Along with phonetic awareness, ability to read, vocabulary, as well as reading passages, phonics is one of the five crucial elements of reading 📖 science. Young learners can gradually improve their literacy skills by breaking words down into their component sounds with the use of phonics activities.
Without even realizing it, you can already be assisting your child in a number of ways with their phonics. Shared book reading 📚 rhythmic story reading, and nursery rhyme singing could all help with these.
phonics activities for your little ones
If you’re seeking more activities, I’ve put together a whole activity bundle of enjoyable Phase 1 phonics exercises ideal for young children in the nursery, preschool, and reception levels.
Word roller
For this game, you’ll require a ball and some alphabet flashcards. As you turn a flashcard over, throw the ball to your 👦kid. The next step is for your child to give the name of a word that starts with that sound.
Once you or another parent or sibling has said a word that begins with that same letter, they can roll the ball 🥎 around to you or the other parent or sibling. Several times with one letter, then move on to the next. If you want, you can perform this activity outside!
Letter swat
Choose a list of anything from 6 to 9 letters that you’d like your kid to practice first. Say the letter’s sound after writing them on sticky labels and placing them on a surface or the floor. Your child must swat the letter that corresponds to each sound using a flyswatter.
Play this game with two or more kids and have them compete to see who can swat the word earliest!
Song box
Pick a box and fill it with memorabilia related to your favorite tunes. Then, choose something and 🎶 sing about it, taking turns.
These tools can improve listening and attention, allowing a youngster to maintain their focus and pay consideration to something visual while listening to instructions.✊️
Facts to remember
Additionally, children’s comprehension abilities are improved, giving them the time they require to think through the task at hand.
Keep the song box 📦 wherever the kids may use it to play, sing the songs out loud to themselves, and role-play their experiences.
Daily routines
A “hello” song to begin a session, as well as a “goodbye” song before going home, can tremendously assist in calming a child 😊 down and become a regular part of their routine.
The development of peer relationships and a sense of one’s identity are two more benefits of songs that feature children’s names.
Facts to remember
Children can sing along to well-known songs more naturally by joining in with words and motions during activities like hand washing, snack time, clean-up time, playing, and being outside in nice weather.
Rhyme of the week
By hearing them repeatedly, youngsters will develop a repertoire of rhymes by participating in a rhyme of the week program.
These could be picked by the hobbies, themes, vocabulary, months, and holidays of the kids.
Stories
There are a tonne of rhyming possibilities in stories. Use stories with storytimes as a way for kids to learn a variety of phase 1 phonics abilities in addition to this.
Motivate a love of books and reading 📚 and choose a few to include in your personal “canon” of must-reads.
Role-play
When youngsters are given the chance to act out known situations, role-playing is most effective.
Children can use small-world settings like their homes, local businesses, and play spaces to enhance their language skills and make sense of their surroundings.
A listening moment
Everyone pauses to take in the sounds in the area. Encourage the kids to recognize and retain the various noises they may hear.
This activity is fantastic for helping kids listen to the sounds near them, and it can be done anywhere any time.
A Listening walk
Encourage the kids to pay attention to the sounds they can hear when they travel from one location to another, such as when standing up for outdoor play or on the way to lunch. Introduce new words to the kids and call attention to sounds you hear.
Drumming outdoors
Maintain a supply of sticks or drums for outdoor use. Give kids a chance to experiment with the various noises that can be produced in the outdoor space.
Describe it and find it
Join the kids as they play in the little word Rearea and explain some of the things you notice. Can the kids name the item you’re describing?
For instance, using the railroad track, I have been searching for the train with a carriage, and using the little world farm, I am looking at the creature with horns.
Animal sounds
Have simple books about animals and animal puppets available in your surroundings. By experimenting with the sounds that their voices generate, kids can mimic the noises of many animals.
Noisy time
The outdoor space is the perfect spot to let kids create a lot of noise! Encourage kids to experiment with their voices’ sounds. They might growl, scream, or make loud noises.
Action songs
Phase 1 phonics should be practiced every day, and this can be ensured by including action-packed tunes into daily routines.
To assist kids in recalling classic rhymes and songs and to hear and participate in the beat, add motions, gestures, and beats to them.🛎
Register time
Ask the kids to clap in response to their name during register time; for example, Benjamin would clap three times, Ben-ja-min.
Rhyme bags and props
Connect the rhymes you have been teaching the kids to a prop or image. Allow the kids to access these throughout continuous provision so they can revisit the rhymes on their own or with other kids.
I spy my name
Students are encouraged to shake the container as they play this I-Spy game and describe the object they see by informing their companion what letter it begins with.
Before the other person’s turn is up, the partner must correctly guess the object. What a wonderful game!
Alliteration
Add alliteration to the dialogues while playing with kids in the little world or role-playing environment. You can use phrases like “sizzling sausages,” “beautiful baby,” and “dangerous dinosaur” to describe things.
