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Phonemic Awareness Introduction (Shanahan, 2005)

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Word Family Magic Spoons: On the back of a disposable spoon, write out common CVC letter endings (-it, -at, -ip). Then, on a piece of paper write out various CVC common initial letters. Move the spoon along the initial letters and have the student sound out each word (bit, hit, kit, zit, mit, fit, lit etc.) (Reading Rockets, 2023)

For students needing support with CVC words, the educator may focus on one CVC ending at a time.

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Letter Slap: In a small group, children will be shown CVC words (cap, bat, sip) with foam letters. They will give the sound of each letter as they slap it. Then, they will blend the letter sounds to create a word.

For students who are ready for a push, they can start working on longer letters that begin with a consonant blend (slap, flat, chip). For students who need support, it may be helpful to show one letter at a time and focus on mastering letter-sound correspondence.

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The instructor asks a child to name the similar phoneme in a set of words. “Tell me the sound that is the same in lost, like, and lap”

For differentiation, some instructors may need to begin with more words and emphasized speech to help the similar sounds stand out to the student.

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Letter Hunt: Help your child to understand the alphabetic principle (the idea that the shapes that make a letter have meaning) by pointing out text to them in daily environments and helping them to identify letters. Families can add to this by helping their child to decode the word by sounding out the letters they see.

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Many parents want to support their children with reading. When kids are learning to read, especially in Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, they need plenty of opportunities to practice phonics skills. Practicing phonics skills at home can support what's happening in the classroom and lead to success with reading. So in this article, we're sharing 7 fun phonics activities for parents to do at home!

Before we get into the actual activities, it's important to consider where to start. Your child's teacher or school may provide you with information about what skill(s) they are working on, based upon the reading or phonics program they are using. And if they don't already share that information with you, you can always ask!

If that information is not available for some reason, check out our free phonics scope and sequence pdf and make an educated guess about what skills your child should be working on.

Let's dive into these fun activities!

When kids are learning a phonics skill (i.e. the sound for the letter m, or the digraph ch), it's important for them to see examples of the skill being used in real words and books. Scavenger hunts are a fun way to accomplish this!

If your child is learning the alphabet, for example, choose a letter and have them look in books, magazines - or on any type of print you might have in your home. You can also do this in the car; they can search for the letter on billboards and signs!

If your child is reading and working on more complex patterns like the vowel team "ea," you can do the scavenger hunt as described above, but your child will look for whole words with that pattern. You can also have them look for words with the phonics pattern in the books that they're reading and/or the books you read aloud to them.

To increase the fun, try giving them a goal number of letters or words to find - make it a little challenging, but still attainable! They can use a piece of paper to draw a checkmark every time they find an example, or even write the word that contains the example.
Activity #2: Modified Phonics Board Games
If you have any board games at home, change the directions slightly! Every time a player takes a turn, they move their piece (and follow any directions on the game) AND they have to pull a card from a stack.
Activity #3: Fun Phonics Writing Activity #4: "What's the Sound?" Phonics Activity
The stack of cards would be created by you, and the cards would contain alphabet letters (they can say the letter name and/or sound) OR words that match the skill you want to work on (they would read the word out loud).

Practicing writing letters and words is an important part of phonics! You can make it fun by having students paint, write in shaving cream spread thinly on a table, trace in sand - or use any other type of material that sounds fun. After they've written a letter or word, have them tell you the letter sound or read the word to you.
Activity #5: At-Home Phonics Treasure Hunt
For this activity, grab a few of your child's toys and some other small objects around the house. Place them on the table. Have your child select one object at a time and tell you the first sound (and perhaps letter) in the word.
Activity #6: Word Building with Magnetic Letters
If this is easy for your child (it may be easy for first grade and up), have them tell you the last sound or the vowel sound(s) instead!

