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What are the Different Types of Phonics Instruction?

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We Love This Unlock-and-Learn Game for Practicing Phonics, Multiplication, Geography & More

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I have a huge stash of these lids even though we use very few wipes these days. I can not bring myself to throw them out so instead I made a phonics game for my daughter. It's so simple but really helps reinforce the work she is doing with her initial letter sounds. It took five minutes to make and I have some tips to make it re-usable too. I had a brain wave after I finished it but luckily I can still share it with you. For more phonics ideas check out more of our letter sound activities here.

Gather your materials. You will need some cardboard, stapler, tape, paper, *page protector, dry erase markers, stickers and some flip top lids.

Start by making your base sturdy so that when you open the lids the base ( in our case cardboard and paper ) doesn't rip. I just stapled the paper and cardboard together but if you want to make this reusable you can pop the cardboard and paper in a page protector sleeve and then staple them all together.

Add the flip top lids.

Add the stickers. I didn't even bother trying to cover the brand name. Kids won't care and I have played this with 3 different kids at different times and no one mentioned it once. I know we as adults love pretty things but if time is short do not worry, the kids don't care and will still learn the same things.

Write the letter that makes the initial sound under the lid. If you are using dry erase you can easily wipe and change it to ending sound or full spelling for older kids. I really wish I made mine like that to begin with. I will be modifying ours shortly.

Play!

My daughter loved this and only got one wrong. She thought the rooster was a chicken. I loved that she can do it without me directing it 100%. I found her later playing school with the board and her dollies. I like that you could switch out the theme with different stickers depending on what your child is into or what your class is learning about.

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Flip Top Phonics Game For Kids - No Time For Flash Cards

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I have a huge stash of these lids even though we use very few wipes these days. I can not bring myself to throw them out so instead I made a phonics game for my daughter. It's so simple but really helps reinforce the work she is doing with her initial letter sounds.

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Spelling Hack: Teach Phonics Using Pool Noodles - We Are Teachers

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Teach phonics with this dollar store teacher hack that uses pool noodles to create a fun spelling manipulative your students will love.

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Toss and Blend: A Carnival Game | Activity | Education.com

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This version of the carnival game where you try to toss chips into a cup, to win a fabulous prize, gives kids a boost in early writing and reading.

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Kindergarten readiness skills include letter recognition, phonemic awareness, and phonics skills. If your child can already recognize letters and can hear and say letter sounds then you may be wondering what types of phonics activities you should be doing with him. The truth is that you don't really need to do anything other than reading together every day, but if your child is ready to start reading playing phonics games can be both fun and motivating!

One of our favorite ways to play with phonics is the Walk the Word game! Kids get to use their whole body to practice identifying and blending sounds together. Adding the gross motor aspect to it helps kids to internalize the process of sounding out a word.

This game is simple to set up and easy to play! All you need is sidewalk chalk and a place to draw. Write easily decodable (sound-out-able), very large words on the concrete. Ask the child to start at the side you start reading at. Then have them step on each letter and say the sound. Prompt them or give them the sounds if needed (this is a game not a test) and have fun walking and reading the words!

This phonics game is fun and helps kids make the transition from saying the letters sounds to putting the letters together to form words. Making learning fun is the best way to help your child get ready for kindergarten!
Thank you to My Cute Graphics for the use of this superhero kids graphic.
This post is part of our Get Ready for K Through PLAY! series where a group of bloggers share weekly ideas that you can do to help get your child ready for kindergarten. Check out the Kindergarten book and literacy readiness activities shared by the other hosts:

20 Alphabet and Phonics Activities for Kids from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas

Water Balloon Phonics from Mess for Less

Active Alphabet Activities from Toddler Approved

Learning Letters and Their Sounds from Mama Smiles

Chalk Letters from Rainy Day Mum
Next week we'll all be back sharing activities to develop skills needed for Kindergarten!
And catch up on my other Get Ready for K Through PLAY! posts: How to Read Aloud to Your Child, Math Activities for Kindergarten: Snack Time Practice, Teacher Says! Listening Game, Language Experie nce Story and 3 Independents Skills {You May Not Realize} Your Child Needs for Kindergarten.

