Unlocking the Magic of Vowels: A Creative Way for Kids to See Spelling Patterns
As educators and parents, we know that learning to read and spell can be challenging for young students. Traditional drills and rote memorization often leave children frustrated or disengaged. But what if we could make spelling visual, playful, and memorable—so that kids can see the patterns as well as read them?
That’s the idea behind my new series of books, Pure Joy Phonics. Designed specifically to help students connect visual storytelling with vowel spelling patterns. Each book brings letters to life in a world where they have personalities, feelings, and relationships—making the abstract rules of spelling something kids can actually see and understand.
Take the letter “u”, for example. In these books, “u” is a curious little letter who doesn’t like to be alone at the end of words. When it finds itself lonely, the silent “e” swoops in like a superhero, giving “u” a partner and forming the magic of words like blue and glue. With clever illustrations and playful narratives, children can visualize why letters behave the way they do—and the patterns stick.
This approach does more than teach spelling; it encourages children to think about words as a system, noticing the relationships between letters, sounds, and meaning. It also empowers educators and parents with a fun, ready-to-use tool that makes reading instruction engaging and effective.
Whether your students are struggling spellers or eager word explorers, these books offer a fresh way to build confidence and curiosity. With each page, children are not just memorizing rules—they’re discovering the personalities of letters and the stories behind the words they read every day.
If you’re looking for a new method to help students connect visually to spelling patterns, this series brings both magic and learning into every lesson. Invite your students into a world where letters have lives of their own, and watch as the rules of spelling become something they can see, remember, and enjoy.
The first two books are in print, and more books are on the way. Look for them on Amazon.
This question is one that I see asked often on Facebook and hear from educators, parents, and homeschoolers. “The student can read, but struggles so hard to spell.”
This ongoing struggle is hard for the student and the educator. Leaving both of them deflated and questioning what to do next. I was that kid. I was that educator. Through those experiences, I found some solutions that have really made a difference for my own spelling and how I work with the students in front of me.
I will lay out the top key points that helped me bridge the reading to spelling mastery for myself and my students. I am not a perfect speller, but I do have a better grasp of why some words are spelled the way they are.
For educators, parents, tutors…
Knowledge
Read the book: Uncovering The Logic of English, by Denise Eide. Or watch some of her videos. Truly, the best spelling rule/pattern advice out there. That I have read. As the educator, you need to understand why some words break the rules. You can explain it to the students and make it easier for them to master spelling.
Make sure the sounds are made correctly. Many educators and parents are shocked by the realization that the sound they have been teaching for the letter symbol is making it harder to blend. This video will help 44 phonemes by Rollins Center. Her tip is clip the extra schwa sound at the end of the letter sound. Make sure it is a clear /b/ sound, not “buh.” Occasionally, letter name confusion is an issue.
Vowel Sounds are Important
Every English word must have at least one vowel in it, or a letter that is acting as a vowel, such as tricky Y. Without the vowels, they are just letters and not words. Letters I and A, are words on their own. Vowels have long and short sounds; the consonants do not. So, mastery starts with the knowledge that these five letters, a, e, i, o, u can do special things. Letter Y, is tricky. As the first letter, Y will say its sound. After that, it may act as a vowel, and the sound may depend on the syllable placement.
The origins of words are important to remember; our favorite word, pizza, is not English in its origins. That is why the vowels make different sounds.
Closed and Open Syllables
Open and closed syllables are one of the very first syllables that emergent readers will come across in their reading. Many educators skip over the explanation and just call them High Frequency Words HFW. However, there is an opportunity to teach the students why I say its name “I.” The letter I is an open syllable. When the letter t or n, is next to the letter I, it is now closed.
Spelling makes more sense when you can see the patterns. Some people shy away from spelling rules to emergent readers, or only teach the magic E rule. I was in my 40’s before I learned why the words: give, have, love, and done are not affected by the magic E rule. Which is surprising because there is always one student who struggles with this, or reminds me of the rule breaker words. One of the most logical guides or rules is this: English words usually do not end with the letters v, i, j, or u. With that one bit of knowledge, we now have the explanation for why the silent E is at the end of so many words. Think of the letter E as a helper letter.
Silent helper e by Pure Joy Teaching
The V, is pointy. He would fall over without E to hold him up. Nessy Video.
The letters I and U, need a silent E at the end of words: pie, blue.
