# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In this article:

Most of the assessments here should be given one-on-one. It is important that you have a non-distracting, comfortable testing environment for students, and that the rest of the class is engaged in a task or assignment and working quietly. It's even better if you can arrange for another teacher to be present while you are performing assessments.

This list of informal assessments is not all-inclusive; there are components of reading that these tools do not assess. This information is also available in chart form.

Letter/sound recognition

About this assessment

Familiarity with the letters of the alphabet is essential to the development of reading skills. Instruction should be geared towards unknown letters and their sounds. Students should be able to recognize the letters in both uppercase and lowercase forms.

What it measures

Ability to recognize letters and sounds.

Examples of assessment questions

Show student one letter at a time and ask:

Can you tell me what letter this is? (Record the student's response)

Can you tell me what sound it makes? (Record the student's response)

Age or grade typically mastered

Many students enter kindergarten with the ability to recognize letters. Fewer students recognize the letter sounds. Both are taught in kindergarten.

When should it be assessed?

Assess letter/sound recognition three times during kindergarten, at the start of school, at mid-year, and at the end of the year.

Concepts of print awareness

About this assessment

Concepts of print are usually learned incidentally as children are exposed to books and story readings at home and at school. Concepts of print include an understanding that: print carries meaning, that books contain letters, words, sentences, and spaces. It also includes understanding what books are used for, and that books have parts such as a front cover, back cover and a spine. Eventually, students learn more sophisticated ideas such as understanding that we begin reading on the left and read across the page to the last word on the right, and then we got to the next line, begin reading on the left, and so on.

What it measures

If a student understands:

That print has meaning

That print can be used for different purposes

The relationship between print and speech

There is a difference between letters and words

That words are separated by spaces

There is a difference between words and sentences

That there are (punctuation) marks that signal the end of a sentence

That books have parts such as a front and back cover, title page, and spine

That stories have a beginning, middle, and end

That text is read from left to right and from top to bottom

Examples of assessment questions

Give the student a book and ask the following questions. "Can you show me:"

a letter?

a word?

a sentence?

the end of a sentence (punctuation mark)?

the front of the book?

the back of the book?

where I should start reading the story?

a space?

how I should hold the book?

the title of the book?

how many words are in this sentence?

Age or grade typically mastered

Some students enter kindergarten with an understanding of print concepts, but other will master it as the school year goes on.

When should it be assessed?

Assess concepts of print twice during kindergarten, at the start of school and at mid-year. In addition, as you model story reading techniques to help guide instruction, identify students who need additional support, and determine if the pace of instruction should be increased, decreased, or remain the same.

Phonological awareness

About this assessment

Phonological awareness is a necessary part of reading instruction. Children can show you they have phonological awareness in several ways. It is necessary as the classroom teacher to determine strengths and weaknesses to plan instruction.

What it measures

Recognizing a word in a sentence shows the ability to segment a sentence

Recognizing a rhyme shows the ability to identify words that have the same ending sounds

Recognizing a syllable shows the ability to separate or blend words the way that they are pronounced

Understanding onset-rime shows the ability to blend the first sound in the word (onset) and the rest of the word (rime)

Examples of assessment questions

Word
How many words are in this sentence? "I am happy." (Correct response: 3)

Rhyme
Do these words rhyme? big, fig(Correct response: Yes)

What about key, tree? (Correct response: Yes)

Syllable blending
I am going to say a word in parts. Listen: o...pen What word did I say? (Correct response: open)

Syllable segmentation
Can you tell me the two word parts in open? (Correct response: o...pen)

Syllable deletion
Say open without the -pen. (Correct response: o)

Onset-rime
What word do these sounds make? /s/ - /ee/ (Correct response: see)

How about /h/ - /op/? (Correct response: hop)

Age or grade typically mastered

Word: Age 3

Rhyme: Age 4

Syllable blending: Age 4

Syllable segmentation: Kindergarten

Syllable deletion: Kindergarten

Onset-rime: The middle of kindergarten

When should it be assessed?

Typically, phonological awareness is assessed during kindergarten and throughout first grade. During the beginning of kindergarten, assessment should be limited to recognizing words, rhyme, syllable blending, and segmentation to help guide instruction.

Phonemic awareness

What it measures

Phoneme matching is the ability to identify words that begin with the same sound.

Phoneme isolation is the ability to isolate a single sound from within a word.

Phoneme blending is the ability to blend individual sounds into a word.

Phoneme segmentation is the ability to break a word into individual sounds.

Phoneme manipulation is the ability to modify, change, or move the individual sounds in a word.

Examples of assessment questions

Remember, when a letter appears between slash marks, you should say the letter sound, and not the letter name.

