This week we have dived into the vowel team with eigh sound words. And with Christmas right around the corner, I knew we needed a fun, educational Christmas game to work on our new eigh words. I hope you enjoy this free printable vowel team game as much as my first graders have.
eigh sound words
So what is the “eigh” vowel team?
- In English words, the “eigh” letter combination often makes the “long a” sound, which sounds like the “ay” in words like “say,” “play,” or “day.”
However, it’s important to note that English is not a strictly phonetic language, and there are exceptions to pronunciation rules. The “eigh” pattern can have variations, and in some words, it might be pronounced differently, such as:
- “eight”: In this case, “eigh” makes the long “a” sound.
- “neigh”: Here, the “eigh” also produces the long “a” sound.
But here is an example where the “eigh” does not make the “long a” sound.
- “height”: In this word, “eigh” creates the “long i” sound.
Why Learn the “eigh” sound:
You may be wondering why we should take the time to teach a vowel team that isn’t used as often as some of the others.
Here are two reasons why.
- Spelling Proficiency: Knowledge of vowel teams aids in spelling words correctly. It allows learners to recognize and remember how particular sounds are represented by various vowel combinations when writing words. And when our students practice reading and spelling words that have that vowel team they will know when to use the particular patterns.
- Language Fluency: Understanding vowel teams contributes to overall language fluency. It assists individuals in speaking, reading, and writing English more proficiently by correctly using vowel combinations to produce accurate sounds and spell words.
eigh phonics
This game is a print-and-go game:
- First, print off the game board that fits the level of your student.
- Then, gather up game pieces and a die.
You are ready to go.
eigh sound
Players take turns in clockwise order.
- Starting: Each player starts at square 1.
- Roll: The player rolls the die and moves their game piece the number of squares shown on the dice. They read the word they land on.
- Chimney: If a player lands on a square at the bottom of a chimney, they move their game piece to the top of the chimney, which is a picture of a Christmas item.
- Coal: If a player lands on a square with a piece of coal, they must move their game piece down the chimney. They then read the word at the bottom of the chimney.
- Turns: Players take turns rolling the die or spinning and moving their tokens until someone reaches the last square.
I hope your child enjoys this little Christmas game to work on the vowel team “eigh”.
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Christmas Printables
- FREE Christmas Around the World Worksheets, Lesson, Crafts, and more!
- NO-prep Christmas Scavenger Hunt printable pdf
- Christmas Worksheets pdf – over 60 pages of free pages to practice math, literacy, and more in December, Christmas Vowel Teams Game or eigh phonics game
- Variety of Free Polar Express Worksheets for preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, and 2nd graders too
- FREE Elf on the Shelf Printables to make elf antics silly and no-prep
- Christmas Cut and Paste Shape Worksheets
- Over 100 Free Christmas Activity Sheets
- Christmas Maze printable pack for elementary age kids
- Cute Christmas Tracing Sheets for toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergartners
- Free Printable Christmas Stationary
- Gingerbread Man Sequencing Activity with free printables
- Letter Find Christmas Worksheets for Kindergarten
- Nativity Activity Sheets – huge set of printable pages to review letters, counting, adding, literacy, and more holiday fun
- Practice writing ABCs with free printable Traceable Christmas Ornaments
- Christmas Color by Sight Word Worksheets for Kindergartners
- Super cute, free Christmas Worksheets for Preschool
- Free Christmas Hat Template for kids
- Playdough Christmas Light Patterns Christmas math activities for preschoolers
- Stocking match-up activity – Christmas alphabet letters printable free
- Christmas Sight Words Games for Pre-k
Christmas Activities
- Free Christmas Tracing Sheets, Elf on the Shelf free printables pdf (printable ideas for every day of the month!)
- FUN How to grow a Candy Cane Activity for December, Printable Christmas Games for kids, Fun & Free Christmas Maze Printable, 12 Days of Christmas Coloring Pages or Free Christmas Coloring Pages or December Holiday Coloring Pages, Beautiful Melted Crayon Ornaments, How to Make Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments
- Snowman Baubles printable paper ornaments, O Little Christmas Star Ornament Craft
- Precious Snowman Handprint Ornament, Cute Winter Card Ideas for kids, FREE Christmas Hat Template
- Cute Reindeer Feet Craft, Fingerprint Rudolph Easy Christmas Craft, This Puffy Gingerbread Puffy Paint smells AMAZING! Outrageously Cool Glue Snowman Craft, Make Christmas Slime – Gingerbread Slime, Mr. Grinch Slime, Christmas Fluffy Slime, Edible, Stretchy Peppermint Playdough, Glittery Green slime recipe with contact solution, or Melting Snowman Slime
- Snow Clay to make beautiful Christmas Ornaments, Melting Christmas Tree – a simple Christmas Science Experiments
- Fizzy Ornaments Baking Soda Christmas Ornaments Experiment, Easy, Epic Spinning Christmas Tree Experiment or this Ornaments-Go-Round Christmas STEM Activities with batteries, Rudolph Race Game Combines fun and physics for kids! Festive Christmas Magic Milk Science Experiment, Dissolving peeps Christmas Science Experiment
- Super cool Christmas Lime Battery, Epic Snow Volcano Science Experiment, Melting Snowman Winter Science Experiment
Vowel Teams
Now that they know the basic vowels they are ready to learn about how vowels work together in vowel teams to make very different sounds with their own set of rules. See the list of common Vowel Team Flashcards and free printable vowel team activities to practice! Vowel Teams are either Digraphs or Dipthongs – see more practice in those categories below.
- ai and ay words worksheets
- Printable Ai Words for kids Game
- au and aw activities with clip cards or au aw words Turkey feather sort
- ea vowel team puzzle activity or this three sounds of ea BINGO
- ee words for kids BINGO game or these ee word family worksheets
- eigh sound words game
- ew sound words 5-in-a-row Game
- eu sound tic-tac-toe and Christmas eu sound words game
- ie words for kids cut and paste worksheets
- oi words for kids spin and write activity
- ow words for kids slide and read printable
- oa vowel team activity with printable puzzles
- oa and oe worksheets
- oy and oi words for kids activity
- oo worksheets
- ou sound words game for students or this ou words for kids memory cards
- free long o sound words clip cards
- ue sound phonics game
- Easter game working on ui sound words that say eww
R Controlled Vowel Practice
- Start by grabbing this R Controlled Syllable Word Lists
- Car Bump ar Phonics Games
- er Phonics Printable Game
- 5-in-a-Row /ir/ R Controlled Vowels Games
- Snowman R-Controlled Vowel Syllable
- Tic-tac-toe /or/ R Controlled Vowel Games
- R Controlled Vowels Worksheets (freebie)
- Flower R-Controlled Vowel Activity
- Cut-and-paste R Controlled Vowels Worksheets
- Doctor R controlled vowel sort where or sound words say /er/
- air sound phonics word clip cards
- Or see all our r controlled vowel activities here!
Vowel Team Game
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