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Something a little seasonal this month! A bright, colourful autumn word mat.
When I am asking my KS1 or special needs children to write on a topic, they often need words appropriate to the topic to help them with their spelling. Of course, being able to spell a word quickly helps the children to write more fluently and therefore to convey their thoughts more precisely.
How much better it is when teachers point out the spelling patterns in the new vocabulary!
I will use every opportunity to point out the sounds in new words that the children have already learnt (or are perhaps struggling with, for a bit of extra practice!)
I find that phonetically coded word mats help children to see the phonic sounds in the words they use. This has three outcomes: 1) The children learn to spell new words quicker when they recognise the sounds they have already been taught in words they have not used before. 2) The spelling patterns they have already been taught are reinforced as they use the word mat. 3) The children are delighted to see that that many of the 'new' words, are words that they can sound out for themselves - when the sounds are highlighted for them! This is a tremendous confidence booster!
Right there on the desk next to the child
I always like to draw children's attention to the spelling patterns in new words, and will often write them where all children can see them. However, for some children it is helpful for them to have them right there by them, on the desk as they write, as the physical effort of looking at a board/screen and back to the paper several times is just too much.
Great for classroom assistants to use
Having the words phonitically coded helps classroom assistants to key into the phonic structure of the words as they help the children. However - a warning - it is never advisable to give the weaker children to a classroom assistant. These children need the teacher's skill to help them - and the teacher needs to know exactly how the child copes with the activity in order to identify strengths and weaknesses to plan further work.. This is information that can only be gained by watching as the child completes the activity.
We hope this colourful Autumn Word Mat will be of use to you and to your children!
Download by clicking on the image.
If you like our Autumn Word Mat - please tell others!
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Once phonic learners get to the stage where they have learnt several ways of making the same sound, as we have here with ir/er/ and ur, then I like to use games to help the pupil to learn which words belong in each phonic 'family'. You should refer to each set of letters by their names rather than combined sound, as they all say the same sound!
'ie' - Eye-EE 'ur' = You Are 'er' = EE ARE This phonic ir/ur/er game helps spelling no end!
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Hop to the Pond Game
This game is suitable for children at Stage 5 of Letters and Sounds who have learnt 'ch', 'sh' and 'ay' already.
How to play:
The pupil takes a letter card (ur/er/ir) from the feely bag and then has to select a picture from the pool of picture cards that pictures a word from the chosen family .
The pupil will then have to see if it is correct by checking against the Word Bank Card. The teacher can help with this.
If correct, the picture card is taken and put by the player. If not it is returned to the table, face up.
The winner has the most picture cards once one player has reached the pond.
Full instructions are given in this FREE download (see below).
You will need:
2 counters
A feely bag, or small box to put the letter cards in.
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Playing Tips:
- Remind the pupil that 'er' most usually occurs at the end of a word: it's that sound that we make at the end of words such as 'jump - er'. Help the pupil to speak 'posh' and sound the 'er' correctly.
- Talk about the words represented by the pictures before you start to play the game. If you are not sure, check with the Word Bank first, by finding the picture for each word as it is read.
- If the pupil chooses the wrong word for a sound, refer to the Word Bank Card and reinforce the correct spelling.
- Have fun! As the pupil's mind will be taken up with the game - s/he will forget the learning that is taking place quietly underneath!
- Afetr the game, ask the pupil to say the word for each picture and tell you which family it belongs to. E.g. bird - 'ir'.
Other resources you might find helpful:
A printer to print your game
Card to print it on
Alaminator to protect it and make it last longer
Afolder to keep all the pieces safe.
If you like our games, please tell us others and us!
Download your FREE game by clicking on the picture.
The ai/oa phonics game
'ai' makes an 'ay' sound in words, listen:
tr ai n
b oa t
boat: loaf toast, coat, road, toad
train: tail, drain, nail, rain, maid
OR
You could use the game as an individual activity, for which it is great for assessing a child's ability in phonics.
This game involves listening and reading to give practice in hearing the ai/oa sounds and recognising them in words. there are no complicated rules - so you can be ready to play in no time at all!
Easy to make!
- Just download and print the game pages - card is good but not essential.
- Cut out the necessary cards.
- Laminate the games to make them last longer (optional)
- Find a small box/bag or purchase a blank die.
- And you are ready to go!
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Find worksheets to support teaching and learning here:
Other games you may like:
Download your FREE ai/oa game here:
Once more we have two games for you to download and print free, to give children practice in blending - this time with the sounds or and ar.
By the time pupils reach this stage, they should be becoming quite fluent at blending one syllable words, but they will need plenty of practice in first of all recognising new blends as they are taught and then applying their knowledge while reading texts.
Our first game will give help with the former: hearing the sounds 'ar' and 'or' in words and knowing which letters to use to represent those sounds.
Our second game will give practice in using the new knowledge when reading short sentences and phrases.
Game 1: Which sound can you hear
This game - like all our games, is simple to play. You will just need a little box to put the sound cards in, or a feely bag.
A base board is chosen (blue or green) and the player takes a sound card from the box/feely bag. The player can then choose a picture with that sound in to place on his/her board. Play continues until both boards are completed and the winner is the first to fill his/her board.
