Science of Reading Phonics Game and Alphabet Game | Climb and Slide Game BUNDLE

Looking for a fun phonics or letters game to play with your students during your small group time or as a literacy center activity that is aligned with the best practices of the Science of Reading? Get ready because Climb and Slide is a fun phonics twist on the traditional game of Snakes and Ladders.

This bundle of literacy activities features Back to School, Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer.  Each theme features different clip art for sliding down and climbing up. The goal is for students to spend time playing the game.

Each set has seven different ELA skills:

• Letter Identification (but uppercase, lowercase, and upper and lowercase together)
• Editable Words page (great for high frequency words or phonics focused lessons)
• Beginning Sounds
• Ending Sounds
• CVC Words
• Digraphs and Blends
• CVCe Words

In this way, students can all practice the phonics skills they need without appearing to be playing a different game.  This is PERFECT for your small group or student intervention time.  

Students will practice decoding (reading the word) and encoding (writing the word.  This fits nicely into your Orton-Gillingham lessons as well!

Additional time is dedicated to handwriting and the path of motion!  Your students will beg to play this variation of Chutes and Ladders while working towards phonics mastery!  

HOW TO PLAY THIS IN SMALL GROUP:

Your students will love practicing these skills as part of your small group instruction. Perhaps you dedicate one small group lesson each week towards game play.   Research tells us that the act of playing a learning game drives up the amount of time students spend on a task! PERFECT! We also know students need a LOT of time to build mastery, so playing games with a partner will certainly help. 

My suggestions are:

• Partner students up –  students will spend more time practicing reading and writing and less time waiting for their turn if they play with just 1 partner (vs. a small group of 5 other students.)
• You can print one set of game cards for students to share, but 1 game board for each pair of students.
• Remember, this is a perfect opportunity to reinforce the letter path of motion. Brain research correlates consistent handwriting practice with learning letters and sounds. (two birds, one stone!)

HOW TO PLAY THIS AS A LITERACY CENTER ACTIVITY:

This game is a great center activity.  You will want to ensure your students understand how to play the game and the skills you want them to over-learn. Remember, we don’t want students to be asked to practice skills they have not learned yet in centers.

EDITABLE PAGES?  YES!  THERE ARE TWO!

The first page is allows you to enter 8 words.  Those words will repeat on the page.  This is a great option to use for your focused word mapping for phonics skill practice.  

And additional page is included so you can review 25  previously taught words or skills.  

WHICH EDITABLE PAGE SHOULD YOU USE?

This is totally up to you.  I would use the 8 word page for small group practice.  The Science of Reading research reminds us that some students need more time with a skill to build their orthographic mapping system.  This version would be perfect for your intervention/prevention group.  I would use words follow the phonics pattern you are currently focused on for that group.  Then add a few words that were previously taught.

The page with the 25 word option is one you can use to focus on simply previously taught skills or irregular words.  I would add a combination of the two. 25 different words may be overwhelming for your prevention/intervention group in kindergarten.   Naturally, you will want your student observations guide your teaching.  

Get ready to have a blast with Climb and Slide! May the odds be ever in your favor!