spelling Archives - Page 2 of 3

An, and Word Family Game

An, and, ran, tan, Jan, ant, more

This game has a funny backstory. Once during a reading group, one of the students told me, “An is not a real word. I asked my mom and she said it’s not real.”

It was good reminder that this word is underused and needs to be taught.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/An-and-word-family-game-Capital-and-lowercase-as-board-style-Emergent-readers-9169042

When teaching emergent readers the word “an,” it’s important to explain it in simple terms. This is one example of how you might do that:

Explain the Role of “An”:
“An” is a word we use before a noun when the noun starts with a vowel sound (like “a,” “e,” “i,” “o,” or “u”). It helps us say things clearly, like in “an apple” or “an umbrella.”
Give Examples:
- “An apple” (because “apple” starts with the vowel sound “a”).
- “An egg” (because “egg” starts with the vowel sound “e”).
- “An ice cream” (because “ice” starts with the vowel sound “i”).
Contrast with “A”:
You can explain that “an” is used only when the next word starts with a vowel sound. If the next word starts with a consonant sound, we use “a.” For example:
- “A dog” (because “dog” starts with the consonant sound “d”).
- “An apple” (because “apple” starts with the vowel sound “a”).
Practice with Simple Sentences:
Help them practice with simple phrases:
- “I see an apple.”
- “She has an orange.”
- “He wants an umbrella.”

By connecting “an” to things they are already familiar with and using it in simple sentences, emergent readers can start to recognize and use “an” correctly in their reading and writing!

Vowels are important

Vowel knowledge is essential for early learners. As educators, we often use terms like “CVC words,” but young learners may not fully understand what CVC, consonants, and vowels mean.

This is a great reminder that the five vowels are special and not the same as the other letters. The game below has the vowels marked in red.

CVC Uno game for Emergent Readers

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Videos

Spelling Pattern Videos

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Long a – Game show style spelling test for the spelling patterns of :

a-e, ai, ay, ei

Twenty spelling words, with images. Four at a time with a countdown clock. Students can write their answer and then check their answers at the end of the test.

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Long A Board Game Idea

Use the Spelling Patterns ai, ay, a-e, eigh to Make a Game.

Teaching can be fun and flexible with games that help students review and repeat the spelling patterns that they just learned.

I like to use card games after every reading grouping. My goal is to have a game for every spelling pattern or spelling rule.

Card games are very flexible, they can be put into different groups that progressively get harder, just by removing or adding some words as they progress. The cards can be used as flashcards for reading practice or my new idea is to use the cards to move around the game board.

This game board is a great match to the long /a/ card game. The flashcards can be used to move players along the path to the end, instead of using a die.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Long-a-Card-Game-Crazy-8-with-Mnemonic-vowel-teams-and-Homophones-spellings-7622969

Long Vowels Spelling Test Clip Card Bundle

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Tic Tac Toe Board with Electrical Tape

Students like to play this game. I choose skills or words that they need to practice. Great for handwriting practice, cvc words, sight words, or tricky vowel sounds.

Create a reusable whiteboard to practice handwriting and spelling.

Tic-Tac-Toe was one of the first games I learned to use as a tool, to help teach my preschool students. Simple x’s & o’s, and the spatial awareness of drawing the lines. The kids think of it as a game and are more willing to pick up a pencil or crayon if it feels fun.

White Board with Tape Lines.

Using electrical tape has created something reusable. I was surprised at how much the kids loved erasing the words, and the lines stayed. It was like magic to them. They wipe the letters off and rush to play again. Hooray!

Adding the lines has given new life to this old scratched-up whiteboard.

Cutting the Tape

The original thickness of the electrical tape is wide. Making the lines thinner, by cutting with scissors was too hard. Using an Xacto made it easier to cut.

Carefully cut away from yourself.

Cutting a straight line without a guide was too hard. Don’t try it! I found a plastic milk cap that was a nice thickness. With the electrical tape flat on the table, I could keep the Xacto knife flat on the cap. Rotate the tape slowly and cut the tape with a little bit of pressure to cut the tape. Be sure to cut away from your body.

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Try CVC words.

CVC words are great for this game. After we play the Uno CVC game, I will choose some words they need to practice writing.

Using the tic-tac-toe game is great for practicing sight words. Try capital letters and lowercase letters. Especially in words like the letter /i/ (It, If, Is, In) Those are good words to work on. Remind the students to sound out the word as they write it.

Sometimes we practice just the letters b, and d. This helps with letter reversals.

Hu bu hu bu Handwriting – Helps with b d reversals

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Ed Said, “d, id, t.” Suffix Game

Have you heard students struggling to decode words with the suffix -ed? I have! The suffix -ed has 3 different sounds. This game is a fun way to learn them.

Spelling Patterns for the -ed Sounds

Have you heard students struggling to decode words with the suffix -ed? I have!

The suffix -ed, can be tricky

Trying to explain the different sounds, spelling patterns, and irregular verb tenses can be overwhelming sometimes. This war-style card game can be used to tackle all those things in three different ways. Ed said, Ed says, and Ed spells are 3 fun, engaging ways to play with suffixes, and tenses while learning at the same time.

The word hopped can be very hard for students sometimes.

Ed the elephant can not say this name, but he can make 3 different sounds “d, id, t.”

The suffix -ed has some very predictable patterns and those patterns each have a different point value in the game. The irregular verbs like run and ran are so tricky so I have added them into another game called Ed Says? The irregular verbs have the highest number of points in this game.

The third game is called Ed Spells. This game has point values for the many different spelling patterns of the word that have the suffix -ed added to them.

