Description

Download and print these 12 decks of child-sized 4.5 X 6.5cm phonics playing cards. The cards contain words with basic one letter = one sound relationships, and are suitable for learners who can already sound out words like ‘crept’ and ‘frost’.

This deck introduces new consonant sounds written with letter combinations: ch/chin, sh/ship, th/them, th/thin, and ng/sing, as well as additional spellings for known sounds : ck/back, n/think, qu/quit, wh/when, tch/catch, ve/have, le/bottle, dge/badge, dg/budget. There are more doubled consonants, and more opportunities to notice which spellings are used at word/syllable beginnings, and which at endings (e.g. the /j/ sound in ‘judge’, the /k/ sound in ‘kick’).

The deck also introduces compound words and the suffixes -ed as in ‘hopped’, ‘fanned’ and ‘landed’, -ing as in ‘grabbing’ and ‘singing’, -y as in ‘handy’ and ‘muddy’, and -er as in ‘bigger’ and ‘helper’ (both comparative and agent noun).

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 words from the cards between games, to help learners build segmenting skills sound-spelling links, and check for/help with correct letter formation.