Leveled educational intervention for the different structured literacy stages.
Lots of great phonics spelling games in one big bundle.
A fun way to learn spelling rules and reading flashcards in a game-style educational setting.
Great for leveled educational intervention for the different structured literacy stages. Easy to fit into your scope and sequence.
CVC, CVCC, Floss, R-controlled, CVCe, Long a, C+le, Many sounds of y, many spellings of sh, Many silent letters, syllables, vowel teams, many spellings of “ew/oo” and sight words.
Based on many familiar kids’ games: Uno, War, Old Man, Go Fish, Crazy Eights, Rummy, and some editable play cards. You must see, there is so much in this bundle.
Decodable game-style testing ay, ea, ei, e, i, -y, ey, igh, y_e, ie, ign, oa…..and more. Long a, e, i, o.
This is a great way to check on the student’s spelling without them knowing that they are being assessed for spelling. It works well in small groups and it is fun.
How many sounds does letter u have? This is one of the rare vowels that has more than one long sound. This can make reading tricky for words like tube and use. One has /oo/ sound the other has a sharp /y/ sound.
Explore the many sounds of the letter u, with this a helpful unicorn mnemonic.
Do you know all the different sounds letter u can make?
This might be a tricky one to teach. Some students that are learning to decode by the traditional phoneme sounds have trouble with words that do not follow the normal sounds. Example words: you, push, pull, put, was, banana.
So, with that in mind. I made up this silly picture and sentence to help them.
Unbelievable the U pushed the super unicorn
The vowel can make lots of different sounds. This sentence and the silly picture is a clever way to remember some of the sounds and different spellings of the Y-oo!
The letter u can make a shocking amount of sounds. The sounds can be hidden in many different spellings. Example words: the, was, push, super. In the word unicorn, the letter u name and the schwa sound comes from the letter i.
Crazy! Right ….
This Super Unicorn Collection can be helpful for teaching and clearing up some of the sounds and spellings by grouping them together in word lists and adding colorful pictures to create mnemonic clues.
The tricky sh sound spelled ci, ti, si, xi, ss, sh, ch, s, c, can now be used as a game. Students love playing card games like War and Uno. These 144 cards were made to highlight the tricky “sh” sounds in words and added a point value to the different spellings. Including the French ch = sh, and letters like c and s, in words like ocean and sugar.
“It is a trick?”
Knowing there is a trick is the best way to avoid being tricked by it. This is a fun play on words. Words like ocean, sure, and sugar all have a “sh” sound that we can not see from the spelling clues.
144-Word cards with color-coded /sh/ (many different spellings of the “sh” sound) with single beginning syllable and ending syllables.
You can find it here on TPT . The are many different ways to play. Use the cards for UNO, War, or flash cards. Printing out multiple sets have been extra helpful for me. I work with many different students at different levels. It is easier for me to have the cards grouped into leveled decks ranging from easy to advanced.
The lesson posters can be cast to the TV or smartboard. I like to keep them all bound up in a booklet, it is handy for working with small groups or tutoring students.
We review the spelling lessons and write a few words from the word lists. Some students like to draw mnemonic pictures for different /sh/spellings. Then we play the card game to put reading into practice.
Level one starts with the main spelling of the sh sound, and explains to the students that these are single-syllable words. The next level can be introducing tricky words like: sure, sugar, and ocean. Or moving on to multiple-syllable words and compound words.
Lesson Booklet Option
Binding up the pages created a valuable handy resource for me.
These mnemonic picture-embedded spelling tips have been very helpful. Especially for the very tricky R-controlled Trigraphs.
Letter reversals can be a huge problem, and sometimes the letter b comes out looking like the number 6.
This is a fun way to practice the correct letter formation and the letter sounds at the same time.
Letter reversals can be a huge problem, and sometimes the letter b comes out looking like the number 6. Some students start both by drawing a straight down and then they can not remember which way the b or d should turn.
So we use the h b h b practice. I tell them the letter h and b are almost the same, the only difference is the letter b is closed at the bottom. So, make the tall letter h then close the bottom. Now it is the letter b. Be sure to make the letter sounds when you write. “h, b, h, b.” This is very important to make the letter sounds. Be careful not to use the letter name too much. Referring to the letter by its sound can help to avoid letter name interference. Letter name interference is very common with w, y, and u.
This is also a great time to remind them that the letter h is a tall letter, and the letter n is a small letter.
It is super important that students learn to start the letters at the top, not the bottom. We have found that when students start the letters on the bottom line there is a good chance that they will turn out backwards. We were seeing confusing letters and thought “Is it dyslexia?” In this case no, it was not. It was just bad handwriting habits that needed to be corrected by teaching the students to start the lowercase letters at the top, and not the bottom.
