Roll, Read & Cover: Short E is a hands-on, interactive phonics game designed to help early readers build confidence and fluency with short e CVC words. Students roll two dice – one for the onset (beginning sound) and one for the rime (word ending) – then blend the two parts to form a word. If the word matches a picture on their game board, they cover it. This engaging and fast-paced activity reinforces blending, segmenting, decoding, and word recognition skills in a fun and meaningful way.

With minimal prep and high engagement, this game is perfect for literacy rotations, small group intervention, early finishers, or as a warm-up to phonics sessions. It supports early reading development by building decoding fluency and phonemic awareness, specifically targeting words with the short e vowel sound like bed, net, pen, and jet.

Students practise hearing, blending, and building CVC words while enjoying playful, game-based learning. It’s a great resource to revisit throughout your short vowel instruction.

Key Learning Outcomes:

• ✅ Blend onset and rime to read short e CVC words
• ✅ Recognise and decode medial short vowel sounds
• ✅ Strengthen word recognition and fluency skills
• ✅ Develop phonemic awareness through hands-on practise
• ✅ Support turn-taking, peer discussion, and cooperative play

What’s Included:

• Printable onset and rime dice templates
• Multiple game boards featuring picture prompts for short e words
• Instructions for printing, assembly, and gameplay

Materials Needed:

• Printed game boards (preferably on cardstock)
• Cut and assembled onset and rime dice
• Counters or small tokens to cover pictures

How to Use:

1. Print and cut out the dice and game boards. Use coloured card for extra durability and easy sorting.
2. Give each student a game board and a set of counters.
3. Students roll both dice, blend the onset and rime to make a CVC word.
4. If the word matches an image on their board, they cover it. First to cover all wins!

Ideas for Classroom Use:

• 💡 Add to literacy centres or phonics stations for independent or partner play
• 💡 Use in small group reading instruction to reinforce targeted vowel sounds
• 💡 Play as a class game to introduce or review the short e sound
• 💡 Combine with a word-writing task for added spelling practise

Top Teacher Tips:

• 💛 Pre-teach the onset and rime options to support less confident readers
• 💛 Laminate the game components for repeated classroom use
• 💛 Use mini whiteboards for students to write the word before covering the image
• 💛 Challenge fast finishers to write rhyming words or a sentence using their word

Roll, Read & Cover: Short E transforms phonics practise into a fun and motivating learning experience. With every roll, students build fluency, accuracy, and confidence in reading CVC words featuring the short e vowel sound.

Available in our basic fun font and all Australian state fonts.