Phoneme matching
Which words sound alike? man, sat, sip (Correct response: sat, sip)

Phoneme isolation - initial (first) sound
What's the first sound in sat? (Correct response: /s/)

Phoneme isolation - final (last) sound
What's the last sound in sat? (Correct response: /t/)

Phoneme isolation - medial (middle) sound
What's the middle sound in sat? (Correct response: /a/)

Phoneme blending
What word do these sounds make? /h/ - /o/ - /t/ (Correct response: hot)

Phoneme segmentation
What sounds do you hear in hot? (Correct response: /h/ - /o/ - /t/)

Phoneme manipulation - initial (first) sound
Say mat without the /m/ sound. (Correct response: at)

Phoneme manipulation - final (last) sound
Say mat without the /t/ sound. (Correct response: ma)

Phoneme manipulation - substitution
Say pig. (Correct response: pig)

Now change the /p/ in pig to /f/. (Correct response: fig)

Age or grade typically mastered

Phoneme matching: The middle of kindergarten

Phoneme isolation - initial (first) sound: The middle of kindergarten

Phoneme isolation - final (last) sound: Late kindergarten or early first grade

Phoneme isolation - medial (middle) sound: Late kindergarten or early first grade

Phoneme blending: Late kindergarten or early first grade

Phoneme segmentation: First grade

Phoneme manipulation - initial (first) sound: First grade

Phoneme manipulation - final (last) sound: First grade

Phoneme manipulation - substitution: Middle to end of first grade or early second grade

When should it be assessed?

Phonemic awareness assessments should be done three times during the kindergarten and first grade years to help guide instruction.

Informal (qualitative) reading inventory

What it measures

Grade level reading

Fluency

Comprehension

Vocabulary

Oral reading accuracy

Examples of assessment questions

Choose a grade level passage for the student to read. As the student is reading complete the oral reading accuracy and reading fluency assessments. After the student finishes the passage, check for understanding through explicit and implicit questions. Also, ask open-ended questions about the vocabulary found in the passage.

Age or grade typically mastered

This assessment can be given to students in grades one through twelve. Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed

The informal reading inventory is an on-going assessment, and should be completed several times throughout the child's schooling. In kindergarten, perform the informal reading inventory twice per year, at mid-year and at the end of school. In first and second grades, it should be done three times, at the beginning of the school year, at mid-year, and at the end of the year. If a child is struggling, the inventory should be done more often in order to have an accurate picture of the child's progress.

Reading comprehension

About this assessment

Reading comprehension assessments are the most common type of published reading test that is available. The typical type of reading comprehension assessment involves asking a child to read a passage of text that is leveled appropriately for the child's age or grade, and then asking explicit, detailed questions about the content of the text. An example of a common reading comprehension assessment is the Informal Reading Inventory (IRI), also known as the Qualitative Reading Inventory (QRI).

There are variations on the basic reading comprehension assessments. For example, instead of questions about facts found directly in the text, the child could be asked to answer questions about information that is implied in the text, or the child might be asked to retell the story in the child's own words.

Oral reading accuracy

About this assessment

This assessment provides a measure of a student's oral reading accuracy by giving teachers insight into a student's individual reading level. It allows the teacher to listen and record reading behaviors such as the number of errors a student makes, if the student substitutes words, or if the student needs prompting from the teacher.

The information offered by this assessment is limited. For example, it does not measure phonological ability, vocabulary, or comprehension. This is why it is often given in conjunction with other assessments such as the informal reading inventory. It should never be used in isolation.

Note: When children read orally, they usually concentrate on reading accurately and do not pay as much attention to comprehension of the content. It is also important to remember that if this assessment is used with students who are new to learning English, it should be given both in English and the child's primary language.

What it measures

Oral reading accuracy. It also provides the teacher with insight into a student's ability to use strategies to decode unfamiliar words.

Examples of assessment questions

Choose a passage for the child to read aloud. As the child reads, take notes on words read correctly and incorrectly.

Age or grade typically mastered

First through third grade.

When should it be assessed?

Reading accuracy assessments can be given as part of an informal reading inventory or combined with a comprehension assessment to yield more information. Reading accuracy should be assessed several times throughout the year to help you plan on-going instruction. Are students reading on grade level? Do some students require additional support? Do your students have rich vocabularies? Are your students able to read age-appropriate material?

Steps in administering this assessment

1. Choose a book that is age appropriate, but unfamiliar to your student. (This gives a more accurate picture of a child's ability in handling texts.)

2. Ask the student to read the story aloud to you and then at the end tell you what the story was about.

3. You should familiarize yourself with the following scoring information prior to administering this assessment:

Reading behavior

How to score

Read correctly (no error)

Check mark over word

Omission (one error)

Long dash over word omitted

Insertion (one error)

^ at point of insertion with the inserted word written above it

Repetition of a word (no error)

Mark above word with a capital R

Repetition of a phrase (no error)

Capital R with a line and an arrow stretching across phrase repeated

Self correction (no error)

Capital SC above the word to indicate child has self-corrected

Unable to read word (one error)

T for Teacher prompt

Decodes a word in an obvious manner (no error)

Mark individual sounds read within the word followed by a check mark if eventually read correctly or a circle if read incorrectly

Read incorrectly (one error)

Circle word

What should you count as an error when giving this assessment?

Substituting a word

Passage reads: The tall fir tree.

Student reads: The tall far tree.

Omitting a word

Passage reads: The tall fir tree.

Student reads: The tall tree.