This is one of the reasons that I wrote this book R’s Pirate Handwriting Storybook. The shape of the letter r is a really good way to group all the letters that make the same starting shape. Practicing these letters together can also help remove the b d confusion. This book series is full of effective practices for teaching writing.
Think of a blue tongue to remind you how to correctly spell the word tongue. They both have the same /ue/ ending.
Teaching with card games.
Spelling tip today.
Think of a blue tongue to remind you how to correctly spell the word tongue. They both have the same /ue/ ending.
The other day we were playing the CVCC Uno card game after our reading group. The word tong, was one of the cards that we took the time to discuss vocabulary and meaning. That brought us to the word tongue and blue, in a roundabout way. One student was thinking the word (tong) might be “tongue.”
They were surprised when I wrote the words tongue and blue on the whiteboard. I underlined the ue and told them to think of the word blue to remind themselves how to spell this tricky word.
There are many teachable moments in these small reading groups. It is pure joy for me to hear them working out new words that they have never read before and discuss their meanings during our games. Teaching the students with flashcard games helps them to sound out new words that they may not find in regular reading passages. When they have confidence in their decoding abilities, then they can stop guessing with the whole word strategy. It is awesome, to hear the shock in their voice when they realize they can read a new word they never knew before.
I have created some hints within the letter shapes to help remind the students of words that make the same digraph sound.
Creative Picture Embedded Hints with the Letter Shapes
Digraphs might be more complex to learn than blends, especially with all the tricky sounds, silent letters, and spelling rules. I have hidden some hints within the letter shapes to help remind the students of words that make the same sound as the digraph. Example ch – one of the sounds of ch is in chomp and chicken. The letter c has teeth to chomp or chew on the chicken leg, which is very similar to the h shape.
This is the first sound of ch, as in chicken. Some kids have it mixed up with the sound /tr/. I was very surprised by this until they explained that /ch/ is for the train picture. (oops!) Some programs have a Choo-choo train for /ch/ sound, and it was confusing the emergent readers.
There are many more clever hiding pictures with the digraphs and trigraphs in this set. Including the 3 different sounds for the ch.
These grapheme images incorporate the letter shapes with embedded images to help students recall the sounds that they make. Pictures aid phonemic sound recall and link to memory pathways.
3 Different Sounds of CH: ch, sh, k.
ch – 1 st sound ch, Letter c has teeth to chew the chicken on the letter h.
ch – 2nd sound k, Christmas tree image, letter c is a sack of gifts and letter h on the tall tree has the “sh” silent hand.
ch – 3rd sound /sh/ chef, letter c shape is uncovering the food. (French Word Origins)
3 Different gh Sounds:
gh – Ghost images laughing, thinking, and shhhh hand. (3 sounds on one card)
gh – Gh sleeping with h shhhh hand (silent) and coughing (f)
Other Digraphs:
ck – Duck image with bubbles on letter c and letter k has duck feet
th – Letter t is sticking a tongue out at the thumb image on letter h.
ph – Letter p is using a phone, and h looks like a phone.
wr – Wrench image with silent w.
tr – Covered with train tracks and a train on letter t.
and much more……
Check out the whole set on my Teachers Pay Teachers page Pure Joy Teaching
The cards can be printed with a word list on the back. Some cards have very helpful spelling tips too. Color-coded to help highlight the digraph or trigraph.
Moving emergent readers from single-letter sound recognition to multi-letter graphemes represents one of the most critical transitions in early literacy development. While single consonants and short vowels provide the baseline for CVC decoding, consonant digraphs—such as ch, sh, th, wh, ph, wr, kn, ck, and complex trigraphs—require students to process two or three letters as a single phonemic sound.
The Pure Joy Teaching Consonant Digraphs and Trigraphs Picture-Embedded Phonics set overcomes this hurdle by embedding intuitive visual sound cues directly within the graphic shapes of the letters themselves. Rather than placing an external visual next to a letter pair, these embedded mnemonics link auditory recall directly to visual memory pathways, creating an immediate scaffold for structured literacy instruction.
1. The Science Behind Embedded Digraph Mnemonics
When students encounter blends, each letter retains its individual sound. Digraphs, however, demand that the brain suppress individual letter sounds to produce an entirely new phoneme. Standard flashcards often rely on separate visual anchors placed above or beside text, forcing the reader’s eye to bounce between the letter pair and an external picture.
Embedded picture mnemonics solve this challenge by integrating the visual clue directly into the letter strokes:
Direct Neural Linking: The visual icon is fused into the letter anatomy, activating visual memory pathways alongside phonemic processing.
Cognitive Load Reduction: Eliminates visual clutter and secondary searching, allowing emergent readers to focus entirely on grapheme recognition.