In the meantime be sure to follow our Get Ready for K Through PLAY! Pinterest Board for a huge collection of Kindergarten readiness activities!

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Kindergarten readiness skills include letter recognition, phonemic awareness, and phonics skills. If your child can already recognize letters and can hear and say letter sounds then you may be wondering what types of phonics activities you should be doing with him.

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Here is a fun game for beginning readers that involves a great attention-catching element... slapping with a fly swatter!

Owen (almost 5) has been very interested in learning to read lately, mainly to keep up with his brothers. He's not quite developmentally ready yet, so we'll be taking it very slow. He knows most of the sounds for the consonants, and we are starting to work on vowel sounds and short three letter words. When he tries to read a word like "cat," he looks at the word and says, "c-c-c-c-c (pause) a-a-a-a-a (pause) t-t-t-t-t-t" while staring at the ceiling. Not very helpful for figuring out the word!

I was trying to think of a way to get Owen (a very tactile/kinesthetic learner) to read words by saying each letter sound only once. I asked him to bring me the foam bathtub letters and the fly swatter, and he was very curious about what we were going to do!

I made a three letter word for him, and asked him to slap each letter with the fly swatter and to say each letter sound ONE time. It worked! When he said each sound once, it was much easier for him to figure out the word! The letters bouncing in the air when he slapped them was definitely an added bonus.

I could tell Owen liked the game because he told Dad about it when he came in from work - that's the true test of how much they liked something!
More Ideas for Beginning Readers:

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Letter Sound Slap: A Phonics Game for Beginning Readers - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Here is a fun game for beginning readers that involves a great attention-catching element... slapping with a fly swatter! Owen (almost 5) has been very interested in learning to read lately, mainly to keep up with his brothers. He's not quite developmentally ready yet, so we'll be taking it very slow.

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These bright, hands-on digraph wheels make a wonderful literacy center focused on learning common digraphs such as CH- and SH-.

For more fun with words, check out our best-selling Editable Sight Word Games for endless fun!

Getting Ready

To prep for the activity, I began by printing the digraph wheels on cardstock to give them extra durability. Then, I cut around the outside border of each circle.

I wanted the kids to be able to self check later, so I clipped the correct answers with clothespins, turned each card to the back and colored a small dot to mark the correct clipping spots.

I ran them through my laminator for added strength and filled up a small basket with clothespins.

That's it! We were ready to play.

Digraph Wheels Play

I began by laying out the digraph wheels next to the basket of pegs.

I grabbed the QU- wheel and asked the kids to place a peg on all the pictures that had a "qu" sound. Students quickly spotted the queen picture and placed a peg on it.

I assisted the kids by saying the less familiar words such as "quill" and "quail." They listened carefully to each word and placed a peg on the other pictures that started with a "qu" sound: quilt, quarter and quiet.

Children continued playing with the other digraph wheels until they were finished. Then, they turned over the cards to check their answers.

For those early finishers, I challenged the kids to think of other words that contained each digraph. It was amazing what a long list we made!

The kids in my class loved solving the digraph wheels and the activity became a fast favorite at our literacy center!

Grab Your Set

Click the blue button below to download your free set of the digraph wheels and then grab your Editable Sight Word Games, too!

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These bright, hands-on digraph wheels make a wonderful literacy center focused on learning common digraphs such as CH- and SH-.

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Build words with a chart of beginning sounds

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Build words with a chart of beginning sounds

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Reading and spelling words by word family is a common practice that can help some readers understand how words are connected by patterns. So, to help kids practice reading or spelling the most common word family rimes, I made a quick reference word family rimes chart.

Note: The free printable chart can be found at the END of this post. Just look for the oval, teal download button.

*This post contains affiliate links.

First things first. What is a RIME? A "rime" is the part of the word that comes after the beginning sound (or onset). For example, in the words "cat" and "flat", -AT is the rime. And rimes do make words rhyme, so those two terms do get mixed up.

Word Family Rimes Chart

On this chart, I've included 55 of the most common rimes in the English language, including the 37 most common rimes I mention in my word family article. Just like my beginning sounds chart, the rime is listed, plus an image and word that goes with the rime. Note: The download has both color and blackline charts.