Inserting a word

Passage reads: A dark and stormy night.

Student reads: A dark and stormy winter night.

Needs prompting (if the student has to be told a word by the person administering the assessment)

Passage reads: I wish that people...

Student reads: I wish that... (pauses) that... (teacher prompts "people")...

4. As the student reads, mark each word on the form by using the symbols above. Place a check mark above the words read correctly.

5. If the student reads a word incorrectly or substitutes a word, record what is said above the actual word.

6. As the student reads, pay attention to his or her behavior. Is the student using context clues (from the sentence or pictures), structure (language sounds correct) and visual cues (using beginning sounds, familiar word chunks, etc.) to read words and gather meaning?

7. Intervene as little as possible when a student is reading.

8. If the student is stuck on a word, wait 5-10 seconds before you tell him or her the word.

9. After the reading, ask the student to tell you about what he or she has just read. Make notes on the following:

Can the student tell you what happened in the story in his or her own words?

Does the student include the different parts of a story (the characters, setting, events, problem and resolution)?

Can the student identify the main idea and supporting details?

Does the student use some of the vocabulary found in the text?

Is the student's retelling minimal, adequate or very complete?

What do I do with the information obtained from this assessment?

The information gathered while completing an oral reading accuracy assessment can be used to determine error, accuracy, and self-correction rates. To calculate a student's reading accuracy rate, divide the total words read correctly by the total words read. For example, if a student read a passage containing 100 words and made 5 errors:

95 (total words read correctly) / 100 (total words read) = 95% word accuracy

Use the accuracy rate along with the information gained in the student's story retelling to determine whether the text the student read was too easy, just right, or too difficult for the reader. Below is a general breakdown to use to help guide you when choosing texts for students:

Oral reading accuracy

What this says about the text

95-100%

Too easy; the text does not present a challenge

90-94%

Just right; the text is challenging but manageable

89% and below

Too difficult; the text is frustrating for the reader

If a student can read a book with 100% word accuracy but can only give a minimal retelling of the story, do not choose a higher leveled book. We read to get meaning; if a child is not getting meaning from a text they must be instructed on comprehension strategies. Word accuracy without comprehension is not acceptable.

What should I be looking for when I give an oral reading accuracy assessment?

Giving an oral reading accuracy assessment and asking a child to retell reveals many things about a child's reading ability. There are other things to be on the look out for and can be taught in the moments following this assessment:

Has the student mastered directionality, letter-sound correspondence, return sweep, etc?

Did the student make "good errors" when phonetically reading a word (i.e., reading island as "is land" instead of "eye land")?

Was there an attempt to self-correct errors?

Did the student attempt to decode an unknown word?

Was the student's reading slow and labored, or fluent?

Did the student use expression while reading?

Reading fluency

What it measures

How many words a child reads correctly in one minute.

Examples of assessment questions

Choose an appropriate passage for the student to read aloud. As the student reads, complete a record for one minute.

Age or grade typically mastered

Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed?

Fluency assessments should be completed throughout the year to help guide instruction.

Word recognition

What it measures

Sight word vocabulary at a given grade level.

Examples of assessment questions

Ask a child to read from a list of words.

Age or grade typically mastered

Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed?

Word recognition should be assessed three times during the year for students in kindergarten through second grade to help guide instruction.

Phonic elements

What it measures

Phonic elements at a given grade level.

Examples of assessment questions

What sound do the letters 's' 'h' make? (Correct response: /sh/)

How can I turn cap into cape? (Correct response: Add an 'e' to the end of the word.

Age or grade typically mastered

Students should be expected to master age-appropriate material.

When should it be assessed?

Phonic elements should be assessed several times throughout the year in grades one through three to help guide instruction.

Portfolios

About this assessment

Portfolios can be used to document students' achievement and progress. Portfolios give an accurate picture of an individual's strengths and weaknesses. Instruction on how to pick a piece of work to place in a portfolio (does it show a concept that was struggled with then understood, does it demonstrate an understanding of a concept? Is it something you are proud of?) is beneficial for students. This type of instruction engages the student to reflect on his or her own work. Portfolios encourage students to take an active role in learning information they feel they have not yet mastered.

Portfolios can help guide instruction. Through looking at a piece of child's work, a teacher can quickly see what lessons are further needed. For example, by looking at a student's writing a teacher may determine lessons in using commas correctly need to be revisited.

Types of portfolios

Collection
The collection may consist of a folder that holds samples of a student's work. The collection should include representative examples of the various types of student work, such as tests, writing samples, and homework assignments.

Display portfolio
A container or box containing a selection of work documenting a student's progress may hold work in this type of portfolio. This type of portfolio may be used to share with parents at conferences. Pieces of work are carefully selected by both teachers and students to show and share with parents/guardians during conferences.

