Phonics Games

Phonics Practice - a Fun Teacher Made Game

written by: Laurie Patsalides edited by: Amanda Grove updated: 7/27/2011 What can you make with tag board, a marker, some cut-outs and a little fun? A phonics game that will reinforce skills you are teaching in class!

Reasons to Make the Game

Teachers have little time to spare. Especially in the beginning years of teaching, a lot of time is spent on preparation for the classroom. While there are many homemade phonics games that could be made, this one has extension and modification ideas for different skill levels. Use it as a center time game, or as a reinforcement of classroom learning during small group instruction time. With a little time and small monetary investment this game will last for many years to come. And psst, it's fun!

Simple Steps to Make the Game

Materials Needed:

Colored tag board Black permanent marker Theme related cut-out shapes (like the picture shown right) Glue

Laminating machine One to four pennies Optional: Pencils and paper for each student Timer Directions to Make the Game: On colored tag board, use the cut-out shapes of the theme you would like use to make the game. Print each letter of the alphabet letter in capital, lower case or both on the cut-out. Glue the cut-outs randomly all over the game board. Have the game board laminated for durability through the school resource center or at a teacher store.

How to Play
This game works best when played in a small group of four students. That way, the students will have enough physical space to sit around the board comfortably. Students take the penny and first learn to spin it. Model how to spin the penny. This is very exciting for younger students to learn how to do, and requires some fine motor skill and coordination. You may want to have a penny for each student to practice with as young children may become impatient waiting for a classmate to practice. Once the students have had ample time to practice spinning the penny, let the game begin! Students take turns spinning one penny on the board. Whichever letter the penny lands on, the student says the beginning sound of the letter aloud. For example, if the coin lands on the letter B, then the student says the "b" sound. Next, the student brainstorms a list of words that begin with the letter B. As many words as he or she can think of should be considered enough (other students will

naturally chime in, which is OK too). Older students can turn the game into a spelling bee. Extend the Activity: Give students a sheet of paper and a pencil and direct them to sound out the words and print them. If they cannot, just have them print the beginning sound. Encourage them to draw a picture of the word. This is great phonics practice and word practice for beginner readers. Before you know it, they have created their own minidictionaries of the letter sounds. For Older or Advanced Students: Set a timer for these students and turn it into a game of Boggle. How many words can you write down (spelled correctly) that begin with the letter in one minute? Another variation is, how many words can you rhyme with that beginning letter sound in one minute? So, if the student lands on B- he or she thinks of a word that begins with letter B and any words which rhyme with the letter B word in a minute. For example, he or she names the word bat- then the list of rhyming words begins - bat, cat, sat, mat and so forth. More Ideas:
o o o o

Change the rules of the game to ending sounds Change the board to digraphs Change the board to word families

Tie It into Your Themes

This game can be great fun to play all year round and can be used to compliment any theme activities you are working on. For example, use the shamrock cut-out for March, Easter eggs in April, stockings in December and so forth. Use theme related words as part of the game. For example, as students are learning Spring words, they can be used when the game is played in April. So, if they landed on the letter B, then they would say and/or write Spring related "b" words, such as bird, bike, or basket.

When played year round by theme the students will not get bored of it and you also have the benefit of seeing the students' growth as they play the modified versions later in the year. More Games To prepare the games, you should write the consonant sounds or blends that you want to review in random order on your driveway. As you do, create a path that winds throughout the area. For the first game, you will need one die. Have your child start at the beginning of the path and roll the die. She should move that many spaces to stand on a letter. Ask her to say the name of the letter and the sound that it makes. For the second game, have your child stand with his back to the path of letters. He should throw a beanbag gently over his shoulder (you can use a pair of rolled up socks if you do not have a beanbag handy) to choose a letter. Whichever letter the bag lands closest to, he should give the sound of that letter and a word that begins with that sound. If you want to play these games on a rainy day, you are not out of luck. Simply write the letters on an old shower curtain or sheet and play inside. To review vowel sounds in the great outdoors, grab a beach ball that is sitting in the garage or buy one at a dollar store. Write the vowel sounds or letter combinations around the ball in random places. Toss the ball to your child and have her catch it. The vowel sound closest to her right thumb is the one she will have to use in a word. Have her toss the ball back and take a turn yourself. Continue until you have practiced with all the vowels.

