With two copies of an AGO phonics deck, you can play memory match games. I.e. games where players attempt to find matching pairs of cards by turning over face down cards two at a time.
A little preparation is required to ensure that there are two copies of each card you wish to practice. Obviously, the more cards you play with, the more skill required and the longer the game will take. Somewhere between 3 and 10 pairs is a good amount. You can also add wild cards if you wish (i.e. a change color card matches with any other card) into the mix as well if you wish.
Epic Speed Memory Match
This requires two full decks of cards so that there are pairs of phoneme cards (action cards are put to one side and not used in this game).
Spread them out over a large table, or make either 12 pairs or 18 pairs over two or three tables. Pair up players (or groups of three), and have each group simultaneously playing memory match (i.e. all players are involved at the same time). Players select a card, turn it over, read it, then together try to find its match.
If a player finds a match, they keep those cards in a personal scorepile. If there is no match, cards are returned face down to their original position.
(Note that with larger groups, or younger excitable students, this game can get a bit hectic, and the teacher should be vigilant of cheaters)! A good way to stop cheating is to catch a cheater, and make an example of them, by stopping the game, and making a show of resetting the cheater’s score -i.e. returning all their pairs of cards to the main pile!
