Phonics At Home

Phonics At Home Easy prep and quick phonics activities to do at home with others or independently.

I can’t take credit for this one, this is a activity! We used Cranky the crane to collect magnetic letters and match th...
09/02/2021

I can’t take credit for this one, this is a activity!

We used Cranky the crane to collect magnetic letters and match them up with the letters in the tray! He knew more than I realised and responded really well as it was Cranky doing the activity, not him 😉

‘Cranky, can you find the m? If he’s not sure, you could tell him it’s yellow!’ Josh - ‘Cranky, the m is yellow!’ 🤭😉😆

You could use a train track and a train with a carriage to carry the letters from one end to the other if you wanted to add another play element!
I also included the letters in his name so that we could continue practising these.

When doing a little sort out today, my boy asked what the Bananagrams set was so we got it out for a play! It’s a perfec...
30/01/2021

When doing a little sort out today, my boy asked what the Bananagrams set was so we got it out for a play! It’s a perfect example of a game that uses capital letters (see my last post from yesterday).

We just played, he asked me to make his name and found an ‘m’ so I made ‘mummy’ and he asked me to make ‘daddy’ too. He then made some of his own words and asked me to read them which made us laugh as they sounded funny! I found out that he was confident recognising ‘m’ and ‘j’ (which is at the beginning of his name),by showing him a few letters and asking him which was ‘m’ or ‘j for Josh’.

I know he can recognise his name as a whole but he doesn’t yet know each of the sounds in his name. I could panic about this as I know others his age are quite confident with doing so but I stop myself whenever my thoughts go along those lines because I know he’ll do it when he is ready. They are all so different 🥰

Perfect early reading activity - just having a play with letters is so important to making reading exciting! Older children would love to actually play the game I’m sure.

Have you got Bananagrams at home?

29/01/2021

Capital letters

I often get asked whether children should learn their letters by looking at lower case or capital letters. My answer is that I would focus on lower case but exposure to capital letters is also very important! After all, we all begin to recognise the first letter of our name as a capital letter from a young age don’t we?!

There are lots of children’s puzzles which use capital letters instead of lower case and if you look at labels and signs, there is very much a mixture of both. Many logos and wording on packaging actually use a mixture of capital letters and lower case, and obviously we have to recognise letters written in different fonts, which is why exposure is important.

Your child will learn phonics using lower case letters and capital letters will be introduced during English lessons in Reception and Key Stage One. I would do phonics activities with lower case letters but when looking at names or place words, I would just point out the capital - ‘oh look, that ‘a’ looks a bit different! It’s a capital ‘A’ because this word is a name so it needs the capital letter at the beginning, just like the first letter in your name!’ Open discussions are important rather than assuming children aren’t ready. They might take it in or you might just plant a seed, but it’s better to expose them than to miss the learning opportunity. They might be more ready than you think!

Alphabet

This also applies to the alphabet or ‘letter names’. We focus on phonics to ensure that children know the sounds that letters make in order to support their early reading and writing. It ensures that they can hear and blend sounds to read and also that they can segment sounds to spell and write words. Schools teach differently but personally I think it’s important to discuss with children that letters have a ‘letter name’ and a ‘sound’.

As I introduce sounds, I would let children know what the letter name is as well so that they can make this link - ‘today we are learning the sound ‘s’, it makes the sound ‘sss’ but it’s letter name is ‘S’ (said ‘es’)’.
All children come to school with different experiences of letters, some know the alphabet, some use the sounds and some say them differently to others! That’s why it’s important for teachers to teach phonics from the beginning, even if some children already know some of their letters.
It always makes me laugh how some children sing the alphabet song as a group of nonsense words, not recognising that it is made up of letters - eg. ‘Elomenopee’ - sound familiar? 😂

Hope this is helpful. Any questions or comments, do just say 😊

Phonics bag 💼 There’s something about hiding stuff in boxes and bags that makes them more interesting and exciting, like...
29/01/2021

Phonics bag 💼

There’s something about hiding stuff in boxes and bags that makes them more interesting and exciting, like the surprise of a present!

How about playing a letter hiding game to practise phonics sounds and blending? You could either use a bag or a box, whatever you have to hand! I used fridge magnet letters or you could use ones from an alphabet puzzle maybe?

