Description

Download and print these 8 decks of child-sized 4.5 X 6.5cm phonics playing cards. The cards contain words with only the most basic one letter = one sound relationships, so are suitable for beginning readers.

Words are firstly Consonant Vowel Consonant (CVC) words like ‘tag’, ‘pin’, and ‘hop’, and increase in length to words with triple consonants (CCC) like ‘sprint’ and ‘tempt’. From deck 3 there are some word-final doubled consonants, as in ‘off’, ‘well’, ‘miss’ and ‘buzz’.

Use these cards for any game requiring a standard deck of playing cards, such as War, California Speed or Spit. When playing each card, players must read the word on it. Adults playing should help learners read accurately, prompting for rereading if a word is misread,  providing any missing sounds, and modelling how to blend sounds together into words. Have a quick, 5-word spelling quiz with a random sample of cards between games to make sure learners really are linking sounds to spellings, and build segmenting skills and correct letter formation.