Teacher/student assessment portfolio
A collection of documentation including copies of work in the student's display portfolio, tests, anecdotal notes, conference summaries, contacts made with parents, etc. This portfolio is used by the teacher to aid in discussions with administrators, other teachers, parents, etc about a particular child.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Types of Informal Classroom-Based Assessment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Most of the assessments here should be given one-on-one. It is important that you have a non-distracting, comfortable testing environment for students, and that the rest of the class is engaged in a task or assignment and working quietly. It's even better if you can arrange for another teacher to be present while you are performing assessments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kindergarten phonics activities for reading: memory game

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Blending Board App is a powerful educational tool for teachers and parents working with dyslexic learners or anyone else still learning the foundations of blending sounds (phonics) and the multisyllabic rules of English. In this App users will find an easy-to-use resource that allows them to create a deck of phonemes that can be substituted and manipulated to create various kinds of blending activities. The decks enable users to practice decoding simple words, and multisyllabic words, too.

Blending Board also offers a unique opportunity for creative flexibility by granting users design options when creating personalized decks that are visually appealing. The end product is a professional-looking, personalized deck of educational materials that users can integrate into instruction with one or many, and which can be used time and again.

An easy-to-use QR code system allows the personalized decks to be shared with anyone who has the app, so that the teacher's time can be focused on teaching, not navigating complicated technology.

* NEW: Shuffle Customization - when shuffling a deck you can now choose which columns are shuffled and which are alphabetical, for greater control over your lessons and practices
* Spring and Summer seasonal backgrounds added, will automatically rotate throughout the year
* Added "ei" to intermediate and advanced vowel team sets

Edit Current Decks

This app is almost perfect for my OG instruction, but I wish I could edit my current decks to add newly learned concepts. The developed sounds already provided are fantastic. As some reviewed, there are certain consonants and digraphs that should only be in the first or third column, but unchecking unwanted cards is great. I really appreciate that any card can be created. I have toyed with the idea of creating rote/red word cards because of this feature. Excellent app for managing multiple card decks!

Needs one more key feature

This is so great, but I still can't use it with my students because of one key feature that's missing. Maybe I'm missing it, but I dont see the ability to multi-select several groupings within each column. For example, in column 1, I want all consonants AND blends. Right now, it's either/or option only. I can't use the + 'blank' option b/c it is limited to only one add'l custom tile. An alternative is to have an option in each column, that includes ALL possibilities, where you can just de-select what the student hasn't learned yet. If you add either of these options so the decks are a true reflection of paper OG cards, I would use it in professional tutoring. Right now, I would need to build multiple deck variations for one child. Keep up the great work!

Latest Version

I've recently found this useful app and am exploring its features. After watching the video (on the website, not through the app), my practice with features has led me to mostly happy results. The functionality in regard to ease and flexibility of creating personalized decks with beginning, middle, and ending sounds is great! I am not finding success with changing the theme color or background (pumpkins, eggs, etc.). When I click the paintbrush, the color options and screen settings appear, but I can only get the screen settings g (dark, light, auto) to change. I deleted and re-installed the app, but that didn't change anything for me. Thank you in advance for your support.

The developer, Chain Reaction Games LLC, indicated that the app's privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer's privacy policy.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
‎The Blending Board App is a powerful educational tool for teachers and parents working with dyslexic learners or anyone else still learning the foundations of blending sounds (phonics) and the multisyllabic rules of English. In this App users will find an easy-to-use resource that allows them to cr...

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Words Their Way: First-Grade - Day 1 of a Sort

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Phonics is the back bone of almost all reading instruction. As a teacher of young primary students, we spend countless hours of the school year teaching phonics skills. We've come up with some fun phonics activities and resources you can add to your large phonics instruction toolbox.

Letter Identification

Make a Match - Using a die cut machine, create 26 pairs of objects and write the uppercase and lowercase of each letter of the alphabet. Students can play in pairs or groups to "make matches".

Pancake Flip - Cut out 5-10 brown circles and write the letters that you are currently working on in class (may want to do 3-4 circles for each letter). Using a spatula, students "flip" over the circles and say the letter name.

Letter Game Board - Print out a couple of free game board templates. Fill in the blank spaces with letters that you are working on. Find a die and a couple of cubes or other math manipulative items and students can play a letter identification game.

Play Dough Mats - Give your tactile students a chance to roll out play dough and model the letters of the alphabet. We have a great center with the mats already created, and they also have a chance to practice writing the letters. Just print, laminate and go!

Adding Consonant/Vowel Sounds

Picture Sorting Mats - using picture cards that you have on hand, create sorting mats for the letter sounds you are studying. Students will sort pictures that begin (or end) with that particular letter sound. We have a set of Picture Sorting Mats for you!

Roll a Word - Have students sit in a circle. Using the letter sounds you are currently working on, flip over a letter card. You start with the ball and roll it to a student who has to say a word that begins with that sound. They then roll the ball to a new student who says another word and so on. When they can no longer come up with words, move on to a new letter sound. This is a great activity to do outside if weather permits!

Magazine/Newspaper Ad Scavenger Hunt - Students will go through old magazines and newspapers, searching for pictures that begin with a given letter sound.

Letter/Sound Crowns - We have all the letters on these lovely crowns! Students can identify the letter by circling it, practice writing it, and identify pictures that begin with that sound. They also get to wear their hard work home on their head with pride!