For this game, you'll need some index cards with alphabet letters or words written on them. Hide the index cards around your home. Tell your child how many cards they have to find. When your child finds a card, they have to say the letter sound OR read the word aloud.
Activity #7: Go To The Library!
Do you have a magnetic refrigerator, cabinet, or cookie sheet in your home? If so, have your child use magnetic letters to practice building words! Just like with the other activities, you'll want to choose words that have a phonics pattern the child is learning.

Another activity you can have them do with magnetic letters: make separate groups of consonants and vowels.

This one technically isn't done at home - but it's an important one! While it's valuable to have students read individual words, it's also important that they practice reading complete texts (when they are able to do so). So head to your local library!

If you need guidance selecting appropriate books for your child (whether it's for the child to read or for you to read to them), don't hesitate to ask the librarian or even your child's teacher. They will be happy to help you support your child with their reading!

So there you have it - 7 phonics activities for parents to do at home, and they're lots of fun, too! We hope you enjoy these activities!

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7 Fun, Free Phonics Activities for Parents to Do at Home

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Many parents want to support their children with reading. When kids are learning to read, especially in Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, they need plenty of opportunities to practice phonics skills. Practicing phonics skills at home can support what's happening in the classroom and lead to success with reading.

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The instructor asks the child to delete one phoneme from a word to identify how the phoneme fits in the word. “What is smile without the /s/? Mile.”

For differentiation, this activity may be best suited in a large group environment where children can hear peers identify the phonemes. In addition, it may be helpful to enunciate the word so the student can hear each phoneme.

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I Spy Phonemes: Play I Spy with your child, but instead of saying the item name or color, use the initial sound as your clue. “I spy something that starts with the /p/ /p/ sound. Puppy, pencil, pouch” (Reading Rockets, 2023).

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Fluency Introduction (Arizona Department of Education, n.d.)

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Comprehension Introduction (Arizona Department of Education, n.d.)

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This song is a great rhyming song for learning student names, but could easily be modified to include the names of items around the home!

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September 2015 Song of the Month

| | HOME SONG OF THE MONTH | ALPHABETICALLY BY MONTH | BY CATEGORY | PLAY LISTS | HELP

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This traditional silly song is a great one for learning names at the beginning of the school year. I sing it with children from three to six, and it's always a favorite. You simply replace the first letter of each child's name with a "W," the first time, then sing the name correctly the second time.
As I sit in a circle with children in a classroom setting, we go around and sing each name. It gives us all a chance to focus on each child, and me a chance to try to burn their names into my memory! With older children I pause and let them sing the mixed up name first, then join them on the corrected one. That way they have to think about how the first syllable sounds differently with the "W." It's great for building phonemic awareness, a major skill they will need later in order to read.
But for now, it's just fun! And it keeps us adults on our toes!

Willoughby Wallaby Woo

Willoughby wallaby Wonathan, an elephant sat on Jonathan
Willoughby wallaby Wattie, an elephant sat on Hattie

Willoughby wallaby Waxson, an elephant sat on Jaxson
Willoughby wallaby Wen, an elephant sat on Ben

Willoughby wallaby Wate, an elephant sat on Kate
Willoughby wallaby Waiden, an elephant sat on Aiden

Willoughby wallaby Weff, an elephant sat on Jeff
Willoughby wallaby Wellie, an elephant sat on Ellie

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Free Children's Music Song of the Month by Nancy Stewart, Seattle Washington

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FREE Song of the Month (yes, really! 100% free, no strings attached!), including sheet music, and printable lyrics and activity sheet by Seattle musician Nancy Stewart.

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These phonemic awareness activities all aide students understanding of the concept that words are made up of smaller sounds, or phonemes. In order to master this concept, students must break down spoken language into smaller pieces. Activities like Phoneme Identification and Deletion help students to find the individual units of sound. Activities such as I-spy and rhyming songs help children to connect their phonemic awareness to the world around them (Shanahan, 2005)

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Paired Guided Reading: Students will be paired with a partner to read a text with. One student will act as the reader and read about 50 words of text out loud while the other student acts as a guide, helping to provide meaning and make sure the oral reader makes sense. The students will switch after every paragraph, or about 50 words.

