Concentration Card Game Using Golden Words – A Fun Sight Word Game

Summary of Game:

Golden Words are the twelve most used words in the written English Language they are; a, I, and, was, be, to, in, it, is, of the, that. The Golden Words make up about one quarter of all English written words.

The object of the game is to help students learn to read the twelve Golden Words by matching pairs in the card game Concentration.

Australian Curriculum Links:

Foundation English

• Know that spoken sounds and words can be written down using letters of the alphabet and how to write some high-frequency sight words and known words (ACELA1758)
• Recognise the letters of the alphabet and know there are lower and upper case letters (ACELA1440)

Prior knowledge

Students should be aware that letters make sounds. For this activity they do not need to recognise the sounds and letters of all 26 letters of the alphabet.

The Golden Words are usually student’s first list of spelling and reading words. To give them confidence in their ability to read these words children should be taught the concept of sounding out words.

The words, ‘is, it, in, of, and’ can be sounded out by children. Sounded out means the letters in these words represent the main sound the letter makes.

Most students at this stage do not know any other rules such as when t and h are placed together they make the sound ‘th’. Therefore, the following words are considered sight words, ‘was, the, that, be, to, I, a.’

Game Procedure:

What you need:

• Two sets of the 12 Golden Words
• Two or more players.
• A large area that you can lay the 24 cards down on, it may be the floor or table.

Setting up the game:

• Lay the cards out face down in six rows of four. Ensure there is enough space to flip them over without disturbing the cards around them.
• Decide who will go first. You could chose the player whose name comes first in the alphabet or chose a student randomly.

Playing the game:

• The first player chooses a card and turns it over saying the word when it is turned over. Every time a card is turned over encourage students to read it.
• The player then selects another card and turns it over. If the two cards match and they can read the word they take the two cards and place it near them (face up).
• If the cards are not a match or they cannot read the word, they are turned back over in exactly the same spot and it is now the next players turn.
• The next player turns over their first card. If it is one of the words the previous player turned over they can try to match the card by remembering where the first card was.
• If they are successful at making a match they place the cards near them (face up)
• If the first card they turned over was not a match for one previously turned the player selects another card to try to find its match.
• If they do not make a match they flip the cards back over and play continues to the next player.
• Play continues until all pairs are found.

*In some games when you match a pair you have another turn. However, as the idea of the game is to encourage students to read the words it may be more beneficial to alternate turns regardless of whether they have matched a pair.

Winning the Game:

When all the cards have been matched each player counts the number of pairs they have. The person with the most amount of pairs wins.

Variety of Concentration:

Mixed-up Concentration

Instead of placing the cards in neat rows, as an alternative mix the cards up so they are laying on top of each other. Play the game by the above rules trying to replace the cards in the same position each time.

Timed Concentration

Place all the cards face down in front of one player. Using a timer set a single time such as 3 minutes and countdown to see how many pairs a student can match.  Another alternative is by timing to see how long it takes the student to find all pairs.

If 24 cards in front of a student is daunting, they may like to only do 12 cards (6 pairs at) at a time.                          .

Extension:

This Concentration Card Game can be used for any words/letters that you would like your students to learn to read.

Golden Words can be learnt using a variety of card games such as Bingo, Snap, and Fish.

List of Resources:

• Golden Words flashcards (two sets)
• http://jengraham71.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/golden-words-flashcards/
• Timer (Timed Concentration only)

Assessment:

Informal:

• Observation while students are playing the game
• Children’s confidence in their ability to read levelled readers
• Check for student’s understanding using the traffic light tool.
• https://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/teachlearn/student/trafficlighttool.pdf

Formal:

• Test children individually
• Checklist during observation

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