CVC Words

Building Word Mats - Begin with a variety of CVC picture cards. Students flip over a picture card and using foam letters or magnetic letters, they build the CVC word. Lastly, they have to record the word either on a recording sheet, or on a whiteboard.

Spoon Match Word Families - Using plastic spoons and note cards, write a variety of beginning consonant sounds on the back of the plastic spoons and word families on the note cards. Students grab a word family, lay it down and then continue grabbing spoons to create words. They are only to record the "real" words on their paper. 😉

Mixed Up CVC Packages - Write a variety of CVC words on sentence strips. (I use colored strips, so that students can keep the pieces in the correct containers.) Cut the letters in each word apart and put each word in a separate container. (plastic snack bags, baby food containers, envelopes, eggs, or any other small container you may have on hand) Students will open one container at a time and put the word together, then record it on their accountability page.

CVC Puzzles - Here is a quick resource that we have already created where students can match the puzzle pieces to build CVC words using pictures. It is ready to go... just copy, laminate and cut apart. (I recommend copying each word family on a different color, so students are easily able to sort them apart.)

Blends (Beginning/Ending)

Beginning Blends Crowns - Just like the letter/sound crowns from above, we also have a set of crowns specific to beginning blends. Students are able to practice writing the blend and identifying pictures that begin with that particular blend.

Ending Blend Detectives - Students can "Write the Room" by using a recording sheet and ending blend cards that you place around the classroom. Write the ending blends on separate note cards (-mp, -st, -ft, -sk, -nd, -nk). I would recommend making at least two cards of each blend, so that students are more spread out. Give them a chart with the blends along the top. When they find a "blend card", they record at least one word with that blend, then move on to look for another card.

Roll a Beginning Blend - Using cubes (I like to use dry erase cubes), write a beginning blend on each cube face. As students roll and come up with a blend, they will need to write down a word with that blend.

Ending Blend Write and Wipe Cards - This is a quick to use resource that we have already created. Students identify and circle the correct ending blend using the picture clue. Then they practice writing the word on the line below. Copy, laminate, and cut all for only $2.00!!!

Beginning Blend Puzzles - With this fun and easy center, students connect pictures that begin with a certain beginning blend to the blend itself. Once the puzzle is complete, the students practice tracing that particular blend. You can always take this center a step further and have your students try to write the words that correspond to the pictures in each puzzle.

Sight Words

So I know that many sight words don't follow any Phonics rules (which is so hard for our emergent readers to understand). Nevertheless, they are an integral part of reading instruction, so am adding a few learning activities for sight words also. 😉

HFW Memory - Make some die cut shapes, or use calendar cut-outs and write pairs of sight words on them. (I recommend choosing about 10 words that your class is currently working on.) The students lay the shapes word side down and playing with a partner, they try to make matches with the sight words. In order to keep the pair of words, they have to be READ CORRECTLY.

Build, Write, Read - Create a Power Point that has at least 10 sight words. Put one sight word on each slide. Students will have magnetic, foam, or plastic letters to "build" the sight word they see. Then, they "write" the word either on paper or a whiteboard. Lastly, they "read" the word aloud. This can be a center or whole group activity.

Partner Poster Words - On a large piece of chart paper, write a variety of sight words. Then, leave a pointer stick by the chart paper for students to practice playing "teacher" with a partner. While working with a partner, one student will point to the words while the other reads them. They would then switch jobs and play again.

Sight Word Paint/Practice - These are great sheets for your students to use as added practice! Students get to practice reading, tracing, and writing each of the first 300 sight words on the Fry's list. There is also a fun spot where students can use Q-tips and paint to "dot" each word! It's a fun and engaging resource!

Fluency

Finally, you can tie all of these components together when practicing fluency. Here are a few items you can use to practice.

Leveled Readers - Have your students practice their differentiated readers as often as possible. The more opportunities they have to read the same text, the more fluent they will become. When they aren't having to work on decoding words, they can add voices to text and bring the story to life.

Fluency Passages - We offer a wide variety of fluency passages based on different phonics skills. Students have recording boxes on the bottom of each page to record how many words they read in one minute and how many, if any, errors they make. These are great to either use in class so students can track their progress, or send home for weekly fluency homework.

Comprehension Sticks - On large popsicle sticks, write a variety of generic comprehension questions. (Who are the main characters? What is the problem in the story? How would you change the ending of the story?) During centers, place the cup of sticks, and when students are done reading a story, they can pull a stick or two and write out their responses to the questions.

-Written by Janessa Fletcher
Your NO PREP Interactive Phonics Booklets have arrived and here's the deal...

You will have immediate access to: digraphs, double consonants, l blends, long vowels, r-controlled vowels, short vowels, word families, r blends, s blends, diphthongs, silent letters, hard/soft c and g, vowel teams, and trigraphs!

Everything you need fits on ONE PAGE! We have a clearly labeled page for each student to put his/her name.

Each of our phonics booklets starts off with something fun and engaging...Rainbow Write! On the back of the foldable, you can see a...sentence writing and parent connection activity!

No space is wasted! We wanted this to be intentional and fun!