* Hide a letter in the bag and ask your child to close their eyes and reach inside - can they guess the sound by what it feels like? Discuss whether it has a hole, any curves, straight bits or tails.
- As this could be quite tricky, you could look at 5 letters first, discuss what they look like and the sounds they make, before hiding one in the bag.
* Repeat with a few letters - can we make a word with the sounds we have found?
* Put out some letters for the start of a word and say the sounds - what sound do you think could be hiding in the bag that would work at the end? (eg. For ‘g-e-‘, would a ‘b’ at the end make a real word? What about ‘m’ or ‘t’?)
* Put a few sounds in the bag that make up a word, can your child guess them in turn and then lay them out and make a word with them?
* INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY - Choose about 10 letters to place in the bag, your child needs to take them out of the bag one at a time, say the sound, write it down and then write a word that begins with or includes that sound. Repeat for all letters. OR they could say each sound, lay them out and then play around trying to make as many real and alien words as they can with the letters they have, writing them down so that they can reuse letters.

Paw patrol phonics 🚗 Why not follow the children’s interests and incorporate phonics into their play?! I used masking ta...
27/01/2021

Paw patrol phonics 🚗

Why not follow the children’s interests and incorporate phonics into their play?!

I used masking tape to put some letters on the paw patrol cars.

Here’s some ideas of what you could do:
* Lay out the cars and say each sound as you race the car around a track/along the ground.
* Share out the cars and have some mini races, whoever wins the race says their sound first. Can you think of a word with that sound?
* Drive the cars down a ramp one at a time, each time, say or shout the sound before you let the car go. Which sound went the furthest?
* Can you make any words with the cars? Can you make a 3 letter word? How about a 4 letter word? Can you make a word with the digraph ‘sh’? Drive each car forward as you say it’s sound.
* INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY - write down some words using the sounds on the cars. Ask your child to independently practise matching the cars to the words. Can they practise reading the words to themselves? Can they write them down in a list? Can they use them to write sentences? If using alien words, can they blend the sounds, write the word and then draw their own alien? 👾

Matching objects to their initial sound. This will encourage children to really think about the initial sounds in words ...
26/01/2021

Matching objects to their initial sound.

This will encourage children to really think about the initial sounds in words and everyday objects.

Here’s a few different ways to play -

* Lay a few sounds out and give your child one at a time, ask them to say the sound to check their recognition and then ask them to find an object that begins with that sound. You could help by giving them a few options to choose from.
* Collect some objects, discuss what they are one at a time and what sound is at the beginning of the word (eg. h for hat) and then your child needs to choose which sound to match. You could always hide the sounds for them to find each time they’ve identified what they’re looking for! This finding and matching bit could be an independent activity if your child is confident enough.
* INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY - they could choose 3/4 of the objects and practise writing the word out, thinking about all of the sounds in the word.
* Can they find objects for each sound in their name?
* Can they find the sounds for a whole word of an object? (Eg. f-r-o-g)

I set this activity up for this page as my son is still a bit little and I don’t force him if he doesn’t show an interest. However I left them out and my son found them later and asked what it was so I explained and he started to find more objects and ask which sound they started with! This was only for about 3 minutes but the learning was far more meaningful than if I’d have made him do the activity when he didn’t want to! 🎉

23/01/2021

Hide and seek phonics! 🙈👂

Try hiding behind a sofa or under the table (or your child could hide), make sure your child has paper and a pen/pencil. Say a sound or a word for your child to write down and then check after if they were right!

* You could have a list to compare and ‘mark’ together afterwards and discuss any words or sounds that were tricky, repeating them together and showing how we make the sounds with our mouths.

* Make it fun by changing the hiding place each time! Behind the shed or under the bed or in the bath?!

* An alternative could be that you write the sound on their back or their hand with their eyes closed and they have to concentrate on the formation and write it down and then check! ✍️

Paper plates! Write a selection of phonics sounds to practise on paper plates (or anything you have in - paper/post it’s...
20/01/2021

Paper plates!

Write a selection of phonics sounds to practise on paper plates (or anything you have in - paper/post it’s/boxes?) and practise throwing a beanbag or toy onto the sounds.

* Throw the toy and say the sound it lands on. Can you get quicker? Can you think of a word including that sound?
INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY- children could do this activity themselves and write down the sounds with a word including it next to it.
* Adult says a word, children throw/place toy on each sound in turn to make that word.
Some suggestions of words for this selection of sounds to save time - yawn, saw, catch, itch, snow, now, cow, stars, sow, sit, tan, sat, sad, yank, say, ditch, sn**ch, stay, say, tank, stink.
Or alien words! These could be - cay, tatch, nart, yars, nawc, nis, tay, nink

Making phonics sounds with objects around the house!* Practise recognising each letters’ capital letter alongside its lo...
19/01/2021

Making phonics sounds with objects around the house!

