Guest Author - Jeanne Rutgers

I have finally found a phonics game that I like, and my students enjoy. It’s called Alpha-Bug soup. What sets this game apart is the variety of skill levels that it incorporates.

For young students, kindergarten or first grade, this is a great vocabulary builder. While moving around a colorful board, students draw letters from the center of the board. For example if a child rolls a three, she would pick a letter and then name three words that start with that letter. To add to the challenge, I have my students spell one of the words that they name. If you would like to make the game even harder students may grab more letters. Let’s say a student rolls a four. She would then take four letters, and say four words for each of her letters. This is a great way to start teaching phonemic awareness. To read more about the importance of phonemic awareness click here

If the game is played with older students, it becomes a straight spelling game. Each student is given a “recipe” card. A recipe card is simply a copy of the alphabet. Then depending on the roll of the dice a certain number of letters are chosen. After the letters have been chosen, students mark those letters on the recipe card. Students now have 40 seconds to spell as many words as possible using only those letters marked on their cards. (When playing with students in fifth grade or higher I make them use words with at least four letters)

I love the variety that this game allows. At first I did find all the “bugs” and “critters” confusing, but after I played it a few times, the directions made more sense and I was able to see the possibilities this game allows.

To read more about phonemic awareness click here For information on using phonics to teach spelling click here