Diptongos: ie, ue, ua, ai — Spelling
Articulation · Grades 1–3 · 16 cards · Spanish-language material
Session summary (SOAP)
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Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Say the word, ask which two vowels are inside it, then build it. That middle question is the point — a student who can answer ie for tierra has heard the diphthong, and one who cannot will write tera. The two hardest are guante and paisaje, the first for the silent u after g and the second for its length; leave both until the pattern is established.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentAfter building each word, the student says it aloud. Wait 3 seconds.Log as correct
- Visual cuePoint to your mouth, or show the mouth picture for diphthongs, before the student tries again.Log as cued
- Verbal modelSay the word; the student says it right after you.Log as cued
- Shape cueStart in the mouth shape of the first vowel and glide to the second in one beat: 'pie' is one syllable, not 'pi-e'.Log as cued
Adjust it
Tap out the syllables and say each one on its own, then two at a time, then the whole word.
Say each word in a short sentence of the student's own.
Matching IEP goal
Given word cards, Student will produce diphthongs in Spanish in single words in 8 of 10 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than a visual cue.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
The sixteen diphthong words — tierra, siete, viento, pie, puerta, cuento, fuego, juego, agua, cuatro, guante, cuaderno, aire, baile, paisaje, hay — as a spelling task. Derived from the flashcard deck. Spanish spelling is close to phonetic, so a student who can segment the word can usually spell it, which makes this a good check on whether the diphthong is being heard as two vowels.
What to listen for
Watch for one vowel where there should be two. Puerta written as perta is the diphthong collapsing, and it is the same error that shows up in speech as a lost syllable. Notice hay, which ends in a y rather than an i — it is the one word here where the sound and the letter come apart, and it is worth teaching as an exception.
Carrying it home
Ask which two vowels are in a word rather than for the whole spelling. Agua and puerta are common enough to come up without arranging anything, and hearing the two vowels is the part that matters — the letters follow from it in Spanish.
What's in this activity
- tierra
- siete
- viento
- pie
- puerta
- cuento
- fuego
- juego
- agua
- cuatro
- guante
- cuaderno
- aire
- baile
- paisaje
- hay
Questions
- How is this different from the flashcards?
- Same sixteen words, built from letters rather than read. It checks whether the student hears two vowels in the diphthong.
- Do I need to sign in?
- No, it plays free with no account.
- Why is there a u in 'guante' that isn't pronounced?
- It keeps the g hard before an a-sound cluster in that spelling pattern. It is a spelling convention rather than a sound, and worth naming so the student is not trying to hear it.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.