When Long 'a' presents its various letter combinations it's time to introduce a game like this that will engage players at the level needed for letter patterns to become familiar for all ability levels. The illustrated cards can be used prior to playing for those students who need more support as second language learners or extra scaffolding for decoding.

DONKEY is my most popular game and is a hit with all age groups.

There are 22 rhyming pairs in this game but the target is the letter patterns inherent in each pair. The letters to be matched are in a red font.

The words are:

paid, laid, paint, faint, wait, bait, lay, way, say, pay, stay, day, play, clay, snake, shake, flame, blame, brain, train, rain, pain, sail, tail, snail, trail, rail, fail, rein, vein, they, prey, pray, tray, eight, weight, weigh, sleigh, bake, take, late, date, spray, stray

There is a second set of cards with the rime blanked out. This set can be used to practise the spelling patterns.