Phonics bingo

What phonics bingo practices

Phonics bingo practices two linked skills: phonemic awareness and phonics (decoding). Students hear the sounds in words and tie them to letters. Then they read whole words from those letters.

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) practice guide rates both skills as strong-evidence recommendations. One asks teachers to build awareness of the sounds in spoken words and how they link to letters. Another asks them to teach students to decode words and recognize word parts.

The guide's glossary keeps the two apart. Phonemic awareness works by ear, with no printed letters. Decoding means turning printed words into speech. That's why sound games can use pictures, while reading games need printed words.

Bingo is review, not a reading program. The National Reading Panel presents systematic phonics as one part of a complete reading program, not the whole of it. Bingo fits inside yours as practice for sounds you've already taught.

Choose your game: sounds, words or patterns

Pick the phonics bingo game by the skill you're reviewing. Sound games use picture cards for pre-readers. Reading games use words-only cards, because a picture gives the word away.

Beginning sounds bingo with picture cards

This letter sounds game suits pre-readers. You say /s/, and students cover the sun. The call sheet lists the words, so you read out the first sound, not the word.

On illustrated cards, the word always prints under each picture. There's no picture-only option. The pictures are drawn without letters, but early readers may use the printed first letter as a clue.

Two pictures can share a first sound, like sun and sock. Set a rule before you play. Either keep one word per first sound in your list, or let students cover any picture that matches.

Your first illustrated set is free to make and see on screen. Printing its pictures needs an Event pass or Pro.

Word reading bingo for decoding

Use this game once students read CVC, blend or digraph words. Say the word aloud, such as "sun." Students find it, cover it and read it back.

Choose words-only cards here. A picture next to "sun" lets a student name the picture instead of decoding the word. Words-only cards are free and unlimited, so you can print new CVC cards each week.

Digraph and vowel team bingo

Here the cards show spelling patterns, such as "sh," "ch" or "ai." You say a word that contains one, like "ship," and students cover "sh."

In the WWC guide's terms, a digraph is two letters next to each other that make one sound. A vowel team is two to four letters that together stand for one vowel sound.