Word thief

Ask the child to read the sentence. Then give him some scissors and ask him to cut the sentence into words. Mix them up and make the sentence again. Ask the child to close their eyes whilst you steal a word. Ask the child to open their eyes. Which word is missing? Can they tell you? They will need to read the sentence again and try and work out which word is missing. Children could do this activity in pairs.

Some examples of simple sentences:

A cat and a dog sat on a mat.

A man is in a bed.

A cat sat on a mat.

A pig sat on a mat.

Sit on a mat.

The sentences can reflect the sounds you are working on so can be worked on at any phase of letters and sounds. For example if you were working on the /ai/ sound you could have.

It can rain in Spain.

The man can paint.