Nursery Rhymes: Recite nursery rhymes, pause to talk about rhyming words and how they sound the same at the end.  

Rhyming and repetition is always great to enhance phonological skills, when reciting and practicing nursery rhymes children learn the rhythm of the different rhymes. Clapping out syllables in words helps children realize how a word can be broken down and begin to understand how to sound out words. Children with exceptionalities can hold a puppet or use felt board pieces when reciting the nursery rhymes.

Parent Resource: Pbskids.org “Grovers Rhyme Time!” Is a fun rhyming interactive game for kids to help with phonological awareness.

This is a great game for parents to do with their child in the home when they are busy cooking dinner or putting away laundry, why not make it a learning opportunity? When cooking pasta and saying, "I spy something that holds water and is on the stove."

Printout and laminate clip art flies, write a letter on each fly. Give the child a fly swatter. Say a word and have students swat each “letter fly” as they say the sounds.

Play Word Bingo:

Create bingo boards to focus on phonics skills. Put letters or words in each square. Call out the letter or word and let the child cover it with a fun marker.

Both of these activities are great for children with or without exceptionalities but to accommodate if a child doesn't want to hold the fly swatter he/she can hit the fly with their hand. Using dabbers or a small smooth stone is great for bingo and showing the card after saying it out loud helps children identify the letter or word on the bingo card.

This activity is great for parents to do with their children at home because it combines gross motor with learning letters or words. Children retain information when they can move their bodies at the same time. Children with exceptionalities can jump on a letter on a square.  

Letter Sorting: Sort letters using magazines, empty boxes, junk mail, and more.

Showing children that letters are everywhere and exposing children to letters will help with fluency in later grades. Children can pretend to make letter cookies with play dough. Letting children cut letters out of magazines or off of junk mail is great for environmental print awareness since these are items they see their parents use daily. Children with exceptionalities can use the cookie cutters in the sand if they don't like the feel of play dough and a teacher can cut out the letter they want from the magazine and help them glue it on a paper.

Environmental print is huge for children learning ot read and understanding words have meaning. When taking a walk or driving showing children different signs and what they mean helps children realize that the sign has a meaning.

Felt Board Stories: Have children retell a story with felt board pieces

I love having children act out stories! It helps them have a connection to the story and aide in retelling the story. Children with exceptionalities can put on a costume if they want and stand in front of the class and hold a picture form the story or object. The felt board story is also a great option for children with exceptionalities or puppets to act out the story.

Resource: www.abcya.com This website has a lot of fun interactive games to help with reading comprehension.

Word Building Blocks: Laminate letter cards and put one letter on a wooden block. Put a basket of words next to the blocks, children can build a word using the word blocks.   

This activity helps a child visualize the word with helps form stronger associations and recall them more easily. Children with exceptionalities can create the word with play dough if they don't want to draw. When building the word children with exceptionalities can build the tower and say the letters or repeat the letter that the teacher says.