You may give the kids 👦names like Marvellous Millie and Amazing Amy, which are alliterative.
Digging for treasure
Bury two sets of objects in the sand tray, one with an entirely novel sound as well as the other with an alternate sound.
Encourage the kids to collect and separate the items into two groups.
Initial sound collections
Have groups of well-known items with the same first sound available for kids to play with, discuss, and organize. Utilizing items they discover lying about the room, kids can add to the collections.
Mirror play
Have child-safe mirrors accessible throughout the space, such as in the reading nook and beside the puppets.
As they chat, sing, and play with voice sounds, let kids examine how their faces and mouths shift and take on various shapes.🧮
Oral blending and segmenting
Introduce oral combining and dividing as you play with the kids; for example, you could ask for the d-o-ll instead of the doll in the living room to see if the kids can tell which object you want. ✊️
Musical show and tell
Create a staging area by setting apart a portion of indoor or outdoor space or using crates.
Children can sing 🎶 well-known songs or compose original music utilizing accessible objects or instruments during continuous provision time.
Sing a phonic song
Songs are such a wonderful and efficient learning tool! These phonics song recordings are fun for kids, and they might not even be aware that they are learning something.
The color in the beginning sounds
The majority of children begin learning phonics by becoming adept at words’ first sounds. On these adorable and cost-free worksheets, have children color the words that begin with the corresponding sound.🎼🎵
Play a digital game
Test out Duolingo ABC. Despite feeling like a game, it is a thorough phonics program for grades kindergarten to 2, based on suggestions from the American Reading Panel.
Your children may learn the sounds of letters and decode them with engaging, bite-sized lessons by simply downloading the free app.
Google slides
Kids can utilize the engaging phonics activities on Google Slides in the learning environment or at home.
Build words with a chart of beginning sounds
Print copies of this free downloadable chart for your pupils to use through their phonics exercises. There is also a version for rhymes.🥁
Learn digraphs with clip wheels
Utilize these free phonics and fine motor practice beginning digraph wheels. Add tiny dots to the back of the worksheets to mark the correct responses so that students can check their work.
Slap the letter sounds
Slapping each letter with a flyswatter makes hearing out words letter by letter much more enjoyable! For motivated students, this is a fantastic idea.
Walk the word
This one will additionally keep energetic students occupied and content! Write words on the sidewalk with pavement chalk, then move (or hop or skip) through them while saying the words aloud. Simple but enjoyable.
Fill in the missing letters
This interactive game combines phonics and a scavenger hunt! Hide vowel-themed sticky notes throughout the space.
Afterward, compose CVC words without vowels. Encourage kids to look for and add the missing sounds. Fun!
Just swap one letter
Students switch one letter as they proceed from box to box to create the new word shown in the photo. It’s a big problem because they may have to alter the first, middle, or last letter!
Make magic spoons
When practicing word construction by fusing word ends and beginning sounds, get a set of reusable spoons at the dollar store.
Toss and blend with plastic cups
For this entertaining phonics game, get a stack of plastic cups along with some Ping-Pong balls.
Set the cups out, label them with various letter blends, and tape them down as necessary if they tend to tip over.
Children must create a word using that letter combination after throwing a ball into a cup to score.
Flip pages
Compose letters on every page of a tiny notebook after dividing the pages into thirds. To make new words, flip them over.
Mix and match cups to make words
If there are still some cups available, label them with additional letters or letter combinations so that you can combine them to form words. This is a particularly enjoyable way to practice CVC and words that are visible.
Hack pool noodles into phonic tools
One of our favorite phonics exercises has to be this one. Label the parts of a pool noodle with letters after cutting 😌 it up. Then spin and stack for enjoyable learning!
Make some phonics cubes
When you have the correct letter and word end, slide the free downloadable inserts into an array of photo cubes along with a roll.
Use paint stirrers to make word pull-outs
These resourceful phonics instruments are simple to construct from paper towel tubes and paint stirrer sticks. To create new words, simply slide the handle in and out.
Play a flip flop phonic games
You’ll like this concept if you use wipes as most parents do and go through packets quickly. The flip tops should be saved and used for simple phonics exercises.
Use a pocket chart for phonic activities
Another reason why educators adore pocket charts is that they work well for phonics centers.
To practice initial sounds, combinations, both long and short vowels, and a lot more, sort and match cards.
Toss some iconic water balloons
This one nearly seems too enjoyable to qualify as knowledge! To complete the words, tape up the starting sounds and then spray water balloons.
Race to the Top with blends and digraphs
Practice consonant blends by playing this free printable game. Put a chip there and speak that word aloud.
Then, raise the counter one space to get the right mix. The winner is the first to reach the summit!
Try locks and keys to learn phonics
In addition to being a great way to hone fine motor skills, this self-rectifying phonics activity can be a lot of fun.
Label locks with word endings and keys with beginning sounds. Once you’ve matched them up, test the key to see whether you’re right.