Structured Literacy Alignment: Fits seamlessly into Science of Reading (SOR) frameworks, Orton-Gillingham (OG) lessons, and small-group intervention rotations.
2. Inside the Letter Shapes: Clever Embedded Visual Hints
The Pure Joy Teaching digraph set hides specific, memorable hints directly inside grapheme formations, helping students instantly recall tricky phonemes and spelling rules.
Do you use UFLI?
For educators who are using the UFLI literacy program, you may like these spelling cheat sheets that are influenced by the UFLI word lists and have our special picture-embedded mnemonics with spelling rules added for extra support.
VC included. Vowel Consonant and CVC is very common, and VC is sometimes overlooked. The capital /I/ can be very tricky for some emergent readers. They learn that the capital I, says it’s name when it is on its own, sometimes when they see it next to another letter, like at the beginning of a sentence, it can create some confusion. ( The capital letters A and I, can be used to make words like: In, It, If, An, At.
Practice building CVC and VC words, quick set-up, and super fun
This booklet-style setup creates an easy and organized way to play and store this fun CVC and VC resource for students and teachers. Dramatic play with educational games has been a huge hit in my classroom. Kids love to play and they are learning at the same time.
Customize to Fit Your Needs
The back page is larger and has the barbecue grill image on it. This creates a fun playing surface to lay out all the vowel hotdogs on.
The top half is left open with enough space to attach a small snack-size recloseable bag. This is a great option for storing all the pieces that go with this dramatic games-style teaching resource. Sight word condiments and vowel hotdogs.
The bottom half of this resource can be printed double-sided and attached to the grill with rings or a binding machine. This lays out nicely and removes some of the reversal issues.
VC Vowel Consonant – Closed Syllable Pattern
VC included. CVC is very common, and VC is sometimes overlooked. The capital /I/ can be very tricky for some emergent readers. Letter I, and A, are examples of an open syllable vowel.
They learn that the capital I, says it’s name when it is on its own, sometimes when they see it next to another letter, like at the beginning of a sentence, it can create some confusion. ( The capital letters A and I, can be used to make words like: In, It, If, An, At. Now they changed into closed syllable vowels.
Sight Words
Sight words – Tricky non-decodable words are included: said, of, the, his, all, is, do, was, are, what, as, have, too.
The sight words are grouped by color to make teaching a little easier. All the yellow mustard words have the letter s that makes the /z/ sound: his, is, was, as, has. ( I call these the sleeping snake words. He falls asleep and snores zzz…. sometimes)
R-Controlled
All of the consonant buns should make decodable words. The letter r, is not included as an ending letter. This is not the time to teach bossy r-controlled words. This is purely for early sound-letter decoding.
Tricky – Y
The letter y, is only in the first position making the correct sound. This is not the time to teach digraphs ay, ey, oy, uy, gym, or eye. All those fun words will come later. As well as words ending with w, aw, ow, ew, should be taught later.
Here is a fun game for short o sounds with /wa/Candyland-style Fruitland.
Print the grill back page on full-sized 8.5×11 paper.
Print the hot dog vowels, single-sided, 2 to a page.
Print the Bun Consonants, double-sided, 2 to a page.
Use a piece of cardstock or scrap of laminated paper inside of the sandwich bag to make it ridged and strong enough to punch holes through.
Snack-sized reclosable bag attached with a binding machine. Pure Joy Teaching
This booklet was created with the smaller half-page grill, attached on the long side. But it could be set up with a larger full-page-sized grill. Very easy to customize to your classroom needs.
Great way to teach remotely or in class with a large display cast to the classroom TV or student Chrome books.
We have been using small laminated letters in class, but it can be a struggle to find all the letters and keep them sorted. Now that I have these Google slides my lessons can be saved and sorted out quickly.
I have them sorted by the vowels. This one is the letter /e/ the vowels are red. It includes long, short, and vowel combinations like:
Silent e, ey, y that says “e”, er, ed, pre, re, ei, ei, ee, ea, e_e,
Prefixes and suffixes (pre, re, er, ed) with whole word tiles.
The first slide is color-coded for younger students. This is a neat way to help them with sorting out the line place for the letters and to aid them in making the left-to-right reading connection. Green for go, Yellow in the middle, Red stop. This is the direction of reading and writing. * The teacher can choose any of the letters the student will need before the slide is sent to the student. This slide is a good one for CVC words or small 2 & 3-letter words.
This slide is for the small 2 letter words that make the long e sounds.
Great for open syllable words: Words like he, we, be, me, & 3 letters she.
* Notice here that the /sh/ tile is one box to drag and drop. This is to help students make the phonics connection that /sh/ is one sound digraph and NOT two separate sounds /s/h/.
If you like these slides and think they will work in your classroom or remote learning world, you can get them from my shop at TPT. TeachersPayTeachers.
