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Game on! Six engaging Sound Waves Playing Card games

Sound Waves Literacy 19/10/23

Have you heard about our Sound Waves Playing Cards? Perfect for any Sound Waves classroom, these special cards are designed to help students consolidate their understanding of phoneme–grapheme relationships through engaging whole-class and small group games!

Here are some ideas for using the Sound Waves playing cards in your spelling lessons (or at any time of the week!)

WHOLE-CLASS GAMES

Sound Moves (Foundation)

Aim of the Game: To identify phonemes in words.

What You’ll Need: One set of the Sound Waves Foundation Sound Icon Playing Cards and enough floor space for all students to have room to wriggle, jump, hop or wave their arms on the spot.

How to Play

1. Ask students to stand.
   
2. Nominate a movement to use for the game. For example, hands on heads, shaking hands or dancing.
   
3. Hold up a card. Say the name of the Sound Icon and the phoneme. Ask students to repeat the phoneme.
   
4. Say a string of words, some with the phoneme and some without. Pause after each word.
   
5. If the word contains the phoneme, students perform the nominated movement. If the word does not contain the phoneme, students stand still.
   

Sound Battle

Aim of the Game: To be the first team to sit down.

What You’ll Need: One set of the Sound Waves Standard Sound Box Playing Cards.

How to Play

1. Divide the class into two teams. Each team lines up single-file standing facing the front of the room.
   
2. Nominate one student to be the captain of each team who will start at the front of the line.
   
3. Team captains draw one card each.
   
4. Attach each of the selected cards to the board.
   
5. Starting with the team captain, each student must say a word containing their team’s focus phoneme.
   
6. If a student says a correct word, they sit down beside their team’s line, forming a new line. If a student says an incorrect word, they go to the back of their team’s line.
   
7. If a student cannot think of a word, they can choose to use the ‘Ask the captain’ option and the captain provides a word. Each team may use the ‘Ask the captain’ option only three times in one round. The first team to sit down wins the battle.
   

Note: To avoid students getting stuck on the phoneme, you may want to remove the card from the set.

Find the Sound

Aim of the Game: To find the card that matches each clue.

What You’ll Need: One set of the Sound Waves Standard Sound Box Playing Cards.

How to Play

1. Ask students to sit in a circle.
   
2. Arrange the cards in six piles face-up in the middle of the circle.
   
3. Give students a clue for a phoneme. For example, ‘Find the sound that is first in map.’, ‘Find the sound that is in all these words: map, pat, bag.’, etc.
   
4. Select a student to pick up the correct card.
   
5. The game continues until there are no cards left.
   

Variations
Advanced: The student who collects the card then makes their own ‘Find the sound …’ statement.
Beginner: Make your clues easier. For example, ‘Find the card for the sound /ch/’.

SMALL GROUP GAMES

Memory (Foundation)

Aim of the Game: To be the player to collect the most pairs of cards.

What You’ll Need: A selection of pairs from two sets of the Sound Waves Foundation Sound Icon Playing Cards. The more pairs you use, the more difficult the game will be. An ideal starting point is using four consonant phoneme pairs and four vowel phoneme pairs.

How to Play

1. Spread out all the cards facedown.
   
2. Players take turns to turn over two cards and say the phonemes they represent.
   
3. If the cards are the same, the player keeps the cards. If the cards are not the same, the player turns the cards back over.
   
4. The game continues until there are no cards left. The winner is the player with the most pairs of cards.
   

Advanced Variation
When a player collects a pair of cards, they say the phoneme and a word containing the phoneme. The word cannot be the name of the Sound Icon.

Bingo

Aim of the Game: To be the first player to turn over all six cards.

What You’ll Need: Two sets of the Sound Waves Standard Sound Box Playing Cards.

How to Play

1. From the first set, deal six cards to each player face-up. Players position their cards so they can see all of them easily.
   
2. From the second set of cards, the caller selects one card at a time and says the phoneme.
   
3. If a player has the card that has been called, they turn the card facedown. The winner is the first player to turn all their cards facedown and say ‘Bingo!’
   

Variations
Advanced: Before a player can turn a card facedown, they must say a word containing the phoneme. The word cannot be the name of the Sound Icon or a word example on the card.
Beginner: Use the Sound Waves Foundation Sound Icon Playing Cards. Deal each student three cards. When calling out the cards, say the relevant chant and action. For example, ‘Bounce balloons – /b/, /b/, /b/’.

Sounds Up

Aim of the Game: To be the player with the most cards.

What You’ll Need: One set of the Sound Waves Standard Sound Box Playing Cards and four Wild Cards.

How to Play

1. Arrange all the cards in six piles facedown and turn over the top card on each pile.
   
2. Players take turns to make a word containing as many of the phonemes from the cards on top of the six piles as possible. The word cannot be the name of a Sound Icon or a word example on the cards.
3. Players keep the card/s they use to make their word. The remaining cards sitting face-up are removed and the next player turns over the top cards on the six piles.
   
4. If a player turns over a Wild Card, they can use it as any phoneme. The winner is the player with the most cards.
   

Variations
Advanced: Players must also spell the word to collect the cards.
Beginner: Use the Sound Waves Foundation Sound Icon Playing Cards. Divide the deck into five piles (three piles of consonant sounds, two piles of vowel sounds).

Note: To avoid students getting stuck on the phoneme, you may want to remove the card from the set.

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