Beginning Sounds Shopping Game

This game pack has been designed to give children much practice of hearing the initial (or beginning) sound of a word, that very first crucial skill in learning to read and spell using phonics.

It is hoped that as the child has fun playing the games that the child's phonetic awareness can be developed.

To make:

There are three ways in which you can play the ‘Shopping Game’.

1. Fill the Trolley: Choose the empty shopping trolleys as baseboards and cut up the picture cards.

2. Empty the Trolley! Choose the full trolleys as baseboards and ‘empty’ the food out of the trolley.

3. Going Shopping! Choose the shopping lists as baseboards and cut up the picture cards.

The games are all for 2 players.

Choose which game you will play (first!) and print the necessary pages.

Laminating the pieces will make them last longer if you will be playing with multiple children.

To play:

Talk about each of the picture cards. Check that the child can name the food type and think about the initial sound of each.

Game 1: Fill the Trolley: Players take a shopping trolley each, and the picture cards are scattered face down on the table.

Players take it turns to choose a picture card. The player names the item of food and then both listens to and ‘feels’ the initial sound as the mouth produces the sound (multisensory).

The player looks to see if s/he has that sound in his/her trolley. If so, the picture is placed in the trolley, over that letter.

If a player takes a food item that begins with a sound that either s/he does not have on his/her board, or that s/he already has, then the picture should be placed back face down on the table.

The winner is the player that fills his/her trolley first.

Game 2: Empty the Trolley!

This game is played in the same way as above, only the food items are taken out of the trolley as the initial letter cards are chosen from the table, the winner being the player who empties his/her trolley first.

Game 3: Going Shopping

This game uses the Shopping List baseboards. The pictures of food items are again scattered face down on the table and play proceeds as for the previous two games, the winner being the player who completes his/her shopping list first.

Tips for Teaching:

Do constantly model hearing and saying the initial sounds of the food items. Also, have the child copy you as you say them. Look for signs that the child is beginning to recognise which letter makes which sound, and can hear the initial sounds of the words for him/herself.

What is included?

1 PDF

3 Beginning Sounds Games on a shopping theme