Phonics and Spelling Jeopardy

Vowel sounds, blends, rhymes, and tricky spellings in a word study game for early readers. Free to copy, with young players buzzing in on phones.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

For the classroom

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Every clue on this board

This page is public, so anyone can read the answers — copy the board and swap a few clues before game day.

Short Vowels

$200
The word map has this short vowel sound.
What is short a?
$400
Bed, pet and ten all have this short vowel sound.
What is short e?
$600
Sit, fish and lip all have this short vowel sound.
What is short i?
$800
Hot, mop and dog all have this short vowel sound.
What is short o?
$1,000
Bug, cup and mud all have this short vowel sound.
What is short u?

Long Vowels and Silent E

$200
Adding a silent e to kit makes this word, a toy you fly on a windy day.
What is kite?
$400
Adding a silent e to cap makes this word, something a superhero wears.
What is cape?
$600
Adding a silent e to hop makes this word, meaning to wish for something.
What is hope?
$800
Adding a silent e to tub makes this word, a hollow pipe.
What is tube?
$1,000
In the word rain, these two vowels team up to make the long a sound.
What are a and i?

Blends and Digraphs

$200
These two letters make the first sound in ship and shoe.
What is sh?
$400
These two letters make the first sound in chair and cheese.
What is ch?
$600
These two letters make the first sound in thumb and three.
What is th?
$800
The word flag begins with this two-letter blend.
What is fl?
$1,000
The word splash begins with this three-letter blend.
What is spl?

Rhyme Time

$200
This animal word rhymes with dog and names something that hops and croaks.
What is frog?
$400
This color word rhymes with bed.
What is red?
$600
This word rhymes with moon and is what you use to eat soup.
What is spoon?
$800
This number word rhymes with hive.
What is five?
$1,000
This sweet birthday treat rhymes with lake.
What is cake?

Word Families

$200
Cat, hat and bat belong to this word family.
What is the -at family?
$400
Pig, big and dig belong to this word family.
What is the -ig family?
$600
Sun, fun and run belong to this word family.
What is the -un family?
$800
Swing, sting and king belong to this word family.
What is the -ing family?
$1,000
Night, light and bright belong to this word family.
What is the -ight family?

Sight Words

$200
This sight word is the opposite of no.
What is yes?
$400
This sight word is the opposite of up.
What is down?
$600
This tricky sight word is the past tense of say.
What is said?
$800
This sight word sounds just like two but means also.
What is too?
$1,000
This sight word sounds like there but means belonging to them.
What is their?

Final Jeopardy — Letter Groups

The letters a, e, i, o, and u, and sometimes y, belong to this group.

What are vowels?

How to run this board

This board covers the building blocks of reading and spelling: short and long vowel sounds, consonant blends and digraphs like sh and ch, rhyming words and word families, silent e, and a handful of sight words that break the rules.

Say every clue aloud, and say the sounds clearly; phonics clues depend on hearing, not seeing. When a team spells a word, write it on the board letter by letter as they say it so the rest of the class can check along.

A house rule that works well at this age: any team can earn a bonus point by giving one more word that fits the same pattern. It keeps every team listening even when it is not their turn.

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