Kids can use letter tiles {or if you have Scrabble or Bananagrams, those work, too.} to add beginning sounds to the rimes to make new words. You can add single consonant sounds or blends and digraphs, too. The Measured Mom also has some printable letter tiles.

Combine my beginning sounds chart with my word family rimes chart, and kids have the "power" to create over 500 words! Wow!

You Might Also Like
Beginning Sound Chart Dr. Seuss Printable Word Family Hats Word Family Blackout
~Becky

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Reading and spelling words by word family is a common practice that can help some readers understand how words are connected by patterns. So, to help kids practice reading or spelling the most common word family rimes, I made a quick reference word family rimes chart.

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Looking for beginning sounds worksheets? Try these fun coloring pages!
(This post contains affiliate links.)
A year and a half ago, I created beginning sounds coloring pages for my Three, who was almost four years old. Since he loved to color and had a pretty good handle on beginning sounds, I thought he'd enjoy a set of alphabet coloring pages.

Now that little boy is my five-year-old. He's far past beginning sounds and is reading books like this one as a kindergartner.

But he has a little brother. 🙂

So I updated the pages with funny face letters and better clip art. Plus, I added an uppercase set. We love them, and I hope you will too!

Our current Three (he'll be four in a few months) doesn't have the early reading skills his older siblings had at his age, but he does recognize all his letters and is pretty good at naming their sounds. He is happy to do one or two of these pages at a time.

When we do these coloring pages, he looks at the letter and says its sound. Then he names each picture. "Snake. /s/, /s/, snake. No, that doesn't say uh. Underwear. /u/, /u/, underwear. Yes!"

Let me give my standard disclaimer and say that I don't think you should make worksheets the main part of your instruction with young kids. I suggest using these pages after your child has mastered beginning sounds, or do them alongside your child as you talk about the beginning sounds together.

This is what my original set looked like. When my older son did these as a young preschooler, he wanted to color all the pictures. I didn't expect him to do the pages any certain way as he was so young. But when he was close to four, I told him he needed to first color the pictures that began with a certain sound. Then he could color the rest of the pictures if he wanted.

So do you like the simple old version or the goofy face letters? You're still welcome to download the old version in lowercase. The new version is available in both upper and lowercase.

Enjoy!

P.S. Would you like to learn more about teaching the alphabet?

Have you seen these popular freebies? We use and recommend this jam-packed resource!
© 2015 - 2018, Anna G. All rights reserved.

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Free beginning sounds worksheets (updated!) - The Measured Mom

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Looking for beginning sounds worksheets? Try these fun coloring pages! (This post contains affiliate links.) A year and a half ago, I created beginning sounds coloring pages for my Three, who was almost four years old. Since he loved to color and had a pretty good handle on beginning sounds, I thought he'd enjoy a set of alphabet coloring pages.

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Phonics anchor charts and blends charts are a great way to teach difficult concepts to beginning readers. Keep them around the classroom, and your students will be able to use them independently for increased confidence and learning!

Here are 20 blends and phonics anchor charts we love.

Source: 1 and 2 With Mr. Su

Students will love putting words to the test both with a silent e on the end and without. Have students hold up a floating e so they recognize both words.

2. Hard and Soft C

Source: Mrs. Jones's Class

The different sounds made by the letter C can definitely be tricky to understand. You might have your students help you create this anchor chart, coming up with words that fall into both categories.

3. Row Your Boat

Source: Shining and Sparkling in First Grade

We like how this anchor chart puts vowel digraphs that make the same sound side by side.

4. Explaining Consonant Blends

Source: Consonant Blends/The Inspired Apple

When you work on consonant blends, have students compare each letter's sound individually. Then have them pay close attention to what happens when they blend together.

5. Beginning Blends

Source: The Mall-ard Kindergarten Marquee

The best part of this chart is that you can add blends as you introduce them in class.

6. Double E Tree

Take one single concept, like the double e, and come up with every single word that it applies to.

7. Vowel Pairs

Use this anchor chart to help define the rule, and then encourage your students to come up with their own examples to add.

8. Recipes for Blends

Source: Smitten With First

A cute analogy that will encourage students to try different letters together, creating and testing their own word "recipes" too.

