they have already been taught. The full text is below — read it here, or open it in the app to read it together with the words highlighting as you speak.
Mia sat in a chair. Leo sat in a chair too.
Leo had a haircut. Mia had a haircut too. Mia and Leo like their hair.
Mia and Leo went to the fair. The fair is fun.
Leo sat on a stair. Mia sat on a stair too.
Mia had a pair. Leo had a pair too. Mia and Leo did repair the pair.
Chair dairy haircut fair hair stair pair repair. Mia and Leo like them all.
How to teach it
- Say the sound on its own first, several times, before showing any letters.
- Show the spelling and name it explicitly — tell the reader what it says rather than asking them to work it out.
- Blend two or three words from the list together, out loud, slowly.
- Read the decodable book above, where the pattern repeats in real sentences.
- Come back to it two or three days later. Cumulative review is what makes it stick.
Lessons that practise this pattern
air vowel team
Read air as /air/