Tuesday 11 October 2016

Halloween Phonics game

I made this little Halloween game - perfect for practising blending.
You can download it from this link: Halloween Phonics game

Thursday 26 May 2016

Snakes

I cannot take credit for thinking up this game because I saw something similar posted but the words were too difficult for the little one I am thinking would love this.

Print onto card and cut up or laminate then cut up. Lay all the cards face down and the child picks a card and reads it. If correct they keep the card. The aim of the game is to make up as many snakes as possible. The person who does at the end of the game is the winner.

Download: Snakes


Tuesday 24 May 2016

SATPIN Phonics booklet - 40 pages

This booklet will take children through the first 6 sounds of phase 2. They will learn to recognise them, write them, read them, hear the first sound and blend them. Booklet in black and white to take into account printing costs and also to allow the children to colour themselves. There are some fab monsters!
Download: Phonics Booklet


Sunday 22 May 2016

Can you make a real word (or alien word)

This is a fab little activity/game for helping children to practise blending.

Phase 2 /i/
Phase 2 /o/
Phase 2 /u/
Phase 2 /e/
Phase 2 /a/

Phase 3 consonant digraphs


Laminate and cut out the letters.
Deal the cards between two players.
Ask the child to pick a card.
Read the sound then look at the first box on the game board. Does it make a real word or an alien word? Encourage the use of the sound buttons. If it makes an alien word (nonsense) word then they can place it on the board. If it makes a real word then the word goes to the bottom of their pile.
The next person picks a card and tries to place it on the next available box. Continue until all the boxes are filled and someone reaches the finish box.

The person with the least cards left is the winner.

I have done two different games - one making alien words(much easier) and one making real words. You can obviously do either on any of the boards.






I played this game with one of my children and it worked brilliantly. It gave LOTS of blending practice which was the intention and also lots of discussion on real words and nonsense words.




Wednesday 18 May 2016

Name the Alien (Phase 5)

This is a big pack of resources for the following activity and is available to purchase for £1 from my ELSA website if you are interested. Name the Alien Resource



Here is how you can use this resource and I must say it worked brilliantly with a child I am working with who tends to guess at words and doesn't apply her phonics to blend. She was very motivated to make as many different names for the alien as possible.


First of all I introduced the Alien and told her he came from the planet /ay/. We repeated the sound and I asked the child to write the sound on a whiteboard so she could remember it. I then told her that she had a challenge to name him. He didn't have a name and she had to make a name for him. I asked her to cut out the cards. Lots of scissor practise to help motor skills needed here. I then asked her to read all the sounds to me to ensure she knew them all. She remembered the /ay/ sound. I told her that we had to have the /ay/ sound in his name because he was from the planet /ay/.
I then showed her the phoneme frame and told her that if she needed to press the sound buttons she could. I told her to rearrange the sounds in the boxes to make the names. She LOVED this and made loads of names, constantly blending over and over again using that /ay/ sound. Everytime she made a new name I asked her to write it on her sheet (see below). This reinforced the /ay/ sound and also segmenting skills. She wanted to make a HUNDRED but unfortunately time was an issue so I stopped her when she had done a reasonable amount. I then asked her to choose her favourite name. Again she blended and read every name that she had written to choose her favourite which was Zzayn.



To extend this activity further the child could describe their alien using adjectives and then write a few sentences about him.

Tuesday 17 May 2016

Race to the top of the Rocket

Similar to the race to the top of the castle resource. All you need is a die and two pegs. Print and laminate the sheet. Place both pegs at the bottom, one at each side. Throw the die and move that number of places upwards. Read the word. If correct the child moves their peg there. Who can reach the top first? You have to throw the right number on the die to finish.

Download: Race to the top of the Rocket



Saturday 14 May 2016

Race to the top of the castle

All you need is a die and two pegs. Print and laminate the sheet. Place both pegs at the bottom, one at each side. Throw the die and move that number of places upwards. Read the word. If correct the child moves their peg there. Who can reach the top first? You have to throw the right number on the die to finish.

Download: Race to the top of the castle