9. It's Owl Right

Source: Mrs. Jump's Class

This cute owl chart shows students the many words that contain an "ow" sound, whether it's spelled "ow" or "ou."

10. The Many Ways to Spell the Long A Sound

Source: Hello Literacy

One of the trickiest things about phonics for students to learn is how the same sound can be spelled lots of different ways. It helps to see side-by-side examples, like in this anchor chart that describes the different spellings of the long A sound.

11. Bring in the Blender

Source: Tales of a Teacherista

Put the current blends you are studying "in the blender." Cute!

12. The H Brothers

We love how this anchor chart creatively shows the different sounds digraphs containing the letter H make.

13. The Bandit Y

Source: First Grade Fresh

Try this anchor chart to help your kids learn how tricky Y can be!

14. Pairs, Digraphs, and Diphthongs

Source: Mrs. Gillespie's Thoughts

What are the differences between these vowel pairs, anyway?

15. Sounds of G

Source: Glitzy in 1st Grade

Is it a hard G? Is it a soft G? Students will easily learn the difference between the two and get great examples too.

16. Ow vs. Oa

This chart shows the differences between words that contain a long O sound. We like how the beginning and ending blends are highlighted too.

17. Phonics Charts for Every Digraph

Source: The Inspired Apple

We love the idea of creating different phonics charts for each digraph you are studying and adding words as you learn them.

18. Lesson From a Pirate

Source: Mrs. A's Kindergarten

Get your pirate voice ready because you're definitely going to want to use it when you go over words with "ar" in them.

19. Long I Storytelling

Source: Tied Up With String

It's fun to write a class story or poem using a certain sound as many times as possible.

Practice saying "Bossy R" words with your students. It really helps them to hear it said out loud.

Love these phonics charts? Check out our anchor charts archive for even more subjects and grades!

Plus, watch this video to see these phonics charts up close!

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20 Perfect Anchor Charts To Teach Phonics and Blends

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Phonics anchor charts and blends charts are a great way to teach difficult concepts to beginning readers. Keep them around the classroom, and your students will be able to use them independently for increased confidence and learning! Here are 20 blends and phonics anchor charts we love.

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Kids will love identifying beginning sounds with these super cute clip cards!

The clip cards feature three answer options to help kids recall the correct beginning sounds. I made it so the answer options align with the common sequence that letter sounds are introduced. So for example, you'll notice that the first few cards are based around the SATPIN letters. In my class I prefer to use the cards with letter sounds that the kids have learnt, so if we're not up to beginning sounds like 'x' and 'z' I leave those ones out.

Preparation: Print, laminate and cut the cards.

To Play: Place the beginning sound clip cards next to a basket of pegs. Get the kids to say what the picture is such as dinosaur and place a peg on the correct answer '/d/ for dinosaur'. You can add a dot or sticker behind the answers so that kids can check if they were right. As the kids become more familiar with the alphabet and the beginning sounds of each letter, I introduce the full set of clip cards.

You can grab this fun freebie below. :)

The cool chalk font used in these images is by Rebecca B Designs.

More Beginning Sounds Activities

You may also like the following beginning sounds activities. Click here to check them out.

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Beginning Sounds Clip Cards | Fairy Poppins

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Kids will love identifying beginning sounds with these super cute clip cards! The clip cards feature three answer options to help kids recall the correct beginning sounds. I made it so the answer options align with the common sequence that letter sounds are introduced.

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Let's Make Words!

Hi, there! We're about two months into the school year and I'm sure you're gearing up to teach your students how to use what they know about sounds to make words. I want to tell you about how to use Sound Boxes in your instruction and share a freebie!

Teaching Foundational Skills

One of the most important foundational skills that emerging readers learn is the letter/sound relationship. Each letter makes a sound and when you put these sounds together, they make up words. This means that students need to be experts at identifying letters and sounds.

Sound Boxes

Students that struggle with this skill tend to make errors like saying hat instead of hot or ban instead of bat. A strategy you could use is Sound Boxes, also known as Elkonian boxes. With sound boxes, students write each sound they hear in a box in sequential order.

How do I teach it?