Flip the pancake
If your child likes pancakes🥞, they will enjoy this phonics activity! Make 8 to 10 circles out of brown construction paper, and use them to draw the letters your child is learning in school.
Take a spatula and ask your youngster to flip each pancake over while naming the letter on the back.
Playdough letters
Kinaesthetic learners will benefit greatly from this practical activity. Call out various alphabet letters while your youngster forms the letters out of playdough.
Put a flashcard of a letter they’re attempting to make in front of them to serve as a visual aid.
Phonics Dices
Draw a letter on every side of a pair of simple blocks of wood (or, if you have alphabet dice, a pair of those) by using them as a template.
Let your youngster roll the blocks, and then say each letter sound and a word that goes with it.🎲
Rainbow hop
This simple practice gets your kids warmed up and ready for learning while enhancing their sound and letter identification.
Spin and rhyme
Learning to sound out sounds 🎼and arrange them to produce words is made so much easier with the help of this rhyme and spin.
Encourage the students to think of a ridiculous rhyme and a term that has a similar sound.🎶
Four in a row
The ideal pair-friendly exercise! After saying the word, each learner grabs a different colored pen marker as well as takes turns coloring in an image. The winner is the first person to locate four in succession that share a letter or sound.🎧
Alphabet ball
The ideal pair-friendly exercise! After saying the word, each learner obtains a different colored pen marker✍🏻 as well as takes turns coloring in an image.
The winner is the first person to locate four in a row that share a letter or sound.
Kaboom
The straightforward activity kaboom is good for strengthening phonics understanding and expanding vocabulary. A cup is filled with ice cream sticks that have letters engraved on one end.
They are then taken out, and the students are asked to come up with a word that starts with that letter.
Which one does not belong
By encouraging your learner to glance at the card and the designated letter, you can increase phonological awareness.
They must then decide which image is incorrect and state which letters the incorrect image starts with.
Phonics hunt
Hold a phonics search around the house to increase phonemic awareness. This engaging game will encourage students to get up and move around, which will make learning via the Internet more enjoyable.
Write the room
The ideal print resource for teachers in classrooms is the write-the-room exercises! Students are instructed to say the sound that each picture begins with in this interesting resource before crossing it off on what they were doing.
Mystery mitten matching
This easy matching exercise includes phonics instruction. Call out four words that begin with a letter you’ve hidden under a mitten, whether it’s an inflatable letter or a magnetic letter.
Students should pay attention ‼️and replicate the sound they heard. Then, inquire more about the student’s ability to guess the letter.
Phonics Flower Garden Problem Solving Game
This phonics problem-solving exercise enables students to develop their phonics abilities in the areas of word cluster creation, sound blending, and suffixes.
Mystery bag
Put items in a bag that contain your goal sound. For instance, a stick, chick, and tack will be included in a bag for the digraph ‘ck.’ Write the letter digraph onto the board and speak the sound in a model word to open this mystery bag. 🎐
Facts to remember
Write down their ideas on the board of directors, and if you have one of the suggested terms in the bag, take it out.
Monster names
Add the word “MAD” to the beginning after the letter “M.” Sam, for instance, would change into Mad Monster Msam.
The children can then play with monsters 👻 alongside each other, stomp around, and roar.
Talk about letters and sounds
Assist your child in learning 💡the names of each letter and their respective sounds. Make it into a contest! I’m thinking about a letter that sounds like “mmmmmm.”
Model finger-point reading
That means to read the words by moving your index finger from left to right. For a while, your beginner reader will continue to do this.
Grocery store literacy
As you enter the store, select a letter. Find items that begin with that letter in the store and play a game. As an illustration, the letter “p” is represented by pizza, pineapple, popcorn, peanuts, and popcorn.
With each of your “p” words, emphasize the letter “p” and the sound it creates.
Trace and say
Ask your child to mark a letter with their finger while uttering the letter’s sound. On paper, in sandy soil, or on a plate of sugar, your toddler can trace.
Next, test your child’s ability to trace and sound out a basic two- or three-letter term (it, at, sat).
Scrambled words
On a sheet of paper, draw three boxes next to one another. Scramble the letters of a straightforward three-letter word (big, bug, top, ran) beneath the boxes using magnetic letters or paper letters.
Have your kid decode the letters and put them in the appropriate boxes📦.
Conclusion
These suggestions should have provided you with a place to start when considering how to incorporate phonics abilities into your routine teaching and children’s play.
Remember to get acquainted yourself with the appearance, note, listen to portions of Letters ✉️ as well as Sounds, and use your analysis and evaluation to determine the children’s next steps.
These will assist🤜🏻 🤛🏻you in working with kids and provide information for improving your learning environment.
I’m a former teacher (and mother of Two Childs) with a background in child development. Here to help you with play-based learning activities for kids. ( Check my Next startup Cledemy.Com)