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Phonics reading challenge

04/06/2020

This challenge focuses on finding words in magazines, books, leaflets, newspapers, food packaging etc. that contain specific sounds. Choose 2 or 3 digraphs or trigraphs (2 or 3 letters that come together to make a sound) and see if you can find words containing these. I focused on 'ay, ee and air' but you may like to use your sounds of the week from your home learning or pick a tricky sound that you want to practice. It is great for reading too as you can challenge yourself to read the words you find!

Related Media

KABOOM!

Write words containing your focus sounds on lollipop sticks or strips of card and place the sticks into a cup so the words are hidden. Each player pulls out a stick and says the word written on the stick they draw. If correct, they get to keep that stick. But “KABOOM” is written on two sticks and every time one is pulled out, the unlucky player has to put all their sticks back in the cup. You could even set a timer to see how many sticks you can collect in one minute.

Phonics bootcamp!

Why not combine physical exercise with keyword and phonics reading?! Create your own workout schedule and get fit learning your phonics and reading!

Making sounds in different ways

For something to stay in our memory long term, we need to make it more exciting. To physically play with a sound and include colour allows children to remember it both visually and physically. By making various sounds out of different materials and objects (pens, paint, chalk, flour, cereal, straws, stones, sticks, Lego, newspapers, magazines, Play- Doh), they are not only practicing physically forming and making each sound, but the repeated exposure commits the sound to their long term memory.

Phonics flip flap book

Why not have a go at making your own flip flap phonics book to practice segmenting and blending? It is very easy to make and is a great resource to support early reading.

A great game to practice segmenting and blending words

For this activity I wrote some graphemes on a piece of paper. I rolled up some pastry dough (as I did not have playdough) and stuck them above the graphemes. These will act as sound buttons. Your child picks a card, presses the corresponding buttons, blends the sounds together to make the word and picks another card. You might like to play this game against a timer to see how many words can be read in one minute. Hope you enjoy it!

Alternative phonemes

A game which looks at alternative spellings for phonemes teaching children that the same sound can be made by different letters.