1. Say the word.

2. Tell them how many sounds are in the word.

3. Have students say the word and write the letters of each sound they hear in sequence.

Here's a Youtube Video that demonstrates what this looks like.

Sound Boxes are a staple of my Word Work instruction during guided reading. After I played this "game" with my students they were able to play this game during literacy centers with a partner.

How Do You Spell...?

This fun, partner, Sound Boxes game! There are two players: the reader and the writer. The reader reads the word. The writer writes the word. The reader checks the word. If the word is incorrect, the writer tries again. If the word is spelled correctly, the reader and the writer switch roles.

My students loved this game! It's easy to implement and students can self-check their answers.

I've also added blank cards just in case you want students to practice this skill independently!

Download Short O Words by clicking the link below:

Do you like this resource? You can purchase it by clicking the link below.

How do you teach sounds in your classroom? Let me know in the comment section below.

I hope you gained some ideas for hands-on phonics activities you can implement in the classroom. C lick here for more phonics ideas!

Happy Teaching!

Tee!

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Literacy Strategy that Works: Sound Boxes - A Kinderteacher Life

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Let's Make Words! Hi, there! We're about two months into the school year and I'm sure you're gearing up to teach your students how to use what they know about sounds to make words. I want to tell you about how to use Sound Boxes in your instruction and share a freebie!

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Activity Description

Preparation:

1. Gather toy cars for each student

2. Plan words that would be appropriate to practice with students
For example, for early blending you might use CVC words such as mop, cup, sit, and hat

3. Write the first word that you will be using to model the activity on the whiteboard
Write the letters in a triangle formation with the vowel at the top of the triangle and the consonants as the bottom corners of the triangle

Implementation:

1. Explain to students that they will be driving through words to practice blending

1. First they will drive through slowly and say each letter-sound

2. Then they will drive faster to say the word smoothly

2. Drive through the word and sound out the letters

3. Drive through the word again while encouraging students to sound out the letters

4. Drive through the word faster with the students and blend the word

5. Practice Drive Through Blending with another word

6. Hand out whiteboards to students and instruct them to write each letter on their board the same way you do

7. Write the next word on the whiteboard
Use the same triangle formation

8. Ask students to write the letters on their own whiteboard

9. Drive through the word slowly with the students and then drive faster to blend the word

10. Repeat steps 7 and 8 for the remaining words

Adaptations For

English Language Learners/ESL:

- Review letter-sound correspondences prior to activity
- Provide opportunities to practice words from the activity in the context of reading (for example, assign a book that also has practiced words)
- Try to choose concrete words that students have in their vocabularies

LD/Reading & Writing Difficulties:

- Review letter-sound correspondences prior to activity
- Model several words with whole class
- Model the activity one-on-one
- Monitor students closely and assist if the student is having difficulty

Cultural Appropriateness & Diversity:

- Select and practice with words from around the world

Differentiated Instruction:

- Practice the activity with student one-on-one
- Allow student to work with a peer while blending

Related References

Evidence:
Manyak, P.C. (2008). Phonemes in use: Multiple activities for a critical process. Reading Teacher, 61, 659-662.

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BALANCEDLITERACYDIET :: index :: Balanced Literacy Diet

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Gather toy cars for each student Plan words that would be appropriate to practice with students For example, for early blending you might use CVC words such as mop, cup, sit, and hat Write the first word that you will be using to model the activity on the whiteboard Write

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Practice letter recognition and letter sounds with a fun game that gets kids moving. I get commissions for purchases made through affiliate links in this post.

Letter Sounds Race

Clear some open floor space - the more space, the better. Place letter magnets on one side of the room. Place a magnet board or a magnetic pan on the other side of the room. (Our easel has a magnetic dry erase board, so we used that.)

Have your child stand next to the magnet board (opposite side of the room from all of the letters). Explain to your child that you will call out a letter sound and he should run and find the letter. Then, pick up the letter and place it on the magnet board.

Tell your child to run and pick up the letter that says ___. (For example, in a really excited voice say: Ready... set... go pick up the letter that says /b/.)

If your child is just starting to learn letter sounds, try one of these suggestions:

Call out letters instead of letter sounds. Say: Run and get the letter B. B says /b/. Repeat the sound a few times.

