Foundations for Literacy –Phonic DiscriminationGames

The games and activities presented in this section are designed to encourage auditory discrimination in relation to the phonetic aspects of our English Language.

• Find a word that includes……
The game is directed by a set of cards, on one side on each card there is a letter or letter pattern. For example a single initial consonant would be shown as b….. and c….etc. A harder consonant pack could be of consonants and consonant blends e.g. b, bl, br, c, cl, cr etc. and harder still the card could present consonant and a vowel or vowel pattern. For long vowel sounds can be indicated with a red vowel and short (soft vowels) with a pink vowel. Ba could be answered with Baker, baby or baseball and bacould be answered with bat or batter or bank. Even harder games can be directed using long vowel spelling patterns such as ai, oo, or ou, or ow.
An advanced level of spelling pattern cards might include patterns such as ight, our, ought, ae, ce, kn, psy; or alternatively the spelling patterns could be focused on suffixes or prefixes or regular final syllables. The chosen set of spelling cards for a game may be presented in alphabetical order ( this is especially valuable when playing with consonants and consonant blends.) Or the cards can be shuffled in to a random order before they are placed in a pile face down on the table.
Each player takes it in turns to turn over a card and give an example of a word or alliterative phrase that illustrates the spelling pattern on the card. [The players can take up an option to collect a counter in order to keep a score for every correct word, e.g. for gi = j the player could score two by say ‘giant giraffes’ .
If a player cannot think of a word they can get clues presented from the other players. If the player is still unable to think of a word the card is passed to any other player who indicates they have an answer and if correct that player collects an extra counter. The game then proceeds with the original player who then turns over the next card on the pile.
All the ‘Find a word that …..’ games can also be played with a group focused on each individual card. Where by every member of the group has the chance to present a word to meet the card in play. This gives everyone the chance to think of an example. Younger and less confident players can be encouraged/invited to present their word at the beginning of the round. If someone gets stuck for a word the other players can give encouragement with verbal clues or miming actions. This clue based source of encouragement can add extra intellectual activity, social interaction and co-operation and extra levels of informal amusement. Thus the defined spelling structures can initiate imaginative and creative forms of communication and give other players clues turns the competitive aspect into one of helping each other to get a good score thanks to successful team work.
 
• ‘Find a word that …..’ Board game
A different way of playing the games above is as a board game. For example:-
Construct a blank game board and use a traditional numbered dice to roll and move along the single path presented as empty boxes from beginning to end. Using a set of ‘Find a word’ cards place them randomly along the path on the game board. When a player lands on an empty space they can have a second turn at rolling the dice and moving but if this player lands again on an empty space they do not move again, he simply passes the dice to the next player. If a player lands on a space with a card on it then the player has to say a word that fits the spelling pattern presented on the card. If the player fails to do this successfully then s/he waits for his/her next turn and tries again. When a correct answer is presented the player can roll the dice and move on to another square. (The other players can give clues if a player fails to find a word on their second turn so that the player does not remain stuck for more than one or two turns.) The aim of this game is to reach the end of the game board trail,
When someone has reached the end of the game board a further level of play would be for each player to present the collected word cards in a creative phrase e.g. ‘The striped blanket was veryeasy to clean.’;or a collective composition of sentences, ‘My striped blouse was very pretty but it was not veryeasy to keep it clean.’

Rhyming word Question Game
• The following activity can be structured to illustrate rhyming spelling patterns. This theme can be organised as a simple listen, repeat and answer activity or it can be presented as an early rhyming-reading activity. The phrases listed below are examples of verbal questions to be answered:- Can a bed be red? Yes, a bed can be red!
Could a goat jump into a boat? Yes, a goat could jump into a boat!
Could a goat jump into a stream? No, a goat could not jump into a stream!
Is a jug likea mug? Yes, etc.
Is a mug likea cup? No, a etc.
Is a frog likea dog? Yes, a etc.
This game can also be played as a ‘rhyming-reading’ activity. The first part of each question is printed/written on a card and then the underlined words are presented on separate cards that have to be matched with the preceding phrases in order to create as many yes answers as possible. When all the questions have been created then a corresponding Yes or No answer card is placed at the end. In the game illustrated the cards are coloured to show their position in the sentence and the rhyming words have to have matching vowel and consonant endings. The orange set of word cards may include both correct and incorrect possibilities. In the example below the orange set of words could include the words drag and clamp or damp.

One Syllable Word Building Activity
 The next game can be made with a chosen set of words which are split into the initial consonant and the following short vowel and consonant ending. The single consonant orange cards are shuffled and then stacked face down and the two letter green cards are similarly shuffled and stacked face down. On each turn the player takes an orange card and a green card and if they make a word it is kept. If the cards do not make a word the player can keep them for future use. If a retained card is used to make a word; if the player cannot on that turn collect another card of the same colour form the stack.

Two different sets of cards are detailed in the charts bellow: [The charts are used for the self-checking of answers created by the player or players during the game]