Inside the Booklet, you will find:

A Phonics Based Passage

Smileys to Color Each Time a Passage is Read

2 Multiple Choice Questions

2 Fill in the Blank Questions

1 Short Answer Question

Find, Write, and Color Practice

This is by far our greatest Phonics-Based Product we've made! Yet, no prep for you! WIN-WIN!

*soooooo.... What are you still doing here?*

At Education to the Core, we provide done-for-you curriculum that is simple, fun, and effective! We want you to be the very best teacher you can be, while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. In order to be an effective educator, you have to take care of you first!

We strive to make a healthy work-life balance a reality for each and every day. If you enjoyed this blog post, be sure to join our email list to get exclusive FREEBIES, exclusive content, updates, deals!

Comments

comments

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Phonics is the back bone of almost all reading instruction. As a teacher of young primary students, we spend countless hours of the school year teaching phonics skills. We've come up with some fun phonics activities and resources you can add to your large phonics instruction toolbox.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
16 Hands-On Phonics Games for the Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This blog outlines some fantastic phonics resources and activity ideas that can be used in the classroom environment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An Introduction to Phonics and learning to read

Throughout this article, I aim to provide you with a clear understanding of teaching phonics effectively in the classroom and offer a variety of strategies and proven ideas to teach phonics.

WHAT IS PHONICS? A DEFINITION FOR TEACHERS AND PARENTS.

Phonics can be defined as a body of knowledge and skills regarding how the alphabet works.

In the context of this article, phonics refers to the method of teaching a student to read by developing their phonemic awareness and an understanding of the links between these sounds and how we use the letters of the alphabet to represent them.

This understanding is essential not only to read well but to bridge the gap between reading and writing.

With a good foundation of phonics knowledge, students can quickly become confident readers and independent solid writers.

PHONEMIC AWARENESS IMPROVES READING FLUENCY

When students develop phonemic awareness, it dramatically enhances their reading fluency which is a reading "superpower", allowing students to read with speed, accuracy and expression. Reading fluency dramatically enhances students' ability to read with intonation and energy that translates into expressive writing skills.

A COMPLETE DIGITAL READING UNIT FOR STUDENTS

How To Teach Reading Using Phonics

The use of phonics, or synthetic phonics as this method is technically known, is an effective and efficient means of teaching young students how to read. For this reason, phonics is the primary methodology for teaching reading in the school systems of many English-speaking countries.

In English, there are around 44 sounds or phonemes. Given that there are only 26 letters used in the language and that many sounds have more than one possible spelling, it is helpful that students learn the relationships between the letters and sounds in a straightforward and explicit manner.

To achieve this, phonics centers on the relationship between sounds and how they can be spelled.

It focuses on the letter and sound correspondences to enable students to break written words down into their component sounds before later recombining them to read the whole word. This process is known as segmenting and blending.

SEGMENTING AND BLENDING

Rather than allowing students to struggle to recognize complete words, as in the whole word method, or to look for contextual clues to figure out what is being said in a text, phonics teaches students to look at the letters of a word and segment it into its component sounds, before blending these sounds back together to read the entire word.

For example, when faced with the word cat, a student might run their finger under the first letter and make the initial /k/ sound, then /a/, and, finally, /t/.

Once they have successfully segmented these individual sounds, they then blend them together to say the word /kat/.

With practice, the speed with which students can look at a word, segment the sounds, and then blend these sounds together to read the word rapidly increases. This makes learning to read through the phonics method the most efficient way for most children to learn not just to read but to write too.

DECODING AND ENCODING: THE BRIDGE BETWEEN READING AND WRITING

Initially, phonics reaps rich rewards for students in terms of the passive skill of reading. This is also known as decoding.

Later, the student's knowledge of phonics can help them develop the active skill of writing or encoding.

For this reason, teachers will often weave emergent writing skills, such as letter formation, into their phonics lessons to take advantage of the opportunity to bridge this gap between reading and writing skills.

WHAT ABOUT SIGHT WORDS?

As effective as synthetic phonics are in teaching students to read, they won't be enough on their own to unravel all the opaque mysteries of English orthography.

English is something of a mongrel language. Over the centuries, it has been influenced by the German, Latin, French, Greek, and Celtic languages, among others.

This fact has led to many inconsistencies in spelling surviving in the modern language. Sometimes phonics won't be enough to decode these words. That's why students need to learn to read some words by sight alone.

Sight words, or high-frequency words as they are also known, are those extremely common words used time and again in most texts. Many of them are phonetically irregular and follow no conventional spelling rules. For children's reading books, sight words can account for up to 75% of the words in the text.

Therefore, it's best to combine the study of phonics with the learning of these sight words for maximum effectiveness. This is something to consider when engaged in your long-term planning.

The most effective strategy for learning these sight words is for discussion another day; for the remainder of this article, we will focus exclusively on the teaching of phonics.

THE STAGES OF PHONICS TEACHING

Before beginning to teach phonics, it is helpful to have a broad overview of the various stages that comprise a comprehensive synthetic phonics program. The following outline can serve as a practical general guide.

