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 ie vowel team (the long e sound) — 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.
- brief
- chief
- field
- grief
- niece
- piece
- shield
- thief
Free decodable book: Decodable Vowel Team IE (Chief)
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 had a shield. Leo had a shield too. They like it.
Leo is a chief. Mia is a chief too. Mia and Leo are in the field.
Mia has a niece. Leo has a niece too. The niece got a piece.
Leo had grief. Mia had grief too. It was a brief grief.
Mia and Leo sat in the field. They saw a thief. The thief did run.
Shield chief thief grief brief niece piece field. 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
ie vowel team (long e)
Read ie as long /e/ in the middle or end of words
Word sort: ie (long e vs long i)
Sort ie words by whether they say long e or long i