Bossy r Card Game - SPOONS - 5 Games with Complex Vowels

Bossy r (or vowels modified by r) words come with a variety of letter patterns and a range of sounds. These patterns become familiar with repeated exposure and games are the ideal way to ensure students see the words enough times to decode accurately and build fluency.

Students will be motivated to play this game without even realising they are recognising the letter combinations involved. This is the repetition that leads to results.

The words used are:

Game 1 - air: fair/air, ar: star/car, art: cart/dart, arm: farm/charm, ier: pier/tier, arp: sharp/harp, are: hare/care, air: pair/hair, ark: park/shark

Game 2 - ar: scar/bar, ard: card/hard, art: chart/start, ark: bark (tree)/dark, orn: horn/thorn, ort: fort/short, arn: darn/barn, arm: arm/harm, arch: march/arch

Game 3 - ore: core/store, oard: board/hoard, orn: corn/torn, ark: bark(dog)/spark, ore: more/sore, irst: first/thirst, ur: blur/spur, ere: there/where, eer: cheer/deer

Game 4 - oor: poor/floor, ork: cork/stork, ore: snore/score, are: mare/glare, ear: smear/fear, are: bare/flare, ark: lark/mark, ear: swear/pear, airy: dairy/fairy

Game 5 - ire: fire/wire, ire: wire/spire, ore: shore/wore, ared: scared/stared, ears: tears/gears, eer: steer/beer, ear: wear/bear, ear: clear/rear, airs: chairs/stairs

SPOONS is an old card game that is very entertaining. Using it to target skill development has merit. This game will motivate and engage students, providing the fun that worksheets can't. Confidence will improve with decoding skills, then fluency increases and once this happens, comprehension benefits.