Phonics and Art Blend

With a little preparation and some common household items, you and your child can make some homemade phonics games. For the most basic, you will need an egg carton, some circular stickers and a penny. Write the sounds that you want to review with your child on the stickers. You will want to prepare twelve stickers. Then have him place the stickers in the egg carton, one in each space. Place the penny in the carton and close it. Your child should then shake the carton for a few seconds and then open it. The sound that the penny

lands on is the sound he will have to make. Then ask him to give a word that uses that sound. Play until you have reviewed all the sounds. A more challenging game is just as simple to create. You will need a stack of paper cups and a marker. Write five vowel sounds that your child knows and fifteen consonant sounds each on the bottom of one cup. Using three cups, make a word that starts and ends with one of the consonants you have written. Challenge your child to make a new word by stacking one or two cups on top of the existing cups. For example, if you use the letters h, a and t to make the word hat, your child may stack a p on the h and an i on the a to make the word pin. Keep going until all the cups are used or until your child cannot make any new words. A final fun phonics game is only a few pages of construction paper away. Cut out two sets of circles about four inches around from both tan and brown construction paper. You may want to trace the bottom of a can and then allow your child to cut out some of the circles. On each tan circle, write a simple word your child has seen. On the brown circles, write the vowel sounds that are in those simple words. Then glue the tan word circle to the brown sound circle. You should have pairs like cat/short a, bed/short e, pig/short i, sun/short u. These are your phonics pancakes. Give your child a frying pan and a spatula and put two or three pancakes in the pan, brown side down. Ask your child to read a word and then name the vowel sound that it contains. After she names the vowel sound, have her flip the pancake and check her answer. After a few turns under your supervision, she can play by herself. Your child will have fun playing this game on her own and checking her answers independently. You can make additional pancakes as your child learns new words. If you have more than one child learning phonics, have them take turns.

Tic Tac Toe

To play this game to practice the sh, ch, th and wh blends, give each child a blank grid with 16 squares. Each pair of students needs a

spinner with sh, ch, th and wh as the four choices. Then give each pair a stack of word cards with words containing the four blends. To make the game easier you can have all of the words containing the sounds at the beginning. To make it a little more challenging use words with the h blends as the beginning or ending sound. Have each child draw cards one at a time and place them in the squares of his game board. To play the game, one person spins the spinner, and then turns over one card that goes with the blend that the spinner lands on. Then the other player spins and turns over a card. The first one to get three in a row wins. For a longer game, play until all the cards have been turned over. For a whole class version that is more like Bingo, you can give the children blank grids and then draw the cards and call out the words. Have the children write each word that you call out in one of their spaces. When all of the game boards are filled in, spin the spinner and the whole class turns over a card to match. The first person to turn over four in a row wins. You can then start over or keep playing until everyone has four in a row.

Go Fish
Another great phonics game to use, is to create a word family version of Go Fish make sets of word cards with four different word families. For a short i game, your cards might have four words for -in, -ig, -ick, and -id. Each player gets five cards and the rest go in the center as the draw pile. On his turn a player asks another person to give him all of her words that rhyme with pig. If he gets a match then he puts those cards down. If the other player doesn't have any words that rhyme, she says "Go fish" and the first player draws from the pile. Play until someone runs out of cards.

Spinning Words
Make a spinner with spaces for four word families, a "Roll Again" and a "Lose a Turn." On each child's turn he spins the spinner. If he lands on a word family, he has to think of a word to go with that word family and write it on a piece of paper. If he can't think of one, he loses a turn. Each player can only use a word one time. Play for a

set amount of time and the player with the most words at the end is the winner. All of these games can be played again and again with different skills. Your primary grade students will have a ball practicing their phonics and spelling in class.