Game 2: Matching phrases to pictures
Easy to make
- Download the files.
- Print the needed pages - card is a good option.
- Cut out the relevant cards.
- Laminate to make them last longer (optional).
- Store in a plastic folder to keep everything safe (optional).
Find worksheets to support learning here:
Find us on Tiny Tap!
Download your FREE games here:
Today we will look generally at things to bear in mind however you are teaching phonics to help you to teach more effectively.
A phonic programme is only as good as the teacher using it
In the cases where I hear a teacher saying 'S/he can't learn by phonics!' in most cases I see clearly that the fault has not been with the child, but with the teacher. Don't be one of them. Make it a mindset to want to make phonics work for every child. There is only a very small percentage of folks who cannot hear phonetic sounds - it is rare. These children however will still learn best with a structured approach.
- Study the subject.
- Learn with your children.
- Watch how they learn as this will help you become a better teacher.
- Remember - the best teachers are learner too!
Having said this - some programmes are better than others: on the whole the simpler it is to administer and understand, the more success you will have with it. No teacher has time to get to grips with a complicated method and use it consistently well without much expensive training. Phonics does not need a lot of training, only a willingness to embrace it and see the benefits. You will learn best with your children. A few tips along the way can help though.
One third of your class will learn by any method
Do not rely on parental help
Understand the learning process
Learn how best to cope with differing ability levels
Make sure that you, the class teacher, teach the lower group in your class. The upper third that learn by any method will thrive being taught by someone else. The lower groups need the continuity - you, the class teacher, with them all the time. It is absolutely crucial that you know exactly where these children are in their phonic development. Phonic teaching should not just take place for half an hour each day and then be forgotten. The diligent teacher will know each child inside out. If an opportunity arises during another lesson to reinforce the bit the child is struggling with, then the teacher can use it to 'plug' the gap. This constant revision and reinforcement it vital to the success of these children. Sometimes it will be a group of children that you know are struggling with a particular sound, or you have been trying to help a group learn a new 'tricky' word. In the geography session, later that day, you meet a word with that sound, or that tricky word. do not think to yourself 'This is geography not phonics!' Young children learn holistically, not in discreet subjects, so just take a second or two to briefly point it out to the child/children, before moving back to geography.
Use a truly phonetic reading scheme
Contrary to popular thought, the Oxford Reading Tree scheme, despite its appearance of being phonetic, is still fundamentally a whole language reading scheme that has been given a phonics veneer. If you look at the early books in the scheme closely, you can see that there is still close matching of the text to the pictures. This is supposedly to help the child to use cues to ‘read’ but actually, for most children just encourages guessing, which is a pernicious habit that is very hard to break, especially for the lesser ability children, who often become those in need of remedial help. Having worked with many ‘remedial’ children (who most would never have become remedial had they have had phonics well taught from the start). I know it is a popular scheme, but it does not help your phonics teaching as you will end up expecting children to read words for which they have not yet been taught the skills to decode - or resorting to look and say - or worse still, guessing.
My best advice - write your own! Mine do not fit with Letters and sounds, but rather with my own programme Reading Made Simple - however they show how simple the books could be. See them here.
Today's parents may feel illiterate due to the poor educational standards in the 90's
Hello and welcome to our next sound. This week it is sh/ch. These two digraphs are often taught close together as they are so similar. Despite this, most children will grasp them quickly, especially after playing our games!!
Young children like to put their finger to their lips and say 'shhh' for 'sh'. I often get children to pretend to chop with their hands for 'ch'. Its amazing how a little bit of body movement helps children to learn new things quickly: they call it 'multi-sensory'.
So here we have two more games for you to download and print for free . The first is a simple matching game. Do talk about the pictures as you play the game. You can even do this before you start, making sure that your pupil knows what each picture is. Watch out - it's not 'food' this time, but 'lunch'!
Game 1
This is a simple matching game- but non-the-less greatly enjoyed by children.
In this game they are not being expected to read words for which they have not yet learnt the phonic code - only identify the intial sound, 'ch' or 'sh'.
this game is helpful as it gives children the opportunity of reading short phrases, without the pressure of reading a 'book'.
How to make your games
Cut out cards as necessary for game 1
Laminate the cards if they are to be used lots of times.
Store the games carefully - I like to keep mine in plasctic folders.
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Once you have played the games, why not follow up your work on 'sh/ch' with a worksheet ?
Find sh worksheets here. Find ch worksheets here.
See our FREE truly phonetic phonic readers - all FREE!
Download your FREE sh/ch games below
Click on the pictures to be taken to Teach Simple for FREE download!
Welcome
Hello, I'm Lilibette, qualified teacher (B.Ed Hons). I have taught phonics in mainstream education, followed by have home-educated my two sons to 18, and am now a private tutor.
Reading Made Simple (a completely free systematic phonic reading programme) and Sound-it-out are the results!
I aim to bring advice and resources aimed at enabling parents and teachers to EASILY teach phonics effectively. That is: to help children become life-long readers, forming a bedrock on which all further education can be built. My mother helps to draw the pictures and between us we have many years experience of teaching KS1, special needs and ESL. We hope you enjoy browsing our site!
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