1. THE PRE-PHONICS STAGE

Before beginning to learn phonics in earnest (e.g. sound/letter correspondences), certain prerequisite skills need to be developed, including:

LISTENING SKILLS:

Children must be able to listen carefully to the sounds of speech. They must learn to filter speech sounds from other unrelated environmental sounds. This is usually best achieved by playing various listening games. When children have developed good aural comprehension, the game Simon Says is a fun way to further develop listening skills.

SOUND REPRODUCTION SKILLS:

Once the children have learned to discriminate between various sounds, they should learn to reproduce these themselves. This is usually achieved by modelling the sounds carefully for the children and encouraging them to copy these with particular attention paid to the shape of the mouth when making each sound. The popular fun game Telephone is excellent for this.

SEQUENCING SKILLS:

It is essential for children learning to read to be able to sequence not only the events of a story but the individual sounds of the words they hear. They must be able to recognize which sound comes before or after another. They should also be familiar with sequencing language such as first, second, before, after, then etc.

We have a complete guide to sequencing for teachers and students here.

2. SOUNDS AND ACTIONS

With our younger kids, it can be challenging to give them an anchor to 'hold on to the sounds of language.

To help build such an anchor to these sounds, which will later help link sounds to written letters, actions are often connected to each sound to aid in memorizing them. This is especially useful in the early stages as it works well for the most basic of sounds.

For example, when making the /m/ sound, children could be taught to rub their tummies as if they have eaten something delicious while saying " mmmmm ".

Or, they could open their mouths wide as if they were eating an apple while saying the /a/ sound.

It is easy to devise customized actions to go along with the various sounds of English and then teach these to your class. Ensure you consistently use the same actions every time for a specific sound to avoid confusion.

Later, when students come to segment words into their individual sounds, they can use these actions to help recall them.

3. THE LETTER AND SOUNDS CORRESPONDENCES

Explicitly teaching the letter and sound correspondences lie at the heart of good phonics teaching.

It is essential to understand a little of the theory of synthetic phonics to be effective here. Here are a few important points to consider:

● Letter Names vs. Letter Sounds

It is crucial that children understand the difference between the names of the letters of the English alphabet and the sounds, as these are two very different things. For example, the letter c is called / see/ but the letter itself usually denotes either a /k/ or /s/ sound. It may seem obvious, but many teachers not trained in the teaching of phonics overlook this distinction and unwittingly make learning to read much more difficult for their students as a result.

● Letters Don't Make The Sounds

As the limited letters used in English are needed to represent many different sounds, it's important to point out to students that letters don't make the sounds; they are simply an option for showing the sound. Often there will be more than one way to show the same sound; for example, the sound /s/ can be encoded in several different ways, including as s, c, and ps. When you are asking your students to write something, you can make the sound and ask them what letter they could use to show this sound. This type of phrasing reinforces the correct relationship between the letters and sounds.

● Avoid The Lazy Vowels

It is also important to remember that when teaching the letters and sounds to avoid making the lazy vowel or schwa sound at the end of a sound. For example, when pronouncing the /k/ sound, make it crisp and short, rather than adding in an extra -uh sound at the end. This will make it much easier for the students to blend sounds together later.

HOW TO PLAN A PHONICS LESSON FOR YOUR CLASS

The detail and delivery of your phonics lessons will depend greatly on the specific situation of your students. However, some general points will be helpful to consider when planning a phonics lesson for your class.

● Keep Phonics Lessons Short and Sweet

To avoid getting bogged down and boring your kids, keep phonics lessons short. In and around 10 to 15 minutes is ideal and no more than 20 minutes. Remember, we want our kids to be lifelong readers, and that means they need to enjoy it!

● Be Consistent

There is a lot of ground to cover here, and consistency is key. If your students are learning to read, they'll need to practice and study their phonics every day - preferably at the same time each day too.

● Keep on Moving

While a lot of reinforcement will be required over the course of the year, research has shown that keeping a brisk pace through a phonics program achieves the best results. Don't get bogged down waiting for everyone to get everything before moving on. You will be revisiting the material.

● Keep Things Fun!

Learning to read should be a positive experience, particularly as learning to read means acquiring one of the most empowering skills a child will ever have. To keep things fun, be sure to incorporate lots of enjoyable activities and games into your phonics lessons.

