PHONICS FUN

Hey Friends !

I wanted to highlight some quick and easy phonics activities that I've been using. This post is probably going to be a bit long so feel free to pin what you like to your Pinterest boards and then come back and read the rest. I tried to include lots of pictures so you could get some super phonics ideas.
If you are a first year teacher or even a seasoned teacher, I'm sure you can pick up a few things here.                                      
 First up are these awesome phonics mats. 

You can also view them here: Interactive Phonics Mats

I can not tell you how much I love these. I started using these with one of my ESOL students and it was so amazing to see him smile at the fact that he was actually reading the words and understanding the sounds. Of course he loved the sound the velcro made as he was popping off the pieces.

These are mainly from the cvc/word family bundle but there are many others. We start out by reading the words on the side first before we start reading the story. Then they read each simple sentence and choose the correct word that makes sense.

I love the fact that they can manipulate the pieces on the board so that if they place a word in the wrong spot they can always move it and try again. It's important to highlight to them that they need to stop at each period so they don't just keep reading on and on without stopping at the end of each sentence.

Also for my kiddos, I had to tell them to call the empty space "blank" because as they read, they got to that space and got stuck like awww.... what do I call this? It's not a word. lol. Just call it "blank".

I knew I was going to need a lot of velcro so I ordered these jumbo rolls from Amazon. They were a life saver.  Get the velcro coins here: VELCRO COINS

I usually store all of these in ziplocks but then I figured I could store them in book buckets too. Why not?

To save on ink you can just copy the blackline master copies on astrobrights and use in the same way.

     These have been perfect for our center time rotations and comprehension stations.

These phonics stories are differentiated with some having picture clues . I would start with the stories that have picture clues and then let them complete the passages without picture help and finally, they can practice with the mats at centers.I store these in book bins or ziplock bags but you can store them anyway you like. Grab the bundle now (INTERACTIVE PHONICS BUNDLE) at a super discounted price.This big bundle will include: word families, blends and digraphs, diphthongs, long vowels, inflectional endings and other sounds.

Your phonics routine could be as simple as going over the target sounds with a white board

or using your anchor charts to review a specific sound and then sending students off to work on their mats.

Here are a few more anchor charts to check out.

Make sure to have students practice by having them do the mats with pictures first. When your students ask if you have any more of these, you know you provided something that's both engaging and effective.

I have so many pictures to show you all but we have many more phonics tools to get to. This is definitely something you want to have in your toolbox.

You can grab the entire year bundle for a discount now. It will include mats for the entire year. Long vowels, blends, short vowels/word families, digraphs, diphthongs and more. I have no doubt your

kids will love these. Mine certainly do. 

Everything is included. That means you get the sets with help, the ones with no help and the colorful mats. PHONICS ALL YEAR MATS 

# 2: Phonics Box

This little idea is so cute and easy to implement. You can use it as a busy center or a review station. 

Just use a simple pencil box and pins. 

Use things that are in your classroom. Pins, a pencil box  ziplock baggies and a black marker. This is a win for the littles.

If you teach at home, it is also easy to travel with. They get so preoccupied at this station that they forget to ask me if it's time for lunch. Just fold up the ziplock bag and tuck it in the pencil box too. They make the words on their bag.

   # 3 is one of my favorite !

PHONICS READERS
Can I tell you how much of a help these have been all year.

When I decided to put this together, I was in a place where I had readers from several different people and I had to keep searching to make sure I could find ones that had the sounds I needed for the entire year. I kinda just like when everything is in one place and from the same person if possible.

I just wanted my kids to straight up read right after I reviewed the target sounds with them . I finally said, I need to make my own set and so I did. As you can see some "an" words are highlighted as well to help students distinguish if those are part of the particular word family or not.

To have all these readers in one place has made life so much easier. I just pull whatever sound we are working on that week and go.

This is a great grab for any primary classroom. I have tons of pictures I want to show you guys of these in action.

The kids love to rainbow color the target words. Here we also crossed out words that
didn't have the short I sound.

There are so many ways to use these. They were also used for homework. While we had a math homework component in our curriculum, we didn't have a reading piece.

One of these readers were sent home each day to add to the math piece. This way students could get both a reading and math to practice at home.

You can bind these into book format for homework or even end of year review. Super excited about these.

 Place in free centers, send home for homework, create a phonics book, use in small group as part of your small group routine.

Get the entire bundle of readers from short vowels to diphthongs and inflectional endings in this one set. All files come with color and black and white. Phonics Readers Bundle

# 4 -TRASH IT

Don't you just love it when you come up with some silly game off the top of your head because everybody needs a break from the regular routine. Well I give you ..."TRASH IT".  We came up with this fun little phonics game at the end of the year to have some fun while reviewing our phonics sounds.

So simple and so fun. They keep asking to go to this center. They love getting up to throw stuff away and  soooo... I decided they can learn while throwing stuff at the same time.

Step 1: What sounds are you working on? Write some words on simple computer paper.

Ball them up and place into a big bin.

Two students at a time go to sort the trash by opening up a rolled up paper, reading the word correctly and throwing it in the right bin. Students stand a distant from the trash bins, read the word correctly and then roll it back up and try to get it into the correct bin. Take tallies of which student got the most words into the bin. If they miss the bin, the words stay there on the floor until the game is done.

#5-Jumbo Letters

This next phonics center is so super easy and lots of fun. I printed these big letters on cardstock and students use the answer sheet to record the words that they make.

This center was done at the end of the year but can be implemented at anytime.

These big and bold letters make for a fun phonics center.

 I just simply store these in ziplock bags so they can grab and go.

#6- PHONICS FLUENCY CARDS

The Phonics Fluency bundle is a must have for any primary classroom. Especially at the beginning of the year. This super bundle includes all the sounds we teach in first grade. I've used them in so many ways. Below are some examples of how they have been used.

Center Sticks- I reduced the size of the large posters and used them as center sticks. The kids pick a stick, read the sounds and words. They rainbow write the words in their notebooks. The higher group writes sentences with the words in their notebook.

They can even make the words with Play-Doh or use the magnetic letters to write the words.

Remember the size is reduced on the pictures you see here. They make the words on the back of my desk. So many fun ways to use these.

One year I had a fridge in my room so we did that too. Do whatever works !

Wall Display
So they are posted up and kids can go and point with a friend to read the words and sounds.

Let me tell you, these are number one at my small group center. 

I just pull out my binder with them all and we do a flash fluency with the sounds. 

The great thing is that these are all coordinated with the phonics readers and text evidence phonics readers so they all go together and you have everything you need in one place. You can grab the super bundle here: PHONICS POSTER BUNDLE

If you want to check out the Text Evidence Phonics Readers for Beginners, you can check out the blog post on that here: TEXT EVIDENCE FOR BEGINNERS

Note that these text evidence for beginners are differentiated and there are also readers for your higher learners.

Don't forget to grab the free binder covers you see here when you purchase and if you need covers for each of your book sets. You can get the freebie here: TEXT EVIDENCE FOLDER COVERS

#7 -Last but certainly not least are Phonics Paint Baggies

What's not to like about squishy bags of paint. These can be used mainly for a brain break activity or center. Do this when things are a bit more relaxed and you want your littles to have some fun while still learning. Whip these out and see their faces light up.

Whew ! That was a lot. I really hope you enjoyed this post ! Fee free to follow, comment and share from my blog.