* Practise recognising each letters’ capital letter alongside its lower case version (probably more of a KS1 activity). Discuss when you need the capital letter - beginning of sentences, names and places.
* Challenge your child to make all the letters of the alphabet or a few phonics sounds your child has been practising. Perhaps they could tick them off a list or note them down as they go? Could be an independent activity 😄
* Say a word for your child to make with objects - this will encourage them to segment the sounds and practise their spelling of different words.
* Can you make a sound in each room of the house using some objects in there, for someone else to find and identify. They might spell out a word for someone else to note down and read!
* Think of a word with sounds your child knows or is learning, ask them to make each one with different objects or maybe in different rooms, can they be a detective 🕵️‍♀️ and work out the word?
* INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY - Can they make the same sound (pure sound/digraph/trigraph) with several different objects? Which object works best for that sound? Why? (Discuss shapes of letters - curves, dots, tails etc.)

Feel free to share a photo if you have a go! 😄

Combining phonics and PE! How about getting moving and stretching by making your phonics sounds with your body?! This wi...
18/01/2021

Combining phonics and PE!

How about getting moving and stretching by making your phonics sounds with your body?! This will really help children to think about the shapes and formation of letters.

* When making different letters, discuss, does this letter have any curves? What about straight lines? Is it a tall giraffe letter, monkey letter with a tail or a small tortoise letter? What is the letter name? What sound does it make?
* Take it in turns to say a sound and the other person has to try and make that sound! Or think of a sound, make it, can the other player guess it? Can with think of a word beginning with that sound?
* Say a word and ask your child to think about which sounds are in that word, can they make the word, doing each letter in turn? This will really make them think about segmenting the sounds without the extra pressure of writing them. You could write the sounds down as they say them and make them so they can check if they were right at the end.
* Take photos of yourself making a selection of sounds you are working on, print them out and see how many real/alien words you can make with your very own letters! This last bit could be an independent activity. They could even stick them up/lay them out to make different words for others to read later.
Pair up to make digraphs and trigraphs - encourage your child to tell you which letters are needed to make the sound. Can they write the sound to show you and explain how you could make the letter with your body?
* Challenge - if focussing on digraphs or trigraphs, you could say a word including one eg. ‘float’ and your child needs to identify the digraph they can hear (oa) and then have a go at making it with their body. Hopefully this will be a fun way of making them really think about the letters which make up different sounds.

Thanks so much to my little helpers for demonstrating this one! 🥰 Can you guess which letters they were making?

17/01/2021

Morning everybody!
I hope everyone has found chance for a quick sit down and cuppa this weekend 🤞

I’m aiming to do a video over the next couple of days to show how to say each phonics sound as this can be very confusing.

I was also wondering if it be helpful if I did another tricky word video? I’m happy to do a series of them in a similar format for different tricky words but it would be good to know if people would use them or if you’re pretty much sorted on these? Please let me know in the comments below or a message on this page if you prefer 😊

I know everyone is swamped so would like to make sure that what I do is useful and not adding more anxiety. Obviously use what’s helpful and ignore what is not!

You’re all doing amazing ⭐️

Phonics treasure hunt! I hid the letters of my boy’s name around the house and drew him a treasure map to find them in o...
16/01/2021

Phonics treasure hunt!

I hid the letters of my boy’s name around the house and drew him a treasure map to find them in order! (Excuse my terrible drawing ability...). I then showed him his name to help him to lay them out in order - he wasn’t keen on doing this but at least he enjoyed the hunt and it gave us the opportunity to look at letters and say their sounds, even if he doesn’t quite know them yet.

* Hide tricky words and when found, read them and think of a sentence with them.
* Hide letters which make up a word. Can they match them up to written words or make a word themselves? (eg. top, twig, melt, jump, forest)
* Hide the letters for one word in one room and another in another room etc.
* To focus on early phonics and sound recognition, ask your child if they know the sound they have found each time and either model saying a word beginning with that sound or ask them if they can think of one. If from an alphabet puzzle, they could take it on the hunt and fill in the puzzle as they go.
* INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY- following a treasure map, children could find the letters independently. After playing together, challenge your child to write or think of some words and then hide the letters for you to find later, making a treasure map as they go along. This would take a good 10-15 minutes at least!

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