Storm the Castle

Storm the Castle – a board game set in medieval times

Storm the Castle is an exciting board game for up to four players. It requires strategy and planning while improving reading and spelling skills.

Children collect a password card each time they land on a coloured square. Then they must work out what sound is represented by the star in the word. For the white card, “l*nce”, the short vowel sound “a” is missing.

To be allowed through a checkpoint, they must surrender an appropriate password card. E.g., the yellow “coat of arms” password card would allow them through a yellow “o_e/oa” checkpoint.

In the short game, the first person to reach the castle in the centre of the board  and capture the flag is the winner. In the longer game, they try to return to any starting point with the flag without another player capturing it from them.

Knowledge of vowel sounds is a key skill in learning to read and spell well. It is an area that often causes difficulty. Check the first part of the video that introduces Part 2 to see the game being played by three 11-year-olds. Older students, who need to learn/revise/practise vowel sounds, can also enjoy the game.

Vowel sounds with medieval pictures:

• White cards
  • a       candle,  dance,  flag,  hat,  ladders,  lance,  map,  travel or camel, wagon
  • e       bed,  bell,  chess,  elephant,  fence,  helmet,   jester,  pen,  tent,  thresh
  • i        blacksmith,  bridge,  fish,  hit,  kick,  milk,  mill,  pigs,  print,  ship,  spin
  • o       chop,  cross,  doctor,  lock,  ox,  peacocks,  pot,  shops,  stocks
  • u       crutch,  cut,  drum,  Friar Tuck,  fun,  gun,  hunt,   jug,  tub
• Yellow cards
  • a_e/ay/ai   aim,  chain mail,  gate,  hay,  nails,  play,  rake,  saint,  slay
  • ee/ea         bees,  feast,  keep,  kneel,  queen,  reap or wheat,  seal,  seed,  sheep …
  • i_e/igh        bagpipes,  fight,  hive,  knife,  knight,  light,  night,  ride,  wine …
  • o_e/oa        boat,  coat of arms,  moat,  poach,  roast,  rope,  stone,  throne, yoke
  • u_e             cube,  fumes,  fuse,  lute,  mule,  plume,  prune,  rule,  rune stone, tune
• Blue cards
  • er/ir/ur       bird,  burn, church,  churn,  herd,  purse,  serf,  spur,  stir,  turn
  • ar              arch,  archers,  army,  barn,  cards,  cart,  carve,  charge,  farm,  harp
  • or/aw/au    claws/paw,  dawn,  fork,  gauntlet,  horn,  horse,  organ,  saw,  storm …
• Pink cards
  • oo            book,  cook,  cooper,  food,  goose,  hood,  school,  shoot,  tooth, wood …
  • oy/oi        boil,  boys,  cloister,  coil,  coin,  destroy,  hoist,  noise,  oil,  toys
  • ow/ou      cow,  crowd,  crown,  flowers,  ground,  house,  joust,  round table …

An instruction book includes interesting information about many of the words and pictures.

Storm the Castle is part of Gilead^® Success with Phonics and The Gilead^® Success with Reading Program, Part 2, but is now also available to download as pdf files to print.

Click on the bottom right hand corner of the video to see it full screen. If you have trouble seeing the video try      http://youtu.be/EA7wE_FWcVE