A variety of engaging free segmenting games. Suitable for children with a range of abilities.
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Teach Your Monster to Read Games
The Teach Your Monster to Read site provides free access to a series of award-winning phonics and reading games with increasing levels of difficulty.
In addition to the main games, they also have a variety of Monster minigames that include segmenting activities.
If you launch the Monster minigames you will first see the list of graphemes shown below.
Clicking on one of the graphemes takes you to the ‘Choose a Game’ screen:
Clicking on each picture icon will open up a different game. We describe the segmenting games below…
The Bear icon opens up a segmenting game where the evil Dr Tentacle has kidnapped a bear. The student has to choose letters from the windows in the correct order to spell a word and save the bear.
The planet Saturn icon opens up a segmenting spaceship game. The student is asked to select the right letters to spell a spoken word using a beam from a spaceship.
If you click on the cloud icon you will see an animation of a monster falling through the sky. A word is spoken, and the student has to click on the balloons with the correct letters to spell the word. If the word is spelled correctly this helps to slow the monster’s fall.
The blue planet icon takes you to a game where the monster is speeding up the screen. The student has to click on the correct letters to spell a word in order for the monster to reach the next platform.
The beach ball icon game has a bunch of cat-like characters who carry letters and move about. The student has to ‘catch’ the characters in the correct order to spell a narrated word.
This icon, which is actually a strange-looking spaceship, launches a game where the monster in the spaceship has to use a beam to select the letters in the correct order to spell a word.
Starfall Learn to Read Games
There are a series of segmenting games that you can access from the main Starfall Learn to Read page. Just click on the icons underneath the ‘Game’ heading.
The games mostly involve completing the spelling of a word to match the picture by adding the initial letter like the ones below for part 1. These involve words ending in ‘an’ and ‘at’.
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Some of the later games increase the difficulty by asking the student to add more letters. For instance, in the example below for part 7, the student has to add the initial and final letters to words containing the ‘ee’ digraph.
Some other games involve using split digraphs (also known as magic e). For example, part 8:
Make a Word – Scholastic.com
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In this game, students have to make as many real words as they can by dragging the vowels to the gaps in the words.
Click on the following link to access the Make a Word game.
Big Brown Bear Games
Phoneme Jigsaws
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Students construct words from mixed up jigsaw style letters in this game. Different lists of words can be chosen to suit the current level of the student.
Click on the following link to access the Phoneme Jigsaws game.
Magnetic Letters
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This isn’t really a game, but it is a very useful tool. You can choose any letters from the keyboard and they appear as magnetic letters on the screen which can be dragged around the screen.
Jumbling up letters or providing a choice of letters to make a word is a great way of practising spelling.
Click on the following link to access the Magnetic Letters tool.
Pin the Tail on the Donkey (Complete the CVC Word)
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Students have to complete a word by dragging across the last letter which is attached to a donkey’s tail. The donkey makes a braying noise if you click on the ‘right’ button.
There are ten word lists with over 100 CVC words. The list can be hidden or shown to help students find the right tail.
Click on the following link to access the Pin the Tail on the Donkey game.
Games From ictgames.com
Forest Phonics
You can choose a variety of spelling patterns in this game. Once you’ve selected the group of words you want you click on a snail and the narrator says a word. The student then constructs the word by dragging and dropping the correct letters from underneath.
If the student gets the spelling correct, they are rewarded with a short animation.
Click on the following link to access the Forest Phonics game.
Viking Full Circle
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A word is narrated in this game and the student has to segment the word and then spell it by dragging the correct letters from underneath the ship. They can click on the wave in front of the ship to see if they’ve got it correct. If they do, the Viking will cheer.
A variety of different letter patterns can be chosen at the start of the game to suit the child’s current level of ability.
Click on the following link to access the Viking Full Circle game.
Phonics Hangman – ReadwithPhonics.com
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This is a fairly simple game but it’s a useful early segmenting exercise. A word is narrated, and the student has to drag the correct letter from underneath to complete the word. The missing letter can be from anywhere in the word.
Different letter patterns can be chosen at the start of the game to suit the child’s current level of ability.
Click on the following link to access the Phonics Hangman game.
Further Resources:
Another way to access free online games and activities is to register with some of the specialist reading programmes that offer free trials.
For example:
Parents and teachers can register for a 30-day free trial with Reading Eggs. This allows you to access over 500 highly interactive games and fun animations for developing Phonemic awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary and Comprehension.
A 30-day free trial is also available from ABCmouse.com. This is a leading online educational website for children ages 2–8. With more than 9,000 interactive learning activities that teach reading, math, science, art, music, and more.
Although it’s not quite free, you can get a 30-day trial with the award-winning Hooked on Phonics programme for just $1.
Instantly download our free phonics and phonological awareness worksheets and printable resources. Easy-to-follow and effective activities to improve reading and spelling. Letter sounds, CVC words, consonant blends, letter teams etc.
Click on the following link to access more free phonics and phonological awareness online activities and games.
The best free games and activities online for rhyming, syllables, phonemic awareness, letter sounds, blending and segmenting.
You might also find our article on Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Activities for Parents and Teachers useful.