ei Vowel Team Words FREE Printable Phonics Game

If your student is working on learning vowel teams, you will love this free printable vowel team game to work on ei words! This vowel team activity allows first grade and 2nd grade students to learn  the ei vowel team while having fun!  

ei Words

Growing up, I learned many fun sayings that were supposed to help with spelling.  Do you recognize any of them?

“When two vowels go a walking, the first vowel does the talking?”

OR how about

“i before e except after c, unless it says A like in neighbor and weighs”

And though they are great catchy rhymes, if they are taught as rules, it may be a little confusing to readers who must work extra hard to read. Because let’s face it, in English there are always exceptions. And while these rhymes may work some of the time, they don’t always.

• For example, “ea” can make the long e sound in meat, the long a sound in great, or the short e sound in head.
• “oi” doesn’t make the long o sound, it makes the sound you hear in the word joy.
• And “ei” is used in many words to make the long e sound.

And this activity is all about getting our little ones to read ei words that make the long e sound in this low prep “ei” game.

Vowel Team Activity

Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >> _____ <<. The vowel sound printable file will open in a new window for you to save the freebie template.

“ei” Makes the Long e Sound

As we mentioned before, “ei” can make the long /ay/ sound. We see this in words like neighbor, weigh, and vein.

But like most “rules” (I prefer to call them generalizations) there are exceptions or times when the generalization is not followed. And we see that with the “ei”. There are quite a few words that are “weird” and make the long e sound when the “ei” is used.

• seize

• leisure

• caffeine

• Keith

• neither

Many of these words, like either and neither, children will often see in their reading. So it is important that we spend time teaching this fun vowel team.

ei vowel team

In just a few simple steps, this game will be ready for you to play with your little one or students.

1. • First, take a look at the game boards and find the words that are most appropriate for your child or students.
   • Next, print the game boards off as well as the spinners.
   • Cut out the spinners.
   • Finally, grab a spinner (or paper clip and pencil) and some game pieces.

And you are ready to go.

Vowel Team Game

Player one begins by spinning the spinner. Wherever the spinner lands, is the word that they need to read aloud.

Once the word is read aloud, they move up the game board until they land on that word. If they land on an arrow, they may follow that arrow to a new space.

The second player does the same thing, and they continue to take turns.

Ei vowel team words

When a player’s spin lands on a word that is not in front of their game piece, they may move to the finished space and they win the game.

It’s that simple. While playing our little ones get to see the same words over and over and read them aloud…all the while practicing words where “ei” makes the long e.