ETEC 526: Games & Simulations for Learning
Phoneme Crowns
Designers:
Courtney Casselmen and Carissa Segler
Guiding Question:
● The focus of this game is for students to build their phonics skills through
phoneme practice.
● The learning expected would be students growing their knowledge of phonics
skills. This game will help fill in academic gaps.
Approach to design:
● This game will follow the majority of the rules from Five Crowns. The changes will
include the cards. The rummy style game will be modified into a phonics practice
game to be played at school.
ETEC 526: Games & Simulations for Learning
Game Design Document (GDD)
Five Crowns Card Game
Overview: Five Crowns is a Rummy-style card game.
Genre: Card Game
Subject: Phonics
Players: 2-4
Grade Levels: First Grade - Fourth Grade *Game can be modified for additional grade
and ability levels.
Goal:The goal is to play your phoneme cards down first when you create a word.
Game Instructions:
1. Pass out 3 cards to each player.
2. Put the remaining cards face down in the new card pile.
3. Flip over one card to be the starting card.
4. Players view their cards privately to look for a word.
5. The youngest player starts first and moves clockwise.
6. Players can grab a card from the top of the discard pile or the top of the new card
pile.
7. When a player has a word they may place it down during their turn. All other
plays have one final chance to draw and make a word.
8. Points are recorded.
9. At the end of the round, shuffle the cards and deal 4 cards. This will last until the
5th and final round which is 8 cards in each hand.
Points: The player that creates the word during a round first is awarded zero points.
The remaining players count the cards in their hands after the round and are given that
amount of points.
Wild Card: Wild cards can pretend to be any card. Example: If A is wild the player can
pretend it is a d.
Wild Card Order
Round 1-A
Round 2-E
Round 3-I
Round 4-O
Round 5-U
*The wild card portion of the game can be omitted for beginning level players.
Game Time: 15 to 25 minutes
Number of Cards in the Deck: 92 total cards in the deck. Two of each of the cards
from foundations.
ETEC 526: Games & Simulations for Learning
Instructional Design Document (IDD)
Purpose of the instruction:
The purpose of the game is for students to build their phonics skills through phoneme
practice and word building. Students will work with words that range from 3 to 8
phonemes.
Description of the learner:
The learner will be a kindergarten through third grader. The game can be modified to a
smaller amount of cards for younger learners or a larger amount of cards for older
players.
Goals and objectives of the instruction:
● Students build knowledge of sound spelling cards.
● Students create words to build their phonemic awareness skills.
● Students will be in groups and practice social skills such as taking turns, winning,
losing, and problem solving.
Plan for assessment of learning:
● Students will complete their weekly word test. The goal will be for word work
scores to improve due to the practice game.
Scope and sequence of topics to be covered:
● The phonemes are introduced in class in difficulty order.
○ TEKS
■ 4.2 (decoding multisyllabic words with closed syllables; open
syllables; VCe, syllables; vowel teams, including digraphs and
diphthongs; r-controlled syllables;and final stable syllables,
decoding words using advanced knowledge of syllable division
patterns such as VV; decoding words using knowledge of prefixes)
■ 3.2 (Developing and sustaining foundational language skills:
listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--beginning
reading and writing. The student develops word structure
knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts,
phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell. )
■ 2.2 (Developing and sustaining foundational language skills:
listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--beginning
reading and writing. The student develops word structure
knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts,
phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell)
■ 1.2 (reading/Beginning Reading Skills/Phonological Awareness.)
Estimated time for learner to complete the instruction:
● The game can be played in 15 to 25 minute increments of time.
Selection of specific instructional strategies or methods and rationale/theoretical
foundation for selection:
● Teaching students to recognize and manipulate the sounds moving from syllables
to the individual sounds, or phonemes to words helps increase and build
phonological awareness. Explicitly connecting phonemes to letters more
effectively supports word decoding.
Selection of specific media to be developed (the game/simulation, video,
slideshows, audio narration) and rationale for selection:
ETEC 526: Games & Simulations for Learning
● Playing cards are needed for the game. The cards will be used from the
Fundations curriculum.
Estimated to time to complete the development process:
● We estimate it will take us one week to develop .
○ Cards are pre-made
○ Type up the rules
Resources required for development:
● Fundations letter/sound cards
List of team members and primary responsibilities:
● Courntney Casselman and Carissa Segler- design and organize the production
of the game
Plan for evaluation, maintenance, and update of the instructional materials:
● The cards will need to be updated frequently because of wear and tear. It is also
suggested to wipe down cards after play to reduce the spread of germs. Cards
will likely need to be replaced every school year or more frequently if played
often.
List of approvals to be acquired before development begins:
● Approval of the sound card company
Plan for testing and quality assurance:
● Game designers will implement the game during small group reading instruction
in Kinder through fourth grade classrooms. This game will be played several
times with the same group of students. When the students are able to play the
game independently with their peers while practicing their phoneme skills, the
game is successful.