The letter J, is replaced by the soft G and magic E, in words like page and stage. In addition, after short vowel sounds, DGE does the job of making the “j” sound. hedge, bridge, fudge.
Letter O Schwa Pattern
Schwa sounds with silent E words are often called Heart Words. Come, some, from, done, love, mother. I like to teach them as a pattern of words that have the letter O making the “uh” sound. Nessy has a good video. I add the m. The letter O may make the schwa sound after these letters: v, n, m, th. This is a fun Uno-style-Schwa game for the schwa sound. After we play the game, a spelling test can follow to see if the student has applied the skills. Writing is important for mastery.
Vowel Teams and Spelling Patterns
It is easy to say, “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.” However, that catchy rhyme will not help me choose a spelling pattern.
AI or AY
If we have already learned the rule above about which letters do not like to be at the end of words, we should be closer to figuring out which spelling to use.
Letter I, does not like to be at the end of words. AI would be used at the beginning or in the middle.
Aid, aim,
AY usually will be at the end of a word. Not counting the suffix endings.
say, play,
For other long A spellings like a-e, or ai, that is has a lot to do with homophones like
sail – sale, wail – whale
or words that need a silent E to soften letters C, or G sounds.
race not (rais), and rays is total different word.
page not (paij) because English words do not end with the letter /j/. Silent E is needed to soften the letter G.
How We Correct Matters
No one likes to hear that the spelling is wrong. However, with spelling, you can say, “You have two of those sounds correct.” Now, let’s think about how we can fix this one sound.
In the examples above, the word page was spelled incorrectly. However, the sounds were correct-ish. That is something to point out. AI does say “A,” and it is in the center, which would be good if the target word were pail. The sound is in the correct place, however the letter /j/ can not be at the end of the word. So what are the options? /ge/ or /dge/? We need /ge/ to be magic E and change the vowel A to the long sound.
This may seem like a long explanation, but some students will thrive with an explanation that informs them for future spelling words. Many students are trying to memorize the whole word without applying any spelling tactics.
These mnemonic vowel teams are a tactic that we use in reading intervention. The images are colorful picture-embedded letters, and on the back of the cards have spelling tips and examples of where they can be used in words. Beginning, Middle, End.
Some students like the option of word scrambles. This allows them to see the letter options and put them in the correct order.
Students often need practice with reading and spelling. They can benefit from an opportunity to choose the correct spelling. These self-checking Flip-Chute cards. Let them read and guess which is the correct long A spelling.
a-e, ai, ay, ei, eigh
This is also a great vocabulary builder. The students are choosing the correct spelling pattern, and they are introduced to homophones such as:
tale, tail,
plane, plain,
mane, main
male, mail,
sale, sail,
ate, eight
There are nine card sets in the bundle, and more are on the way.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read about my collection of reading and spelling tactics. If you have made it this far, I would like to share one more freebie for spelling the schwa sound and a silent E helper. Please follow me on Facebook, YouTube, and TPT.
Gamify encoding success with scrambled words. Students love unscrambling the words. Targeted phonics skill are building as the decode and encode words that match the images.
Encoding and decoding can be overwhelming for some students. These unscrambling cards were a big success.
Success is Satisfying
Unscrambling words can feel super satisfying for some students. cvc, cvcc & ccvc. This was created for one of my wonderful students. He finds it easier to encode the words when he has letters to choose from on the cards. It is easier than decoding. This is really helping him build up his phonemic skills, and he is not as frustrated.
Get that Reluctant Reader to Engage
Used the card with the blending board huge success.
A wonderful way to use the cards more than once, pair them with the letter blending board.
It may shock some people how often the simple things are overlooked and need to be practiced. Terms such as first, second, third, beginning, middle, and end as they relate to the way we read and write English words. Some young students have trouble remembering which way the letters go and which order they need to be put in.
This Flip Chute game was designed to help students practice this skill with self-checking cards. It is a great way to do a quick quiz or assessment to check for understanding and vocabulary of terms.
Why Colored Blocks?
Using colored blocks to help students understand positional concepts such as first, second, third, and beginning, middle, and end is a powerful, multisensory strategy that builds foundational literacy skills. This visual and tactile method supports the development of directionality—the understanding that English is read and written from left to right—a key early reading skill linked to fluent decoding and spelling. By physically manipulating and visually distinguishing the blocks, students engage both visual-spatial and kinesthetic cognitive processes, strengthening neural connections between movement, visual sequencing, and language. Research in early literacy and cognitive development shows that concrete, hands-on activities like this enhance working memory, attention, and symbolic representation, making abstract concepts like letter order and word structure more meaningful and memorable. Ultimately, this approach bridges the gap between spatial reasoning and linguistic understanding, setting a strong foundation for reading and writing fluency.
