Long a memory game

Today I’m sharing a free long a game. It’s perfect for kids learning to read or spell words with ai, ay, and a-consonant-e.

This summer, I’ve been doing learning time with each of our big kids (ages 3, 5, 6, and 8) five days a week.  By building it into our days it’s actually getting done – most of the time! Of course, it also helps that I’ve created a incentive chart.  When each child has enough learning sessions to color to the top of the chart, we schedule a visit to our favorite ice cream place.

It’s all about priorities. 🙂

Have you read my Word Study series?  It’s all about my favorite way of teaching spelling, based on the phenomenal book Words Their Way.  In a nutshell, word study teaches spelling by helping kids recognize patterns in words.  They learn with word sorts and games, rather than workbook pages and writing words five times each.

For each list I teach my son, I’m creating one or more free games.  (Those tougher lists need more games!)

This game for reviewing long a patterns (ay, ai, and a-e) is a memory game – sometimes called Concentration.

To prepare:

1. Print pages 2-9 on cardstock.  Be sure to print front to back so you’ll get that fun red polka dot pattern on the back of the cards.
2. Laminate the sheets (we love our awesome home laminator), and cut the cards apart with a paper cutter.

To play:

1. Choose the pairs you’d like to play with (there are 24 pairs total).  Then mix them up and put the cards face down in rows.
2. Take turns looking for a match.  If you find one, keep the cards in your “win pile.”
3. Whoever has the most cards when all the cards have been claimed, wins!

Sometimes we’d turn over two words or two pictures.  And it took quite a few false matches until we started finding pairs.

This game is a great review of those tricky long a patterns (a-e, ai, and ay).  With lots of exposure to the words, your child is more likely to remember their spellings. (This would also be a great game for kids learning to read words with long a!)

It was a close call, but my son beat me by a few matches. 🙂

*Remember to print pages 2-9 front to back if you want the polka dot background. If not, just print the even numbered pages.

P.S. While I’m trying to make many of my new spelling games also available in black and white, I didn’t have black line clip art for all of these images.  You are welcome to print in grayscale. 🙂

Get your free Long a Game!

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Long Vowel Teams Bundle

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Your students can complete these activities in Google Slides on a computer or tablet. The activities give them practice with ai, ay, ee, ea, ie, igh, -y, oa, ow, oo, ui, and ew.

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