Students who struggle with fluency may be paired with fluent readers for this exercise who can model strong oral reading and provide constructive feedback using the Pause, Prompt, Praise method.

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Reader’s Theatre: Students will be broken into groups of 5-6 children and will receive a 3-page script based on a book they are familiar with. The children will be assigned roles and will present the play to the class.

Teachers may choose to assign roles themselves to accurately match the needs of each student, supporting students who need it by giving them a role with group lines and challenging fluent readers by giving them a role with many lines.

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Echo Game: Read a sentence or paragraph from a familiar book using proper expressions and phrasing, then have your child repeat after you. Continue this throughout the book (Reading Rockets, 2023).

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Fluency is a child's ability to read a book or other text with accuracy, at a reasonable rate, and with appropriate expression. Reading fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

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Oral reading with a partner can be a helpful tool for students learning fluency as this practice allows for constant feedback and actual practice. Reader’s Theatre is a great way to practice pauses and expression because all of the text is dialouge that s based on the character’s moods and motivations. The Echo game is helpful as students get to hear a fluent adult read and copy their exact fluent speech elements (Shanahan, 2005).

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These resources help to build phonics skills as children make the connection between phonemes and graphemes. The Letter Slap and Word Family activities emphasize the importance of patterns in written language and encourage practicing word blending. The Letter Hunt helps children to see a letter and say the sound to encourage understanding of the alphabetic principle (Shanahan, 2005)

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Context in a Passage: During a whole-group reading, the instructor reads a word aloud that the class may not know. The instructor writes the word on the board and the students must use the surrounding contextual clues (other words on the page, pictures, previous knowledge of the story). As a class, they create a list of synonyms and antonyms for the listed word.

For differentiation, the teacher may provide hints as to what the word is and highlight context clues.

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Synonym Brainstorm: The teacher writes a common word on the board. Then, the students brainstorm words they could use in place of the common word. “Big - giant, large, mega etc.”

For differentiation, the teacher may reverse the activity and instead play guess that word. The teacher lists synonyms for the high-frequency word and the students try to guess the high-frequency word.

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Family Field-Trip: Take a family field trip to a local museum, farm, zoo, store, or nature area. Encourage your child to listen carefully to the presenter and continue talking about the experience with your child. Continue to use new vocabulary learned on the trip with your child.

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Talking to and reading with your child are two terrific ways to help them hear and read new words. Conversations and questions about interesting words are easy, non-threatening ways to get new words into everyday talk. Here are some ideas to get you started.

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Vocabulary instruction can be both explicit and incidental and teachers should allocate time for both types of instruction. The school activities focus on teaching skills to identify new vocabulary such as context clues and synonyms. The family activity focuses on creating new experiences for the child to grow incidental vocabulary (Shanahan, 2005)

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Draw My Story: The teacher reads a passage from a picture book without sharing any pictures. Students draw pictures based on what they hear in the story.

For differentiation, the teacher may ask prompting questions as they read the passage.

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5 Finger Recall: The student reads a passage and tells the teacher 5 elements of the story “setting, characters, problem, events, and solution" (Reading Rockets, 2023).

For differentiation, the teacher may create a visual of a hand with each element listed on a finger for the student to use as a reminder of the recall activity.

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Make Predictions: Before reading a book with your child, ask them “What do you think will happen in this book?” based on the cover. Then, during the reading, ask the child “Who are the characters in this book? How do you think they feel?”

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ParentPowered - Evidence-Based Family Engagement

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6 Effective Reading Comprehension Strategies for Families

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These reading comprehension strategies boost student literacy at home and ParentPowered’ everyday learning moments bring them right to families.

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Comprehension activities help students to practice active reading and recall while focusing on inferences and connections. Students with exceptionalities, including learning disabilities, may have difficulty with focus and recall when reading passages. For these students, comprehension is a life-long skill to strengthen (Shanahan, 2005).