Get students sounding out initial blends and digraphs with short medial vowels with this fun spelling board game. Students will read and spell over 180 CCVC/CCCVCwords! A great way to get them reading!

Lots of fun in a great rainbow theme. Students will race from the rainbow to the shooting stars as they read and spell initial blends and digraphs.

Great for a partner or small group center!

Initial blends included:
bl, br, cl, cr, dr, fl, fr, gl, gr, pl, pr, sc, sk, sl, sm, sn, sp, st, sw, tr, tw

Initial digraphs included:
ch, sh, th, wh

This game is great for sounding out words with initial blends and digraphs. There are also many ways that you can differentiate for your students.
-Focus on beginning sounds instead of the entire word. You can have your students recall the letter that the word begins with rather than spell the whole word.
-Focus on end sounds. Have students recall the letter that the word ends with rather than spell the whole word.
-Only use one short vowel sound in the game. For example: only include words that have a medial “a” or “e”.
-Have the students read the card themselves, spelling out each letter and then blending the word together. This works especially well for introducing the concept of blends.
-Use only the blends/digraphs that you wish to review. Making extra copies of those blends will provide a concentrated review of that concept.

PLEASE NOTE: I have included 36 additional words with initial blends, but they also have “w” and “r” controlled vowel sounds. These do NOT fit the traditional CCVC and CCCVC definitions and are NOT needed to use the game. They are included for extra practice with the blends as some of the blends do not have many short vowel combinations. It is your choice as a teacher to include them or not.

To set up the game:
Print and laminate Pages 3-15. I strongly recommend using card stock for the playing cards, so that students will not be able to see through them. I love to print on the white side of one-sided scrapbook paper as this makes the cards opaque and attractive.

For 2-6 players

Instructions:
-Shuffle word cards and place them upside down on the card box of the playing board.
-Choose the first player.
-Player 1 places their marker on the rainbow start position. The player to the left of Player 1 draws a card from the pile and without showing it to Player 1, reads the word aloud. Player 1 must spell the word either aloud or by writing it out.
-If Player 1 spells the word correctly on the first try, he/she spins the spinner and moves ahead the number of spaces indicated. The game continues to the next player with the player to his/her left reading the word for the player to spell.
-If a player does not spell the word correctly on the first try, they remain on the same star without spinning the spinner. The game continues to the next player.
-The first person to reach the shooting star wins!
**When playing with only 2 players, the opposite player reads the card to the person spelling.

This is a digital file. You will receive the PDF or .zip file for you to download and print.