NJoy has really taken off with his reading this past summer. He enjoys picking up a book {any book} and trying to read it, looking mostly for those sight words he knows from Reading the Alphabet. I love his enthusiasm. He’s also interested in sounding out those short vowel CVC words when he finds them, too. To give him a little more practice on these short vowel words, I created a card game for him called 1-2-3 FLIP It! It isn’t too fast-paced when he plays it with me {we’ll get there}, but if you play with a child who has a solid grasp on sounding out CVC words, you could really make it a fast-paced game!
1-2-3 FLIP IT! is super simple to play. The game board always starts with cat. Each person gets a stack of cards {we played with 10 cards each}. Players take turns flipping over their top card from their deck. They look at the number on the bottom of the card and put it in either the 1, 2, or 3 spot on the game board. Then, the player reads the new word he made {real or silly}.
We created some silly words
A few words may be tricky like was or has and that’s okay. For example, after he sounded out w-a-s, I simply told him what the word really said. {This only happened to us a handful of times in all the times we’ve played the game.}
Because I wanted the words to resemble real patterns that kids find in reading, you won’t find any q‘s {because q needs u}. There also aren’t any, j‘s, c‘s or k‘s in the 3rd position. Letters like w, r, and l {that usually color the vowels} will only be found in the 1st position. I also made a note in the directions that c and g need to keep their hard sounds in the game, especially if you’re playing with younger kids. Directions also include modifications of the game!
You can download the directions, game board, and all the letter cards HERE! It’s FREE! Also, see my FREE 1-2-3 SPELL IT! for a short vowel challenge game.

Is your child ready for more spelling games? Then, you may want to purchase my 1-2-3 FLIP IT! / 1-2-3 SPELL IT! Pack. In this 47-page pack are FLIP IT! and SPELL IT! game boards and cards for:
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- Short Vowel Words
- Short Vowel with Blends and Digraphs (such as stop, clam, or black)
- Long Vowel with Silent e (such as name, home, or bike)
- Long Vowel Digraphs (such as road, bead, or rain)
- R-Controlled Vowels (such as bird, turn, or herd)
1-2-3 FLIP IT! ~ SPELL IT! Pack Download {Click “Add to Cart” below}
$3.00Add to cart
~Becky
Wow — great job, Becky! We’ll definitely be playing this one 🙂
What a great idea! Thanks for the free download! I will be printing this to use with my just-beginning-to-learn-to-read “special needs” daughter. 🙂
What a fun and easy game to practice reading with young readers. Just pinned it. Love all the ideas you come up with!
Thank you, Jodie. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this. Looks like fun!
You’re welcome.
You’re very welcome.
I played this game with my student, he loved it so much. I think we can play it with our second level of phonics book which is long vowels, we’ll just place “e” in the end. Thank you a lot for sharing!
I played this with some of my students, and it went great! I’m a Peace Corps Volunteer in the country of Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean. My primary assignment is teaching remedial literacy classes at the primary school in the village, where everyone speaks English, but many people cannot read. I don’t have any background in literacy education, so I rely a lot on websites such as this one for ideas. I’ve found that many activities use a lot of paper–a luxury at my school, which does not even have access to a laminating machine. I really liked this activity because I could create it simply by writing on some index cards. I would love more suggestions for similar activities that can be made using minimal materials. Thank you!
I would like to purchase this game, but it’s not letting me. Any suggestions?
Sorry about that. Try this link instead–> https://thisreadingmama.com/product/1-2-3-flip-spell-pack/
I just changed from ejunkie to an in-house store and I’m in the process of finding all those links that are dead. 🙂
I love the Flip it game! I plan to use it with my refugee kids that I am teaching!
Yay! I’m so blessed to know you can use it in your teaching.