Free Vowel Combination Game

The vowel combinations can be:

• Copied onto 3” by 5” index cards that are cut in half horizontally
• Written onto rectangular tiles
• Printed on card stock and cut

Directions: Play on a surface with a lot of cleared space or play on the floor. Shuffle the deck or tiles. Decide which player begins and play proceeds in a clockwise rotation. Each player or team should be dealt ten cards or tiles. You can play open or closed handed. Beginners should always play with their vowel combinations visible to everyone, so that the teacher or parent can assist them. Place the rest of the deck/tiles face down and turn one card/tile over and display it in the middle of the playing field (the beginning card). The first player must select one of their cards/tiles that makes the same sound as one side of the beginning card/tile and then place it aside the beginning card/tile. Like dominoes, you can only play off the ends. If a player cannot make a move, they must select from the card deck or remaining tiles until they can. The winner is the first one to use all of his or her cards.

Please note that you can color-code the cards/tiles to remind students the number of sounds that each vowel combination can make: red = 1 sound, blue = 2 sounds, green = 3 sounds. For example, ai is red because it only makes one possible sound, whereas ea is green because it can make three possible sounds. If you would like to play this game before you have introduced all of the vowel combinations, you can make two decks of the red cards/tiles and play with the vowel combinations that make a single sound.

Here is a list of all the playing cards/tiles.