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PSPKK12316 Comments

Beginning blends game

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If your beginning reader needs help with those tricky beginning blends, try this game!

Print this free beginning blends game for kindergarten or first grade!

My Five reads CVC (cat, pit, etc.) words pretty easily now, but those beginning blends still trip him up.  He can read “fish,” but if sees “swish” he’s easily confused.  When faced with a blend (sw, tr, fl, etc.) he does one of three things:

  • a. reads the word correctly (yay!)
  • b. reads the blend correctly but changes the middle vowel sound
  • c. makes up a new word entirely

Time for a new game!

Print this free beginning blends game for kindergarten or first grade!

We’ve done a lot of work on hearing beginning sounds.  He’s done my beginning blends clip cards, my Roll a Blend board games, and my Beginning Blend bingo.  Hearing the blends isn’t the issue. The challenge is reading them when they’re part of a word.

This is a simple game to print and play.  After you print it, get playing pieces and a die. Move around the board and read each pair of words that you land on.  Whoever gets to Finish first, wins. Simple!

Print this free beginning blends game for kindergarten or first grade!

Except… it’s not that simple for a beginning reader.  Blends can be tough!  As my son rolled his way around the snail, he read each pair of words.

I made each pair a rhyming pair to give extra support. One word of each pair begins with a blend; the other doesn’t.  This will really make your child focus on those letters.

For example:

  • clam     ham
  • still       hill
  • flat        cat

You get the idea.

Print this free beginning blends game for kindergarten or first grade!

Even after I won the first game, my son requested to play it again.  (After I won the second round, though, he’d had enough!)

How’d he do?

I’d guess that he read at least half his word pairs correctly on the first try.  Playing this game with him helped me see how much he still needs work on beginning blends.  While I’d love to focus more on other phonics patterns, it’s clear that we need to back and up and master these.   So stay tuned for more beginning blends games!

P.S. In the download you’ll find the game in both color and black and white.

Get your free beginning blends game!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

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Free Reading Printables for Pre-K-3rd Grade

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Filed Under: Reading, Digraphs & Blends, General Tagged With: first grade, second grade, kindergarten, blends

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Reader Interactions

16 Comments

  1. Nancy

    November 28, 2022 at 11:44 am

    I want to do this for my 1st grade class but I have one question , where it says +4 or -3 what does that mean?

    Reply to this comment
    • Heather Groth, Customer Support

      November 28, 2022 at 12:47 pm

      Hi Nancy! When a student lands on those, he or she should move forward or backward that number of spaces. For instance, if someone lands on -3, they would move their piece backward three spaces. If they land on +2, they get to move ahead two spaces.

      Reply to this comment
  2. Kevra

    March 21, 2022 at 3:17 pm

    I loved this beginning blends game!

    Reply to this comment
    • Heather Groth, Customer Support

      March 21, 2022 at 7:26 pm

      Yay! So glad it worked well for you, Kevra!

      Reply to this comment
  3. Ashwini

    October 22, 2019 at 2:59 am

    Mam I have started my YouTube channel named winning boat to teach kids activities can I use ur free printables to show in my video. I will mention ur name and link in the video and in description. Can I use? Thank you

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna G

      October 27, 2019 at 7:54 pm

      Yes, that’s fine! Please link only to the blog post and not to individual files. 🙂

      Reply to this comment
  4. Cequoia

    April 8, 2017 at 4:44 am

    Anna, thank you so much for these amazing resources! I am a teacher/reading specialist and I have found the printable games to be an incredible addition with my kids who are struggling with reading. They are engaging and leave the kids begging for another round! HA! Again, thank you so much.

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      April 13, 2017 at 5:37 am

      I’m so glad to hear that these games are working for your students, Cequoia!

      Reply to this comment
  5. Elizabeth M

    May 13, 2016 at 2:02 pm

    You’re amazing! Thank you for providing these free! My daughter’s not quite ready to learn to read yet, but I’m collecting resources in advance. (She destroys cards, water paints, practically everything right now.) I’m excited about using the Would You Rather cards with my English learners too.

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      May 21, 2016 at 7:54 pm

      You’re very welcome, Elizabeth! Lord willing, it wil all be here waiting for your daughter when she’s ready. 🙂

      Reply to this comment
  6. ANNET MINAYO

    June 12, 2015 at 7:42 am

    woh! that was grate it has really helped me a lot for my children and having now more experience

    Reply to this comment
  7. Katie @ Gift of Curiosity

    June 9, 2015 at 8:23 am

    This comes at just the right time for me! Printing a copy now to use with my kids, who have also pretty much mastered CVC words and are ready to move on. Thanks!

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      June 12, 2015 at 9:34 pm

      Yay! So glad you can use it, Katie. 🙂

      Reply to this comment
    • Carolyn

      January 18, 2016 at 8:30 pm

      I’m dying to use these games for my grade 1 class but none of the PDF’s will open for me!!! Any advice?? Would love to use them!
      Thanks
      Carolyn

      Reply to this comment
      • Anna Geiger

        January 18, 2016 at 8:54 pm

        Did you click on the link under the download: “having trouble downloading or printing?” 99% of the time, it has a solution.

        Reply to this comment

Trackbacks

  1. The Learn + Live Letter Level 2: Spring Unit says:
    March 9, 2022 at 11:26 am

    […] can even help your child with literacy! (Well, at least this one can. 😉) Click here to download this wormy beginning blends game for some play-based reading […]

    Reply to this comment

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