Free printable · Sound: ou / ow
ou and ow Decodable Story – The Brown Rat in Town (Free Printable)
A short decodable story that practises the ou / ow sound, plus a matching handwriting sheet. Every word can be sounded out by a child who has learned vowel teams, apart from a few common tricky words.
Download the free PDF (2 pages, A4)Prints well in black and white. Free for home and classroom use.
For parents
- Read the story together three times this week. Your child colours a star each time.
- Point to each word as they read. ou and ow (as in cow) both say ow, the sound you make when you bump your toe.
- Hunt for the ou / ow words and write six of them in the boxes.
- Finish with the tracing sheet: trace the grey words, then write each one on its own.
For teachers
- Fits a systematic synthetic phonics sequence at Set 3 · Vowel teams, after teaching the ou and ow spellings of the ow sound. Suits Year 1.
- Tracing sheet uses the TAS Beginners handwriting style.
- 67 words, 12 different ou / ow words, short sentences.
- Use for small-group reading, repeated reading for fluency, or homework.
- Photocopy freely for your class.
ou / ow words in this story
- brown
- town
- out
- round
- flower
- loud
- sound
- owl
- about
- down
- ground
- frowns
Tricky words used
- a
- the
- one
- day
- out
- to
- is
Common words that can't be fully sounded out yet. Practise them by sight.
More Vowel teams printables
Practise ou / ow with Digby
In Wombat Words, your child reads stories like this one aloud and Digby follows along, then they trace the tricky words in their school's handwriting style. You get a report showing which sounds they've mastered.