Working Memory
The game connects to the working memory as it helps build or gauge the core cognitive skills, or remember the letter order and patterns.
This is a student-inspired game. I had a student in my intervention group. One day, I watched her copy a word that was written on the table. She spelled it correctly, and no letters were reversed. However, she started on the right side of the word and wrote the word from back to front. They were just symbols to her, like drawing, and she was not making a connection to the sounds. Her reasoning was “Why did it matter?” This was a valuable teaching moment.
This was also an issue with the handwriting letter strips. With daily practice, she improved. It was no longer an issue. She is now a successful reader.
This blending game was also designed for her. It made it easier for her to understand what was required to blend sounds. She called the cards “Magic!”
There are many more games you can get from the Pure Joy Teaching TPT shop. All Flip Chute cards come with the template and instructions to DIY your own Flip Chute box.
Master the bossy r spellings sounds with this engaging Flip Chute game! A fun, self-check way for kids to practice encoding and build confidence.
Students build spelling pattern recognition with targeted spelling skills of ar, or, er, ir, and ur. These R-controlled words are a fun way to practice the spelling of ar, or, ir, er, and ur sounds. Each card has a picture and word, with the r-controlled vowel missing. Bossy R game. Students can choose the missing letters and self-check by flipping it over to the back. Instructions & template for making a Flip Chute are included.
Targeted bossy r controlled vowels
How flip cards work:
The front side with the arrow has an image and word that is missing the two letters that are the r-controlled vowel. The answer is on the back and is revealed when the card is flipped in the direction of the arrow. Easily flipped in over when inserted into the flip chute.
Easy DIY Flip Chute
Kids love mastering Bossy R sounds with this interactive Flip Chute game! Practice ar, or, er, ir, and ur words using self-checking cards that make learning phonics fun and independent.
Many different literacy skill games from the Pure Joy Teaching TPT shop, along with other Flip Chute games. All Flip Chute cards come with the template and instructions to DIY your own Flip Chute box.
Support early readers with this hands-on Flip Chute CVC game! Students practice short vowel sounds in CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words using self-checking cards that build decoding and confidence.
Simple self-check game for vowel sound practice.
Short vowel sounds are super important for reading and spelling. The targeted CVC game is a great way for students to practice the 5 short vowel sounds.
CVC is one of the first skills to master after learning the letter sounds. However, many students do not realize that every English word must have a vowel or a letter that acts as a vowel, such as the letter Y. Additionally, because of the schwa sound and spelling words with different word origins, many students struggle with the sounds /a/ & /u/, and likewise/e/ & /i/.
This game is a great way to target that middle vowel practice with self-checking cards. It can also help with vocabulary; each card has an image on the front.
This set included ccvc and cvcc words.
Make short vowel practice simple and fun! This Flip Chute CVC game lets students self-check as they learn short vowel sounds and blending skills. Great for centers, intervention, or phonics review.
The Flip Chute is easy to make. Template and instructions are included.
You can get them from the Pure Joy Teaching TPT shop, along with other Flip Chute games. All Flip Chute cards come with the template and instructions to DIY your own Flip Chute box.
Phoneme Substitution: A Fun Way to Build Blending Skills
Phoneme substitution or letter-sound switching builds cognitive flexibility and helps young learners practice blending.
Many educators and parents ask: What can I use to help students with decoding? They know the letter sounds—so why can’t they blend them? There are many answers. However, by using these cards or a game like this, emergent readers can practice blending without being overwhelmed by multiple letter sounds.
Phoneme substitution is a crucial skill for several reasons.
The idea is they start with a whole word, such as log, and change or switch the /l/ sound to the /d/ sound. This is a game that you could play in the car or while you’re standing a line waiting. Phoneme switch has been called ‘the game you can play in the dark,” because it is just a game of switch sounds. That is what makes it a great cognitive game.
The bonus of the cards is that there is an image on the card, and the student is only changing one part of the word, beginning, middle, or end. Additionally, the image helps with vocabulary. Some words are tricky and often confused, such as pen/pin, peg/pig.
