Short E Charades is a fun game that will help your young reader learn to read short E words so easily that he will barely even know he is practicing! My kids and I enjoy playing this game together – even the ones who are already fluent readers like to get in on the action. This phonics game not only helps your child learn to read, but it can also be a great bonding activity for you and your child because it is playful and fun. In this post, I will give you the free printable Short E Charades cards and explain how to use the game to help your child learn to read.
Is Your Child Ready to Read Short E Words?
An important first step to learning to read is learning to sound out words that are made with short vowels. Every vowel makes several different sounds, and the short sound is the most common sound of a vowel. Once your child has learned all the most common letter sounds (the consonant sounds and the short vowel sounds), he is ready to try sounding out CVC words!
CVC words are single syllable words that are made with a consonant, then a short vowel, then a consonant. An example is the word bed – it begins with a consonant (letter b), then comes a vowel in the middle of the word (letter e), and there is another consonant at the end (letter d). There are lots of different ways you can practice sounding out short vowel words, and I like to use as many fun ways as I can, rather than having my children do a phonics worksheet or practice with flash cards. There is nothing wrong with phonics worksheets and flash cards – my kids really like doing them sometimes! But, children learn really well through play and they also have a positive association with learning when it is play based.
With that in mind, I’d like to share a really simple and fun game that you can use to help your child practice sounding out short e CVC words. Young readers will love practicing reading short e sound words with this fun phonics game!
Materials Needed for Short E Charades:
All you need for this short E sound game is a set of Short E Charade cards for each person who will play the game and sturdy cardstock to print the cards on. You may also want to laminate the cards for durability (which I recommend). Here are the free printable cards for this fun short E words game:
To Prepare Short E Sound Charades:
- Print the Short E Charades cards – you need one set for each person who will play the game. You will want to print the cards on a sturdy cardstock.
- Laminate (optional) and cut out the cards. I really recommend laminating them if you can, so that the cards will be durable enough for multiple uses, and for use by multiple children, if you have multiple children with whom you plan to practice reading skills.
- Remind your child of the short e sound (the short e vowel sound is the first sound in the word elephant and the sound in the middle of the word red). Remind your child that the letter “E” can make a few different sounds, but that the short vowel sounds are the most common vowel sounds.
- Practice sounding out a few short e words, such as words from the following CVC word lists: red, led, fed, bed or pet, met, let, get, jet, set, bet, net, vet.
- If your child is having trouble, you can start with the two letters: letter e and letter t, for example. Ask your child to make the sound of each letter, then have your child put the two letter sounds together. When he can blend the sounds successfully add a letter to the beginning of “et” to make the rest of the word. Add letter n to the beginning, for example, to make the word net. You can use a moveable alphabet or fridge magnets and switch the consonant at the beginning of the word to make a new word – change net to pet, for example.
- When your child feels somewhat comfortable sounding out short E words, you can start playing the Short E Charades game!
How to Play Short E Charades
- Explain the game:
- Each player has a set of cards with short E words.
- Each player spreads their cards in front of them.
- On the first player’s turn, all other players close their eyes while he chooses the short E sound word card that he wants to act out and puts it face down in front of him.
- He acts out the short E word on the card, and the other players look at their cards to find the word he is acting out.
- Encourage your child to be silly and dramatic as he is acting out the short E words – get the excitement and the laughter flowing! This game is a sneaky way to motive your young readers to read simple words, and most of the time they will do it without even realizing that they are reading, especially if you are being silly and dramatic with them!
- When a player thinks they know the correct word, they will make a guess by holding up a short E word card and saying the word on the card.
- It is very important that the child says the word – you want to make sure she read the word correctly. If she is correct, the matching cards are discarded, and the next player has her turn selecting a word card and acting it out for the other players to guess.
- If you want to make this a competitive game, have the player who guesses correctly keep the matching word cards and see who has the most cards at the end!
- *Note: if your child is just beginning to be able to sound out words, you can start with just a few of the short E sound charades cards to avoid overwhelming him. Lay out 3-6 cards to begin with, and add more when he is ready for them. If he is having to work really hard at sounding out the words, you can even start with just one or two cards!
If your child enjoys this game, you can try out the Short A, Short I, Short O, and Short U charades games as well. You can find the links to these games at the end of the post. When your child is starting to get a handle on the short vowel sound words, you can mix up the cards from the different word families so that your child can practice different vowel sounds at the same time.
For more practice sounding out short vowel e CVC words, you can also try Short Vowel Memory. When your child has mastered reading short vowel CVC words, it’s time to add a new phonics skill – consonant digraphs! You can also introduce reading practice through very simple early readers.
I hope you and your child enjoyed this game and that it helped your young reader in her journey to learning to read. Thank you for visiting and feel free to check our my other phonics games for more ways that you and your child can have fun while practicing phonics!
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