Suffix -ed spelling patterns are +ed, double consonant, drop e, & change the y to /i/ +ed.

This is also a great game for ESL students.

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Flossy Uno Decodable Reading Game

This specially designed Flossy Uno-style game can help students practice reading words that end with ff, ll, ss, zz, and recognize the irregular and regular spelling patterns of /ll/, while having lots of fun.

How to Teach Floss Ending Blends with Color-Coded Short Vowel Flashcards

Teaching the flossy spelling pattern seems simple, but is it? NO.

Teaching the floss spelling pattern is not an easy thing to do. Let’s unpack this. First rule number one, when a one-syllable word ends in f, l, or s, double that final f, l, or, s.

Easy! Got it. Then what about pal, gal, Sal, roll, poll?

Oops! It is not a rule, it is a predictable spelling pattern with some exceptions.

I had to look that up. It turns out pal, gal, Sal are non-formal words. It might be better to call this a spelling pattern and not a rule.

Roll and poll are words that sound like long vowels and then there is the word doll that sounds like a short vowel. This now seems harder to teach to emergent readers. We need to be careful not to call this a rule. Floss is more like a short vowel indicator. In the Uno game, these long and short vowel words are different colors to help recognize and teach the pattern.

What about teaching the -all word family?

The word /all/. The letter /a/ is not saying “ah” like in cat or pal. The vowel a has changed to the short ŏ sound. Like in the word boss. That is tricky for some students to decode. In the Floss Uno game, the /all/ cards are dual-colored to help highlight the spelling pattern.

The red-colored cards in the game all make the short ă sound. The orange-colored cards all make the short ŏ sound. The tricky ‘all’ word family has dual colored cards, the letter a (red) making the short ŏ sound (orange). This helps create a color link to the sound patterns.

There are many ways to sort these cards to play different levels of the game. Take a look at the cards here.

The long o words like poll, roll, troll, have a dark blue color, instead of orange. This set also has a large collection of pseudowords. A good mix of digraphs, trigraphs, and floss endings.

You may all like this game. CVCC ending blends card game.

Phonics Spelling Games Bundle Decodable Digraphs

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CVC Uno game for Emergent Readers

CVC consonant vowel consonant. This is my first and most important go-to game for new students. They love playing it, mostly because they start to feel successful at reading new words that they did not know they could read.

CVC Uno game is made up of decodable short vowel phoneme cards, an easy-sound sorting games can be played to help reinforce the short vowel sounds.

CVC Uno consonant vowel consonant. This is my first and most important that I play with my students. It is an easy go-to game for new students who need some short vowel support. They love playing it, mostly because they start to feel successful at reading new words that they did not know they could read.

It has all the great wildcards that Uno should have, skips, wilds, draw 2, draw 4, but there are no reverse cards. ( Trust me that is a bonus! – reverse cards cause arguments )

226 words, all decodable color-coded with red vowels and black consonants.

Playing Cards are grouped by colors

a e i o u / a-red, e-yellow, i -purple, o-orange, u-blue

This is a digital item, so you can print more than one set. I like to have 2 sets. One that is sorted, and one that is complete. Some students are working on vowel sound distinction. Hearing the difference between short e and short i. For those students, we play the game with just e,i, words. Other many struggle with the short vowels a and u. It is nice to have extra sets on hand to quickly support small groups and tutoring.

If you are using any of the satpin decodable books you may want to start with the short a and i cards, and then build up the other vowels. Reading words in isolation without the distractions of pictures is a good way to help students focus on the letter sounds. Keep those eyes on the words for successful decoding.

Print multiple sets for easy-level transitions

I like to keep one set shorted by the short vowel sounds for emergencies.

Having an extra card set ready makes this a fast and easy resource to grab when I want a quick game to help support students. If I notice that a student is stumbling over the same short vowel sound, I will pull out this game and choose the short vowel that the student needs to review. After reading a few words as flashcards, the students often start to recognize that the middle sound is the same. Some students start to discover the word families on their own. It is great! I love it when that happens naturally.

Next, in the scope and sequence of decodable reading games, you might like the r-controlled uno. Many of my students are shocked to hear themselves reading words that they said were too hard. I love it.

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R-Controlled Uno Game

Silent Letter Bundle

This is a great money saving deal on this bundle of silent letter spelling resources.

Playing the game after the lesson is a great way for the information to sink in.

The lesson cards are grouped in silent letter patterns.

* Silent e is one of the most important ones!

The games can be played as Uno or War, kids love the Bomb card it is wild. It will always win in the war game, BOMB has a silent letter.

This bundle has lesson cards with word lists. Games to play or use as flashcards, and spelling clip cards for a fun way to test students.

Silent gh spelling bundle pure joy teaching
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This is a great money-saving deal on this bundle of silent letter spelling resources.

Chef vs Magician, Sh Sound Spelling ci, ti, si, Card Games

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You might also like the Final K sound game

Long Vowels Spelling Test Clip Card 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.

There are four sets of cards in this bundle.

You can get them here from TPT.

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Chef vs Magician, Sh Sound Spelling ci, ti, si, Card Games

Pairing up the right lessons with card games has given my struggling readers and spellers a great advantage.

_{How to teach spelling lessons with fun card games?}

Pairing up the right lessons with card games has given my struggling readers and spellers a great advantage.

Education games that students want to play. Over and Over again.

Posters can be used to teach single a lesson or combined into many lessons.

War-style card game Chef VS Magician has colorful images and letters for the many different spellings of /sh/.

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.

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