Choose a phoneme. A word containing a gap will appear in the sand. Listen to Colin the Clam say the complete word then click on the sandpie with the right spelling for the missing phoneme. Each word you get right will add a sandpie to the sandcastle you are building.

At the end of the game, you can print out a sheet which shows the sandcastle with all the words you spelt correctly.

The game provides valuable practice in recognising the common alternative spelling choices for the nine vowel phonemes introduced in the National Literacy Strategy Year 2 word level objectives.

There are 10 different vowel phoneme options to choose from when playing the Sandcastle Quiz. 9 of them cover an individual phoneme and its spelling variations and the 10th covers all of them. They are listed below:-

OW - ow/ou (howl, house)
OY - oy/oi (boy,join)
AR - ar/a/al (star,grass,calm)
DEEP U - oo/u (foot,put)
AIR - air/are/ear (lair, spare, tear)
OR - or/ore/oar/war (short, core,roar,ward)
AW - aw/au/augh/al (yawn,august, caught, chalk)
IR - ir/ur/er (stir, nurse, nerve)
EAR - ear/eer/ere (fear, cheer, mere)

The game will launch in a new 'full screen' window that has no site navigation or instruction. For users of Internet Explorer 4 (or higher) the window will automatically fill the whole screen. This mode may be less confusing for children who could otherwise accidentally leave the game by clicking on a link to another part of the website or on another window on the computer. There is a hidden 'close' button in the top right hand corner - alternatively, press Ctrl and W simultaneously to return to this page.