Ask your child the letter sounds: What sound does the letter B make? Your child answers.Then say: B says /b/. Go get the letter B.

Mix it up. Ask the letter sounds of letters you know your child knows. Tell her the letter sounds of the ones she doesn't know yet. Have her repeat the letter sounds to you.

For 20 more ways to learn letters, check out my collaborative ebook ABCs and 123s.

Variations with the Magnet Board

You could also add another learning element with the magnetic white board. Instead of just placing the letter magnets on the board at random (which my son really enjoyed), write letters or words on the board.

Write uppercase letters on the magnetic board. You could write them in alphabetical order or mix them up. Have your child match the letter magnets to the letters on the board.

Write lowercase letters on the magnetic board. Again, you could write them in alphabetical order or mix them up. Have your child match the letter magnets to the letters on the board.

Write words on the board. Make sure you have enough letter magnets to cover the words you choose. I wrote the word ball, but we only had one l. You could have your child run to get each letter individually. For example, say: Let's spell the word dog. Go get the letter D. Or you could have him get all of the letters at once. Say: Let's spell the word dog. D-O-G. Go get letters D, O, and G.

Make this about moving as much as possible. Encourage running to get the letters. My son thought this was great fun. He eventually became more interested in matching the letter magnets with the letters in the words and stopped running, but that's okay, too.

More Ideas for Learning Letters
to the Inspiration Laboratories newsletter. Each issue has exclusive hands-on science explorations for children, a recap of our latest activities, and special resources selected just for you! This post was originally published on February 14, 2013.

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Letter Sounds Race | Inspiration Laboratories

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Practice letter recognition and letter sounds with a fun game that gets kids moving.

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These games help pre-K children practice Letter Sound learning in a fun, hands-on way.

Sound Cups

Use 26 disposable clear punch cups and label each cup with a letter. Letter cup labels can be downloaded below. Collect a set of small trinket objects (you can ask parents and friends to send things in), such as plastic lizard, small block, watch, plastic frog, bandaid, necklace, button, dice. Place the trinkets in a basket. Children sort each trinket into a letter cup by its beginning sound.

You can use all 26 cups at one time, or select 3-4 letter cups at a time for children to focus on. When searching for items to go in the cups, look for dollar store mini toys (especially packs of animals and bugs), look at doll house miniatures, browse craft stores for mini items.
Download: Letter Cup Labels

Erase the Sound

Draw a picture on a dry erase lap board. In the example below, I drew a snowman. Call children up one at the time to erase something that begins with something in the picture. In this picture, children can erase something that begins with H (hat), something that begins with B (buttons), something that begins with N (nose). Continue until everything is erased.

Mystery Bag

Place three objects beginning with the same letter in a bag (such as ball, bug, and button for B). Have a child pulls each item out of the bag and name each item. Have the class guess the "mystery letter".

Guess Who?

Say three words and have the kids guess whose name begins with the same sound as those three words. For example, call out:

The class would guess Levi. If you have more than one child in your class (maybe Levi, Lucy, and Layton) who start with that letter sound, the class can name all of them.

I have prepared a list of words for each letter that you can use for your students. Download the list below.
Download: Beginning Letter Sounds List

Monster Names

Have kids stand, stomp, and growl when you say their "Monster Name". Replace the first letter of each child's name with the letter M. For example, Braden's name would become "Mad Monster Maden" and Ashlyn's name would become "Mad Monster Mashlyn".

Say Two Words

Say two words, and have kids stand up if the words begin with the same sound. Have them sit down if they do not. For example,
cat - cow (stand up)
hat - goat (sit down)

Letter Sounds Listening Games

Children listen for beginning sounds in words and use bingo markers to stamp a letter each time they hear the letter sound. Get the printable game here: Letter Sounds Listening Games.

Letter Sounds Activity Cards

Children look at the picture, say the word, and find the letter that matches the beginning sound. They mark the cards by clipping it or marking it with a chip. Get the printable game here: Letter Sounds Activity Cards.

Letter Tile Mats

Children match letter tiles to the pictures on the mats by identifying the beginning sound of the words. Get the printable game here: Letter Tile Mats.

More Resources

These are available in my shop.