Jeopardy This classic trivia game on TV can be tailored-fit according to your topic. You may incorporate the use of context clues as you present a trivia question with an unfamiliar word in the same sentence. Let the students answer the trivia first (they love questions that appeal to their interests), then ask them to give the meaning of the unfamiliar word. With this strategy you're shooting two birds with one stone - they enrich their vocabulary by using context clues, and they get to broaden their knowledge on general information topics as they answer the trivia questions. There are plenty of Jeopardy Game templates available on the Web. Pictionary This game allows students to remember or learn new words by visualizing how the definition can be put into sketches, thus helping them grasp a clearer understanding of the concept. The class may be divided into two groups, and a representative for each group draws pictures that illustrate the word. His or her group mates try to guess the word by studying the drawings, and they also give the meaning of the word. Who Wants to be a Millionaire? This is another famous game on TV that can be adopted in teaching vocabulary. In this game, the unfamiliar word is used in a sentence, and the students make use of context clues to find the meaning of the word. This can be played in class by dividing them into two groups. A buzzer is provided for each group in order to signal which contestant is granted the chance to state the answer. As each student successfully answers the questions, the number of points

(represented as money) also increases. The ultimate goal of each player is to get a million dollars in order to win the game. There are downloadable Who Wants to be a Millionaire Game templates found on the Web. Charades After learning a set of new words, the students may play this game to recall their definitions. The class is divided into two groups, and a representative is chosen by each group to act out the words from their vocabulary list. It is not enough that they have memorized the words in the list; they must also be able to visualize and act out each word for better retention. This game appeals to visual and kinesthetic learners.

Hang Man This game that is quite similar to the classic TV game show One Million Dollars Chance of a Lifetime. This may be used in teaching vocabulary by presenting blank for each letter, and the students have to guess the letters that are found in the mystery word. To help the students guess the letters (and eventually, the word), clues are given after uncovering each letter. These clues may be a word or a phrase that is associated with the hidden word. For instance, the hidden word is conjure. After a letter is uncovered, you may show a clue such as to call forth or magician. This is a fun game that the students will surely enjoy playing. Crossword Puzzle This is a good paired activity for the students to recall or learn new words. You may design your own crossword puzzle, print it out, and have it reproduced for your students. As they answer each item,

they also get to review the spelling of each word when they check if its letters would fit in the boxes.

Wheel of Fortune

Another classic game show on TV, Wheel of Fortune may be used in playing vocabulary games. Prepare eight index cards with vocabulary used in sentences. Number each card 1-8. Then, divide the class into two groups. Assign a number for each student in the group.This will define who each student is competing against (e.g, student 1 in group A is against student 1 in group B, and so on). Click spin on the PowerPoint slide. And if it lands on a particular number, ask the question found in the index card that corresponds to the number where the arrow in the wheel has landed.

Word Search This game is ideally played with a partner. Make a list of all the words that you want to review with your students. Then, use Microsoft Excel to put random letters in the boxes. Be sure to devise a way that the hidden words are arranged vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. Only the definitions of each word are found below the grid, and it is up to the students to figure out the word that they are searching for by using the definitions as clues. This is a good exercise for the students to develop a keen eye as they critically study the possible location of the word they are searching for. Tic-Tac-Toe (with a twist!) This game of X's and O's can be turned into a word game by simply presenting a sentence with an unfamiliar word for the students to unlock the meaning of. After they have correctly figured out the definition, they may plot their X or O on the board. The same rule applies in this game - a team who has successfully plotted their X or O in three boxes arranged horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins

the game. Hence, the students get to practice decoding the meaning of words using context clues, and they also learn to strategize in order to win the game. Riddle Handouts This is a good paired game to sharpen their logical skills. Compose riddles and insert in the sentences the vocabulary found in their word list. Then, reproduce the copies so each pair can work on solving the riddle and decoding the meaning of the underlined vocabulary word. This is a fun game for those who love to solve riddles.

References

Free Jeopardy Game: http://www.superteachertools.com/jeopardy/ Photo courtesy of WikiCommons Power Point Games: http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/ppt-games/