Skip to main content

7 Fun Phonics Activities

Phonics is the relationship between letters and letter combinations and the sounds they make. Phonics gives children the ability to sound out and spell new words.

In this post I will share some of my family's favorite phonics and word family activities.



Word Family Flip Cards:

On a 3x5 card write the ending sound from a word family like "at".  Leave enough room to the right to add another letter or two.


In front of the ending sound staple several 2x2 squares of paper in a stack. Staple them just at the top so the pages can be flipped up.

Write a different letter on each square of paper so that they make words with the ending sound.




Now your child can use the flip card to practice reading the words in that word family. Make more for other word families.

Word Family Books:

Reading with your children is simple and probably the best thing you can do for developing early literacy skills. Some of our favorite word family books are:

-Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

-Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss

-The Usborne Phonics Readers series

-The Bob Book Word Family set

Phonics Scavenger Hunt:

Write letters or letter blends on 3x5 cards or pieces of construction paper. Then hide them around the house or yard. Have your child hunt for the cards and read the letter sound or blend as he or she finds them.

Phonics Songs:

Songs are a fun way to teach kids letter sounds. Here are a few of our favorites: 

-Phonics Song 2 from KidsTV123

-The Letter Sounds Song from KidsTV123

- Letter Sound Songs by ABCmouse.com

Word Family Brainstorm:

Pick a word family like the "at" sound family and have your child brainstorm and write as many words from that word family as they can.

Word Family Crossword Puzzle:

Make a crossword puzzle using words from a word family. You can make your own crossword puzzles for free at Instant Online Crossword Puzzle Maker.

Letter Sound Hopscotch

Go outside and draw a hopscotch court on the sidewalk or driveway with sidewalk chalk. Inside each square, draw a letter. On the double squares write a letter blend, one letter in each square. Have your child hop down the hopscotch course saying the letter sounds or letter blend sounds as he or she lands on the squares.


What are some of your favorite phonics activities?



If you enjoyed this post, you might like: 



Follow me on:

Comments

  1. I love the hopscotch idea. We will have to do that (when it stops raining!).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bath time- writing the letters in shaving cream while saying the sounds!

    ReplyDelete
  3. These are some great ideas! I especially love the hopscotch idea...being physically and mentally active at the same time, awesome!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I have very energetic kids so we definitely try to incorporate as much physical activity into our days as we can :-)

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Water Relay Races For Kids

I don't know about your kids, but mine absolutely love games involving water and getting wet in the summer time. In  this post I share 5 of our favorite water relay races to play with friends. These are perfect for birthday parties, homeschool get togethers, and other group events. Sponge Relay: For this relay you will need: - 2 teams of several kids each -2 large sponges -4 small buckets or containers of some sort Divide your participants into 2 teams and have each team line up single file at a predetermined starting place.  Hand out a sponge to the first participant in each line. Set a bucket of water by each team. Set an empty bucket about 20 ft away from each team.  The two empty buckets should be the same size and should have a "fill line" marked half way up. On a count of 3 (or ready set go) the first participant in each line should dip their sponge in the bucket of water, run to the empty bucket, squeeze the water from their spo

Make Your Own Mineral Identification Kit

One of my family's favorite hobbies is rock hounding. We love collecting and trying to identify neat rock and mineral specimens that we come across. You can put together your own simple kit for identifying rocks and minerals with materials you likely already have around your home. In this post I will explain how to put together your own mineral identification kit and how to use it to identify rocks and minerals you find on your adventures. Making a Rock and Mineral ID Kit Grab yourself a printable Rock and Mineral Journal for recording your observations here:  Printable Rock and Mineral Journal ,  and then gather the following supplies: -A pencil -A coin -An iron nail -A piece of glass (an old pocket mirror works well) -A ceramic tile -A small watertight bottle or container -Some vinegar -A magnet  -A magnifying glass -A dropper (optional)  -Rock and mineral guide (optional)  -A small container or bag to keep it all in Fill the small watertight

STEM Art: 21 STEAM Project Ideas

My kids love STEM projects and we're always looking for ways to add more art to our homeschool days, so I decided I am going to try to dedicate one morning a week this year to STEM art activities. In this post I share some of the ideas we're planning to try, plus a few favorites we've done in the past. What is STEM Education? STEM education is a blended and often hands on approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, which are some of today's fastest growing industries. STEM education offers students the opportunity to problem solve and work on real world problems and questions. Sometimes the acronym STEAM is used, to include the arts. Adding art to STEM education encourages creative thinking and problem solving skills. It can also help make the other included subjects more appealing to some students. STEM Art Projects  Penny Spinners-   Learn about centrifugal force and make your own spinning tops with this fun post from Teach Beside Me. Explo

40 Things To Look At Under A Microscope

Microscopes are a scientific instrument that all kids should get a chance to learn how to use. There are so many everyday things that look really amazing up-close. Under a microscope you can see that objects and even plants and animals are made of tiny intricate parts. The microscopic world is amazing! In this post I share 40 things to try looking at up-close under a microscope. 40 Things To Look At Under A Microscope: 1. A feather  2. Soil 3. An insect wing 4. A human hair 5. An animal hair 6. Pond water 7. Diatomacious earth-  diatomacious earth looks SO cool magnified! 8. Cheek swab 9. An insect leg 10. A drop of blood 11. Mold 12. Sand 13. A shaving from a chicken bone- try both a piece of hard bone from the outside and some spongy bone from inside a bone. 14. Kombucha 15. Snake or lizard skin after they shed  16. A flower petal 17. A sliver of wood 18. Sugar 19. Salt- try different types 20. Thread 21. Saliva 22. A s

Learning About The Human Body Part 1: The Skeletal And Muscular Systems

At the end of each school year, I sit down with my daughter to discuss what topics she wants to learn about the next year. One of her science topics she picked to study this year was the human body. Instead of ordering a boxed curriculum set, I decided to put together my own human body unit. In this post I share some of the resources we used for learning about the human skeletal and muscular systems, plus instructions for a couple hands on learning activities. You can find my post about the human respiratory and circulatory systems  here , and my post about the human digestive and nervous systems  here . The Human Skeletal System Our skeletons are the frame of our body. They give us structure, without them our bodies would be limp like noodles. They also provide places for muscles to attach so our bodies can move. Why Does Your Body Need Calcium? Experiment: This is a simple experiment you can do to explore why calcium is important for our bones. You will need: -several clean