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These games help pre-K children practice Letter Sound learning in a fun, hands-on way. Use 26 disposable clear punch cups and label each cup with a letter. Letter cup labels can be downloaded below. Collect a set of small trinket objects (you can ask parents and friends to send things in), such as plastic lizard, small block, watch, plastic frog, bandaid, necklace, button, dice.

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The Super Simple Word Slider - Playdough To Plato

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Activity for ages 4 to 7. As kids learn letter sounds they can start putting those sounds together to read words. This super simple word slider is an awesome visual showing them how to do just that. It's one of those teaching tricks you'll never want to forget.

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This fun CVC Words Block Bridges Activity uses blocks, the large kind like Duplo and a small ball. Build some bridges and work on blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation of CVC words while having fun!

Young learners will love this fun, hands on CVC Words Block Bridges Activity! This is such great early reading practice.

What you need for this activity:

Build three bridges, high enough so that your ball will fit through. Write the first CVC word on the bridges letter by letter.

A typical literacy lesson will go like this (without saying the words in italic font, that is just for the teacher's knowledge):

Segmenting - Roll the ball under each bridge and say the sound.

Blending - Now say the word, putting all the sounds together. What does the sounds on the bridges spell all together? m-a-t, mat.

Phoneme manipulation - Teacher changes a letter on a bridge. What does it say now? (You could change beginning, middle or ending sounds.) Roll the ball through the bridge that changed sounds.

Phoneme deletion - Take away a bridge/sound. What does the word say now? (Same as above, you can work on deletion of beginning, middle or ending sounds depending on the child's needs.)

Auditory Discrimination - give verbal instructions for example:

Roll the ball through the bridge that says "m".

Roll the ball through the bridge with the vowel "a".

Roll the ball through the bridge that says "t".

If I say "at", which sound did I NOT say? Roll the ball through that bridge etc.

You can change the words as often as you like. For oder kids one could add more bridges to work on longer words.

A simple activity that works well to practice so many reading skills. The fact that it uses blocks and a ball, just makes it fun!

FREE CVC Words Printables

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This fun CVC Words Block Bridges Activity uses blocks, the large kind like Duplo and a small ball. Build some bridges and work on blending, segmenting and phoneme manipulation of CVC words while having fun! Young learners will love this fun, hands on CVC Words Block Bridges Activity!

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Here's a fun preschool alphabet game that will have kids learning their letters in no time! Jonathan loves playing the memory game, so I thought why not combine it with learning the alphabet!

Paper plates are such a handy craft supply. I grabbed a stack and wrote letters on them with Sharpies. I did pairs of matching capital letters, but you could also do this with lowercase letters or match up capitals to lowercase.

Then lay them out on the floor and play the game! Here are the rules in case you're not familiar with the memory game. Each player turns over two cards (plates) at a time. If they match, the player keeps them. If not, they turn them back over and the next player takes a turn turning over two cards.

I think that the official rules say that you get another turn when you get a match, but we don't usually play that way since it puts the youngest kid at a disadvantage.

When Janie got her first match, she had to stop and hug it! After four boys, God sure gave us a very girly girl!
Have fun playing the alphabet!

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Paper Plate BIG Alphabet Memory Game - Frugal Fun For Boys and Girls

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Here's a fun preschool alphabet game that will have kids learning their letters in no time! Jonathan loves playing the memory game, so I thought why not combine it with learning the alphabet! Paper plates are such a handy craft supply. I grabbed a stack and wrote letters on them with Sharpies.

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Alphabetic Understanding, Phonics, and Spelling

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Alphabetic Understanding, Phonics, and Spelling

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Worksheet ideas. A few lesson plans with references.

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Example Lesson Plans that follow explicit instruction.

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Example Lesson Plans that follow explicit instruction.

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PART 2    Sample Lesson Plans following the Explicit Teaching Framework

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Writing a Lesson Plan using Explicit Instruction

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Writing a Lesson Plan using Explicit Instruction

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Writing a Lesson Plan Using Explicit Instruction: Lesson Plan Tutorial Series

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What is Explicit Phonics Instruction? (Explicit vs. Implicit)

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What is Explicit Phonics Instruction? (Explicit vs. Implicit)

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What Is the Difference Between Implicit and Explicit Phonics Instruction?

