4 Easy Ways To Use Phonics Cards

Do you use phonics cards with your class? I love them because they are so versatile. You can keep sets in your classroom for use in various activities and games. They are so useful it also makes sense to send a set home with each student for additional practice.

The simplest way to use phonics cards is as flashcards to learn and review words for a specific phonics sound. Show a student the card and get them to read the word, using the picture and lines as a clue. Students can use phonics cards for self-study, homework with parents, and paired practice.

4 fun ways to use phonics cards

Phonics cards are more than flashcards. Here are 4 fun and easy ways to use phonics cards with your students.

Fill in the blank

Give each student a word card and have them write the full word on a white board with each sound on a line. Students can work in pairs alternating drawing cards and filling in the blanks. If the first student can’t do their card, the other can try it.

Snap

In this game for 2–4 players, players need speed and match recognition to win the game.

1. Deal all the cards face down to each player.
2. The first player flips over the top card from their pile and and places it face up on the playing surface. The next player does the same, and so on.
3. If there are 2 cards in a row that match, then players must say, “Snap” and use their hand to snap the pile of cards. The player that is the quickest wins the cards and adds them to the bottom of their face down cards.
4. If a player runs out of cards, they are then out of the game.
5. The player that holds all the cards at the end is the winner.

Go Fish

This is another game for 2–4 players. Players try to get the most matched sets of cards.

1. Deal 5 cards face down to each player and place the remaining cards facedown in a stack in the center of the playing surface.
2. If players have any matching pairs in their hand, they remove the pair and place face up nearby.
3. The first player asks any of the other players if they have a specific card which the first player already holds. If they do, then that player must give the matching card to the player who asked. The asking player places the match face up nearby.
4. If a player asks for a card that the other player doesn’t have, that player says “Fish.” The asking player then selects a card from the center of the stack. If the drawn card matches any card the player holds, again the pair is placed face up nearby. If the card doesn’t match it is held in the player’s hand until their next turn.
5. Play continues clockwise.
6. When all the cards are gone from the stack, players continue taking turns asking a selected player for a card. When one player runs out of cards the game is over. The player with the most matches is the winner.

Concentration

This is another game for 2–4 players. Players try to get the most matched sets of cards.

1. Mix up the cards and lay them out face down on the playing surface.
2. Each student takes a turn to flip 2 cards over. If the cards match the player gets to keep them. Students should watch the cards the other player flips to help them on their next turn.
3. The student with the most pairs wins.

Those are just a few fabulous ways to use phonics cards. You can create your own phonics cards by including a picture of the target word and spaces to fill in the word sounds. I use a __ for each sound. So on a card with a picture of a duck, I’d include three lines for d–u–ck. If you are using them primarily for flashcards, you can also make double sided cards with the full word on one side and the fill-in word on the other.

Get a set of phonics cards for sounds sh, ch, ck, th done for you, along with the games you can play with them.

Are you after more engaging ways to teach phonics? Get the Complete Phonics Kit for these phonics cards and games and so much more.

The individual items in the kit follow a systematic and structured approach to introducing sounds and spellings. Activities for beginning readers feature small regular words – CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant). The items then support students as they progress through your teaching program, covering more complex words, consonant blends, digraphs, and alternative spellings. The kit makes it easy to differentiate for your student abilities by including one, two and three syllable words.

Get all the details about the 1100+ pages of the Complete Phonics Kit — and your copy today!