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.
Long a 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.
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.
Pure Joy Teaching
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
