Vowels, vowels, vowels … those five important letters that pop up in every word of our English language. If you have an early elementary child who struggles to recognize or remember their A-E-I-O-U vowels, then this cute holiday-themed game is for you. The goal is reinforcing vowel recognition, as they have fun decorating a Christmas tree.
Set up:
First, print and cut out your playing pieces on card stock. The game is requires two or more players, and each person will need one tree and one ornament/light set. Our download includes five full sets of lights and ornaments, so for up to five players, you will only need to make extra copies of the tree on page 1 of the PDF file. Pieces can be laminated for extra durability.
Only one gift box sheet (which is used to sort out the letters before playing) and one spinner is needed to play the game. To set up the spinner, carefully attach the arrow to the wheel using a brad. Make sure it spins loosely. Sort and arrange all the vowels onto the gift box sheet, with all of the capital “A” pieces in the capital “A” square, lower case “a” pieces in their section, etc.
Play:
Starting with the youngest player and moving in a clockwise direction, each player spins and follows the instructions for their space on the spinner. If they land on one of the vowel spaces, they can choose either an upper or lower case letter from the gift box sheet. Once they’ve picked their letter, they’ll do one of the following to help cement their vowel recognition: identify the letter (for example, “upper case E” or “lower case i”) and/or say the sound it makes. (You’re in charge here, Mom, so feel free to ask them to both identify the letter and say the sound, to tell you whether the letter sound was a hard or soft one, or to give a word that uses the sound. You make the rules and you know the areas where your child needs more practice.) Once they’ve completed the task of identifying the letter or making its sound, they can place the game piece on their tree.
Along the way, the players might land on the space that lets them play the “white elephant game,” earning them the right to swipe a playing piece from an opponent. They’ll need to be careful, though … there’s always the temptation to peek at their gifts (for which they’ll have to return a light or ornament to the gift box) or mischief from the pesky cat who likes to climb the tree and is known for knocking ornaments off (which causes them to lose a turn)!
As they spin at each turn, players race to be the first to hang one of every upper and lower case vowel (ten pieces in all) on their tree. Players might end up with duplicates; for example, someone may spin the wheel and land on the “Uu” space three times, and wind up collecting more than one of either the capital or lower case letter. Once a player has collected at least one upper and lower case of each vowel, though, he can yell out, “A-E-I-O-U!” to let his opponents know there’s a winner!
Download your FREE printable vowel recognition game today:
Christmas-Themed Vowel Recognition Game
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