"There's more than one way to skin a cat" is an idiom (or saying) that means there are multiple ways to accomplish something. In most cases, it is absolutely true; there is usually more than one solution to a problem and different ways to approach most tasks. When talking about teaching reading, there are several approaches that have been researched and debated. The aforementioned idiom also means that an issue can be approached in different ways, but the final result will be the same. With reading, that is not the case. The manner of instruction is just as important, if not more so, as what is instructed, and it significantly affects the results.

What Is Explicit Phonics Instruction?

Explicit phonics, part of the structured literacy approach, also referred to as synthetic phonics, builds from part to whole. It begins with the instruction of the letters (graphemes) with their associated sounds (phonemes). Next, explicit phonics teaches blending and building, beginning with blending the sounds into syllables and then into words. Explicit phonics is scientifically proven and research based.
Learn strategies for teaching explicit phonics instruction and earn free PD credit: READING WORKSHOP
What Is Implicit Phonics Instruction?

Implicit phonics, also referred to as analytical phonics, moves from the whole to the smallest part. Phonemes associated with particular graphemes are not pronounced in isolation. Students analyze words and look for the common phoneme in a set of words. Through comparison and identification, they deduce which grapheme to write or which phoneme to read. Blending and building are not usually taught, and students identify new words by their shape, beginning and ending letters, and context clues. This analysis (breaking down) of the whole word to its parts is necessary only when a child cannot read it as a whole word. This is a whole-language approach.

Which Approach to Teaching Phonics Is Best?

Research has been conclusive that explicit phonics instruction is the most effective. The U.S. Department of Education, the National Research Council, and the National Reading Panel have all conducted research and have released finding reports that support this statement. The National Reading Panel's report on its quantitative research studies on areas of reading instruction was published in 2000. The panel reported that several reading strategies are critical to becoming good readers: phonics for word identification, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension. With regard to phonics, its meta-analysis of hundreds of studies confirmed the findings of the National Research Council: Teaching phonics (and related phonics skills, such as phonemic awareness) is a more effective way to teach children early reading skills than is embedded phonics or no phonics instruction (taken from National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [2000]. Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction [NIH Publication No. 00-4769]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office).
Learn strategies for teaching phonics to beginning and struggling readers: READING WORKSHOP
Scientific research has clearly demonstrated that explicit phonics instruction is the single-most effective approach for all students. Obviously, many students can learn to read without such instruction; however, it is not only the at-risk students who achieve greater success under a phonics regime - so do those in the average and below-average reading groups (those who do OK but do not excel). A large-scale study by Barbara Foorman and colleagues from the University of Houston found that explicit, systematic phonics was by far the most effective approach. It was also more effective in reducing the occurrence of reading problems than any of the one-on-one tutorial programs that were evaluated, including Reading Recovery. Her findings are consistent with both currently accepted theories of reading development and instruction and with other empirical research emphasizing student outcome measures.

What Is the Outcome?

While results show that most types of phonics instruction can be beneficial for students, it has been conclusive that explicit phonics is the most effective and is necessary for those with processing issues. Empowering any student with these decoding strategies helps ensure reading success and gives them a solid foundation for their academic future.
Teaching Phonics to Beginning and Struggling Readers › Misconceptions About Phonics Instruction - #1 - Most Children Learn to Read Naturally › Misconceptions About Phonics Instruction - #2 - Phonics Instruction is Boring › Misconceptions About Phonics Instruction - #3 - The English Language is Inconsistent › Misconceptions About Phonics Instruction - #4 - College Prepares Teachers to Teach Reading ›
Learn More:

The following are fantastic teacher resources that can help you enhance reading instruction in your classroom. To find the answer to the question: " what is decoding?" or to find a list of reading strategies, visit the Reading Horizons Reading Strategies Homepage.

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Reading Strategies: Explicit vs. Implicit Phonics Instruction

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"There's more than one way to skin a cat" is an idiom (or saying) that means there are multiple ways to accomplish something. In most cases, it is absolutely true; there is usually more than one solution to a problem and different ways to approach most tasks.