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Left to Right Logic of Beginning, Middle & End

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.

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.

Easy way to make an engaging educational game.

This Flip Chute Template makes it quick and easy to transform or upcycle a box or carton into an educational game that the kids love. They think it is magic.

Link to template on TPT

Flip games are self-checking with the answers on the back. They can be used for literacy centers, intervention, reading, and spelling practice.

Each card has an image on the front, which is great for vocabulary, especially with English language learners.

CVC middle vowels are perfect for vowel practice.

R-controlled spelling cards – target the bossy R patterns ar, or, er, ir, ur.

Video link for making the Flip Chute with the template.

Roll and read worksheets are a great way to gamify your literacy lessons.

These worksheets are targeted to build up the foundational skills that lead students to master reading and spelling.

Foundational skills, letters A-Z, letter tracing for handwriting and sound articulation for letter sounds.

A-Z lessons found on TPT Pure Joy Teaching

Phonics Roll Write and Read Games FLSZ, Digraphs, wh, th, sh, ch, nk, ng, vowels

Vowel focused fill in the blank for decoding and encoding practice. Roll and read worksheets for lessons 42-53

Phonics Roll Write and Read Games FLSZ, Digraphs, wh, th, sh, ch, nk, ng, vowels

Other UFLI resources

Targeted Spelling Support for R-Controlled Vowels

Struggling with R-Controlled Spelling? Try These UFLI-Inspired Word Charts for ar, or, er, ir, and ur, which are colorful and engaging visuals for targeted spelling support.

These word lists are an easy, no-prep solution for transitioning quickly between different small reading group lessons and wall displays. The students find them visually engaging, and they are handy to have in the classroom near the reading group. The R-controlled spelling charts feature:

Word lists are sorted in a similar fashion to UFLI lessons 77-83

• ar – or
• or – ore
• or – ore – or (W+ar)
• er – ir – ur
• er – ir – ur er(w+or)
• ar – or – er – ir – ur

Additional lessons are available for R-controlled Trigraphs spelling charts & many more UFLI-style word lists.

Students love the Uno-style games as a great follow-up reading practice after a small group.

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.

Get the game here on TPT. 🤩 Pure Joy Teaching

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.

Check them out here: R-controlled Spelling charts.

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