Self-checking cards have the answers on the back. The arrow at the top of the card tells the student while direction to insert the card into the chute. The chute flips the card to reveal the answer on the back. Some kids think it is magic. This set includes CVC, CCVC, & CVCC words.
You can get them from the Pure Joy Teaching TPT shop, along with other Flip Chute games. All Flip Chute cards come with the template and instructions to DIY your own Flip Chute box.
You may also be interested in encoding practice. For students who are overwhelmed by trying to put sounds and letter symbols out of the air or struggle to sort through all 26 letters of the alphabet. Scrabbled words may be your way to engage them in a can-do task.
Make R-Controlled Vowels Fun! Low-Prep Clip Cards for Spelling Practice.
Spelling Test Practice Made Easy – R-Controlled Vowel Clip Cards (ar, or, er, ir, ur). Lately, I’ve noticed several educators questioning whether spelling tests are still an effective learning tool. This concern often stems from students disliking them or seeing little value in the process—especially when they memorize weekly word lists, only to forget them soon after. So, what is a solution that supports both the student and teacher with long-term gains?
As a young student, I remember learning the list of the week and forgetting it by the end of the month. As an educator, I have made it a point to serve up the spelling lessons in target groups of spelling-related skills that scaffold and support the student with explicit, systematic and cumulative approaches that are fun and not soul-crushing tests. One example is the R-controlled words. After teaching an R-controlled lesson and reading, there is always time left for a game with the same skills and later an R-controlled spelling test for monitoring the students’ gains and needs. By using clip cards, the students can focus on the targeted skills without distraction or shame. Using cards with pictures makes this feel like a game instead of a test.
Gamification of the R-controlled words with these cards is engaging and tactile for the students. They can be used before or after small reading groups, as centers or part of a diagnostic intervention strategy. Another fun R-controlled game is the Uno-style R-controlled game. This game has color-coded cards that can be easily sorted to be responsive to the student’s level of need. We often sort them into groups and practice with just /ar/ and /or/, the secondary group is /er/, /ir/ and /ur/, then finally play the complete game with all the R-controlled letters for review.
There are other ways to use the clip cards:
They can be laminated and students can circle the correct answer.
Students can have spelling races and write the correct spelling on the whiteboard table. * They love this one.
They can write on paper, using the cards as a guide.
They can be displayed on the class TV and let students write or type their answers.
While exploring the invention units, I noticed that my students respond really well to picture-embedded letters and word lists. I find them incredibly helpful for staying organized. These visual anchor charts are a valuable resource to have on hand during R-controlled vowel lessons. They are influenced the UFLI lessons 77-83.
Building Cognitive Flexibility and Supporting Reading Intervention with Uno-Style & Crazy 8 Spelling Games
These colorful, engaging card games are more than just fun—they’re powerful tools for building cognitive flexibility and reinforcing essential spelling and decoding skills. Designed in the style of popular games like Uno and Crazy 8, these four targeted spelling games support reading intervention while keeping learners motivated and engaged.
Each game focuses on a foundational spelling pattern:
CVC – Simple consonant-vowel-consonant words, perfect for early readers. Carefully selected to avoid confusing endings like “r” or “z.”
CVCC – Emphasizes ending blends and introduces nine essential spelling rules (like ck, wa, qu, double consonants, and soft c/g). Blends such as nd, mp, nk, and others are practiced with separate flashcards.
CVCe – Also known as the “Magic e” pattern, this game incorporates six spelling rules, including when o says /ŭ/ and when s sounds like /z/.
R-Controlled – Covers patterns like ar, or, ur, er, and more complex sounds like air and oar, along with homophones and tricky combinations (w+ar, w+or).
How These Games Build Cognitive Flexibility:
Cognitive flexibility involves shifting attention, adapting to new rules, and recognizing patterns—skills that are constantly exercised as players sort, match, and interpret cards based on multiple spelling rules and phonics cues. The color-coded format strengthens visual memory and reinforces sound-symbol correspondence.
Ideal for:
Reading intervention groups
Small group instruction
Independent centers
Home practice with families
Students can use these as traditional flashcards or jump into fast-paced gameplay, practicing decoding, blending, and rule application in a low-stress, highly engaging format. Wild cards representing spelling rules further deepen understanding and allow teachers to differentiate instruction with ease.
In short, these games blend play and pedagogy, making foundational literacy practice fun, effective, and flexible.
