Phoneme Substitution Games for the Win!

This activity offers a fun and engaging way to review or reinforce students’ skills in substituting initial and final phonemes, including blends, in short vowel words. Through hands-on practice, students can explore how changing just one sound at the beginning or end of a word creates entirely new words, enhancing their phonemic awareness and spelling skills. By focusing on short vowel words, the activity provides an accessible and structured approach that helps solidify students’ understanding of how sounds work together in simple word structures.

Each set of cards is colored a different color to for each of the short vowel sounds covered.

How to play SPLAT – Phoneme Substitution Practice

1. Print out the task cards on cardstock and cut them out on the dotted line. Store in a resealable bag to be used again and again.
2. Shuffle the cards and place them in a pile face down in the middle of the playing area.
3. Have one player draw a card and complete the task.
4. If the player completes the task correctly, they get to keep the card. If they do not complete the task correctly, they place the card on the bottom of the pile.
5. If a SPLAT! card is drawn, the player must put all of their cards back in the pile.
6. The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins!

This resource is great when used as a guided reading activity to reinforce phoneme and blend substitutions in short i words.

Helping Students Substitute Phonemes in Words

If students are struggling to substitute the phonemes or blends, write the word on a whiteboard and physically show the students how to erase and substitute the letters. Then, have them try it on their own.

You might also like to sound out the word orally with the student both before and after making the necessary changes. This will allow the student to hear each phoneme, making it easier to blend the sounds together to create the word.

Looking for a way to use this resource with your entire class? Simply project a card on the board and complete it together as a warm-up before starting a lesson.

Download this Phoneme Substitution Card Game Today

Use the drop down menu to choose between the editable Google Slide version of this resource where all five card games are included, or choose the easy to print PDF version of each of the different short vowel sound games.

This resource was created by Lauren Piper, a teacher from Illinois and a Teach Starter Collaborator.

More Phoneme Substitution Activities for the Classroom

Looking for more phoneme substitution activities to use in your classroom? We have you covered…

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Phoneme Substitution Digital Activity

Explore phoneme substitution with your students using this interactive set of task cards using images.

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Phoneme Substitution Activity Cards

Explore phoneme substitution with this interactive phonemic awareness learning activity.