Picture sort - beginning sounds

This is a simple activity where the child must cut out the pictures and decide which is the beginning sound.

DOWNLOAD: Picture sort

CVC Picture cards

There are some children who just cannot hear the words when they try and blend the sounds together. I have come across this a few times during my years teaching children phonics. To address this it is important to put the word cards away, put the letters away for a little while and concentrate on listening skills. One of the very successful things I used to do was using a set of picture cards and using those to practice the skill of listening to the blend. I had one little boy a few years ago who had managed to reach year 2 and still could not blend. He just didn't quite get what he was supposed to do. He had learnt all his graphemes in phase 2 and knew quite a few in phase 3 but just couldn't blend them together to make a word.

The first thing I did was to choose 2 cards with 2 different objects on. I laid them in front of him and asked him what they were. He could tell me without any problem. I then said I was going to ask for one of them but I was going to sound talk the word for him. If we say the two objects were a cat and a pen. I would then say 'Can you give me the p...e...n? If he didn't quite get it I said the sounds faster until I was nearly (but not quite) saying the word. He soon realised what the word was and passed me the card. I repeated this with another two cards. Eventually he got better at listening and could choose the correct card. I then added another card so he was choosing from 3 cards. We continued our sessions until eventually he has all the cards in front of him and could easily find the right card. Giving the child a big clue by showing the pictures really helped him focus on the sounds. He knew that it was one of two objects and soon realised that one began with a /p/ and the other with a /c/. It got trickier when I chose two cards which began with the same letter but he soon realised what he had to do.

When he could do this really well we then moved onto the grapheme cards and I started him on vc words like 'it, at, in, an, as, is, am,' and really got him to listen to himself saying these sounds. We progressed to cvc words and then to books. He is a very competent reader now. He was a bright boy but just hadn't made the connection between the sounds and the words.

This set of cards is similar to the cards I used with him. I have also included a full page of these pictures for playing bingo type games.

Of course the cards can be used for spelling practise too. Choose a card, say what it is and then spell it. If you laminate them then the child can write directly onto the card with a dry wipe pen.

DOWNLOAD: CVC PICTURE CARDS

DOWNLOAD: Sheet of CVC pictures

Vowel stick

Hearing the vowels in words can often be a problem when spelling words so this little activity focuses on listening carefully for the vowel sounds. Concentrate on the short vowel sounds, so the /a/ in cat, the /e/ in bed, the /i/ in pin, the /o/ in pot and the /u/ in jug. It is a good idea to practice these sounds on a regular basis. I always used the vowel rap from ELS/ALS but using the sounds not the names of letters.

a-e-i-o-u That is how we say them
a-e-i-o-u That is how we play them
We say them soft, we say them loud
Of our vowels we sure are proud
a-e-i-o-u (whisper)
a-e-i-o-u (normal)

That is how we say them!

Use lolly sticks to write the vowels and make sure you give children their own lolly stick. Alter the sequence of the letters on each stick so children cannot copy off each other. Read out a word containing the short vowel sound. Can the child put their finger on the correct vowel?

Some examples of words would be – sat, mat, bat, ban, bad, cat, can, cap, cast, dab, damp, fan, fat, fast, gap, hat, lap, map, mat, peg, beg, leg, lend, mend, men, red, send, tend, ten, pig, pin, bin, nip, din, dip, fig, gig, jig, limp, sip, pod, bod, mod, pond, bond, cot, con, cop, hop, mop, rod, pud, mud, dud, cup, but, bun, lump, fun, sun.

Extension

Use longer words for example compound words where they have to listen for two vowels. For example tenpin, batman, fishshop, flipflop, tiptop, tinman etc

Hear the sound

Strips of paper with the focus graphemes (laminated if possible) – if you are working with a group of children make sure you have the sounds in a different order for each strip. This helps to stop children copying. These can be downloaded for free from the Phonics for Fidgets website.

Whiteboard pens or counters

Begin the activity by asking the children to read the sounds with you. ‘Who can find /p/? Point to it on your strip! Who can find /n/? Point to it on your strip!’ Show the child an object and ask them to listen carefully to the beginning sound. What sound is it? Say the word several times if necessary, emphasizing the beginning sound. The child must find the sound on their strip and circle it with a whiteboard pen. Or place a counter on the sound.

Extension

Think of a word beginning with each sound. Write a word for each sound on a white board. Have a strip of vowels a,e,I,o,u and ask the child which vowel they can hear in a word.

Download ready made strips from this link SATPIN strips