Multisensory Monday: Conquer the Clock

Posted by Brainspring on 17th Jan 2022

Single vowels have short and long sounds, slowing readers down because they think about which sound works with the words they read. When two vowels are together in a word, it is called a vowel digraph, which can slow readers down even more. Vowel digraphs or teams can be found in the beginning, middle, and even end words. Students can think of rhymes or strategies to help them figure out words, but the more practice students get with reading words with vowel digraphs, the more fluent and confident they will be when they see these words in stories or books.  

This game, Conquer the Clock, is a fun way to practice reading vowel digraphs. Conquer the Clock can be played after teaching lessons 3-14 through 3-19 or if you want to practice with vowel digraphs.

Materials:

Directions:

This is a two-player game. First, one person reads the cards. Then, the other person puts the words read correctly in one pile, and the words read incorrectly in another pile.  

  1. Place all word cards in a pile.
  2. Set the timer (clock) (stopwatch) for 2 minutes.  
  3. Player 1 picks up a card, reads it, and puts it down in front of them.
  4. Player 2 sorts the cards into the read correctly pile or misread pile.  
  5. When the timer goes off, count the cards in the “read correctly pile.”  
  6. Play again and try to beat the number of cards you “read correctly.”
  7. If a student has trouble with a specific vowel digraph, go back and teach that lesson again or spend some time reviewing the words in that vowel digraph.  

Have fun!


Written by Karen Oliverio

Karen is a Brainspring Tutor in Clarkston, Michigan, and a Kindergarten Teacher in Pontiac, Michigan

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