TEACHING ACTIVITIES FOR ANY TEXT - GREAT FOR GUIDED READING

Phonics Games and Activities
I Spy
This perennial classic is a fun way to get some phonics practice in. You can adapt it to say, "I spy with my little eye something beginning with..." and say a sound rather than a letter. If you wish to work on letter recognition rather than sound, simply hold up the letter itself quietly.
Sorting Activities
Sorting activities are a great way for students to practice their phonics knowledge and can take on an almost infinite number of variations. For example, younger kids may enjoy sorting objects into two hula hoops on the floor, which are labelled with their initial consonant sounds, while older kids might work on consonant blends.
Bingo
Bingo is another very versatile game that can be used to practice sound and letter recognition. Simply decide what you want to work on and place those into suitably sized grids (9×9 works well). These could be initial consonants, vowel digraphs, or pictures of nouns. If you set up some blank grids on laminated sheets, you can save yourself a lot of prep time too. Simply write a broad selection of sounds you are working on onto the whiteboard. Students can select 9 of them to fill in their laminated grid. Now each student will have their own unique bingo card!
Partner Reading
Partner reading is a great way to practice listening skills, as well as reading. Organize students into pairs and provide them each with a copy of the same text. One partner reads the text while the other follows closely with their own copy. The listening partner helps the reader decode difficult words when they have trouble. After a time, partners switch roles. This usually works best when partners are of a similar ability. You can further differentiate here by choosing different texts to suit the abilities of each pair.
Shared Writing
Shared writing is an effective means of introducing independent writing activities. For beginning students, it may take the form of simply spelling a basic CVC word together. For example, to work on the spelling of the word cat, you could draw three cradles on the whiteboard and say each sound; in turn, challenge the students to come up and write the corresponding letter in the cradle until they have written the word - -.

As we can see, the teaching of phonics is a highly efficient and effective means of teaching our children to read and, ultimately, write. It works on training students to be able to hear the various sounds of English, identify these sounds, and link these sounds to the symbols we call letters.

While there are other methods of learning to read employed with emergent readers in the classroom, in two decades of teaching, I've never seen another methodology come anywhere close to phonics for overall effectiveness.

And, best of all, phonics can be a lot of fun to learn and teach too!

OTHER GREAT ARTICLES RELATED TO PHONICS

The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh. A former principal of an international school and English university lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane's latest Book, The Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing, can be found here. Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Phonics: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A guide to teaching phonics to students including phonemic awareness, reading fluency, phonics sounds for reading and, phonics games and activities. Teach kids to read through a logical research based method.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Kindergarten phonics activities for reading: CVC words

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn what you are measuring with each literacy skill assessment, the age or grade when a skill should be mastered, and when during the school year you should administer the assessments. You’ll also find sample assessment questions.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
YOUR CHILD WILL LEARN

Basic foundations of language

To read, write and spell phonetically

Identify consonants and vowels

Phonograms - writing and pronunciation

Letter sounds, pronunciation and composition

How to compose, identify and spell phonetic words

To write, create and read stories

Fine motor skills

PRACTICE WRITING AND READING
Utilizing fun and unique illustrations, your child will practice writing and reading, in a series of self-directed and engaging activities. Start with phonetics and then proceed to phonograms!

CHOOSE AN ARTIST
We offer over 100 unique, phonetic illustrations, from 3 different internationally acclaimed artists: Zeptonn, Mike Lowery and Marloes de Vries. Alpha Writer comes equipped with one batch, and you can upgrade for the other two!

CREATE YOUR OWN STORY
Let loose in this creative writer's sandbox. Learning how to write, create and ultimately read, your child has the opportunity to construct stories, through illustrations, letters and sounds.

ALPHA SPY
We're very pleased to introduce and feature a special new section. It's called Alpha Spy, riffing on the famous "I-Spy with My Little Eye" adventure. Hope you enjoy!

THE TESTED AND PROVEN PHILOSOPHY BEHIND ALPHA WRITER
In Montessori, writing comes before reading. This is because writing is the expression of your own thoughts, whereas in reading, you must identify the letters placed in formation to comprise a word of someone elses choosing. For children just learning their letter sounds, this can be an extremely difficult and frustrating task. We're hoping to help alleviate that with Alpha Writer. The moveable alphabet was created for children who have the ability and interest to start writing and reading, but don't quite have the fine motor skills needed to hold a pencil and draw the letters. It's also helpful for children who would like some added practice, having the opportunity to express themselves with no external pressures. At this stage of development, Montessori believes that spelling is not essential. Thus, we place an emphasis on the phonetic sounds used to build a word.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Alpha Writer, by Montessorium Review | Educational App Store

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
YOUR CHILD WILL LEARN Basic foundations of language To read, write and spell phonetically Identify consonants and vowels Phonograms - writing and pronunciation Letter sounds, pronunciation and composition How to compose, identify and spell phonetic words To write, create and read stories Fine motor skills PRACTICE WRITING AND READING Utilizing fun and unique illustrations, your child will practice writing and reading, in a series of self-directed and engaging activities.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ABCmouse.com helps kids learn to read through phonics, and teaches lessons in math, social studies, art, music, and much more! For kids ages 2 to 8.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Alphabet Matching | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Very young learners are developing their understanding of the alphabetic principle — the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Teachers can help students develop this understanding through lots of fun activities that help stu…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
There are several ways to match books to readers - by reader interest, by reading level, and by the phonics feature(s) a particular child is learning. Careful pairing of reading with phonics study gives children a chance to apply what they are learning about letters and sounds to the reading of words and stories. Because the goal of phonics instruction is to help children use the alphabetic system to read and spell words, it's important to provide students with this practice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Matching Books to Phonics Features | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
There are several ways to match books to readers - by reader interest, by reading level, and by the phonics feature(s) a particular child is learning. Careful pairing of reading with phonics study gives children a chance to apply what they are learning about letters and sounds to the reading of words and stories.