top of page
Writer's pictureTeacher Gems

Build a Strong Foundation for Reading through Phonics Instruction

Updated: Apr 22, 2019




Teachers can build a strong foundation for reading through phonics instruction. What is phonics instruction? As Wikipedia defines it, "Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing of the English language by developing learners' phonemic awareness--the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes--in order to teach the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns (graphemes) that represent them."


Over the past two years I have been working hard to develop multiple sets of phonics activities in the form of MEGA activity packs for short vowels, long vowels, r-controlled vowels and blends. I want to take you through my Short 'A' Mega Activity Pack to show you what's all included (in each pack). First, each pack is aligned with the Common Core State Standards and includes a page listing the language arts and math (that's right they are multidisciplinary!) standards it covers. 


There are several different types of activities in each pack of activities including...


Write the Room Activities


Each activity pack includes "Write the Room" activities. These are fun activities where teachers hide phonics cards around the room in easy to find places (attached to a wall, on a bookcase, on a table, etc.). Students are given a recording sheet and clipboard and told to search the room for the phonics cards. Once they find a card they write the word on their recording sheet. This is a great kinesthetic activity as it gets students

up and moving around the classroom! 



Rhyming Words Flip Books

Another hands-on activity is the interactive flip books that are included. Students put together their flip books and then write all the rhyming words they can think of/fit underneath each flap. So for example if the picture card is a 'cat' they would write 'bat', 'sat', 'fat', etc. Some of the activity packs ask students to find similar patterned words (instead of rhymes). In the blends pack for example, if the word picture card was a 'truck' students would write words that begin with the 'tr' blend (tree, trunk, treat, etc.)



Phonics Flip Books

There are several flip books included in each activity pack. The long 'A' pack, for example, includes one flip book for each the vowel teams/spelling of the long 'A' sound ('a', 'ai', 'ay', 'a-e', 'ei', 'eigh', 'ey', and 'ea). Each activity pack includes an additional flip book cover so you can combine all the flip books into one if you prefer.



Bulletin Board Posters

Each activity pack also includes a set of bulletin board posters. There is a mini poster that can be used as a student reference chart along with several full page (8 1/2" x 11") posters for each vowel or vowel team/spelling or blend. You can add die cut letters of each

vowel team and a cute border to yours!



Read and Graph Activities

These are probably my favorite activities in each set! I love to incorporate multidisciplinary learning and these activities are a mix of reading and math! Students are given an activity page where they have to read 10 sentences and circle all the short 'a' words for example. Students are told to find all 25 short 'a' words on the page (self-evaluation!). Once students have found all 25 words they then graph the words according to word family (i.e. 'at', 'ag', 'ap', etc.). Then they interpret the data by answering questions based on the graph results. These are so much fun and there is so much

learning going on in these activities!!!

Read, Roll, Do Activities

These are great activities to use as a spare time or anchor activity. I've included a colored and black and white version of the reference chart so you can print it to display in your classroom or give each student their own copy to keep in a folder in their desk. For this activity, students "roll" a die, "read" the sentence it falls on and "do" the activity it describes. There are several activity pages included for students to complete

each activity on the reference chart.




Extra Practice Pages

There are several extra practice pages included in each set. On the "Write It! Build It" pages, students practice writing short 'a' words, for example, and then make the words using magnet letters, wiki sticks, stamps, letter tiles or any way of their choice. They also draw pictures of the words on the "Read, Trace, and Draw" pages. There are several other types of extra practice pages included in each set.

Break It, Make It Activities

These activities are a big hit with students! Each student receives a secret alphabet code chart along with a page of secret code words. They must "break" the code to figure out what each word is and then "make" the word by drawing a picture of it. There are

several of these activities included in each set as well!

and so much more!

I didn't name these MEGA activity packs for nothing! Each one is jammed-packed full of fun! Use them for whole class instruction, small group, centers, RTI and more! 


Hear what teachers think of these...

"As a new teacher to 1st grade this has truly been a GEM! Thank you for putting in so much time to create a fantastic resource for me to use. My students and I love it!" - Yvonne M.

"LOADS of ENGAGING activities for FUN practice! We've started with the Write the Room activities and can't wait to get going on the others. GREAT product! :)" - Lorena S.

"Mega is an understatement! An abundance of excellent activities to practice and review short 'i' sounds. I like that there are both color and b/w activities for the students. A job well done! A must have in elementary classroom." - Debbie P.

"This will be so helpful for any primary grade teacher, whether you use it for your whole class for RTI. Thanks so much for a wonderful resource!" - Mary S.

"I am using this resource for an "Extended Day" program. Students are engaged and they love the images!!! Awesome Work!!" - Neida M.

"This product is very comprehensive. I have been able to use it with students at a variety of reading levels." - Janna W.

"This has been such a useful product to use with all different ability levels! Thank you so much for sharing! :)" - Taila F.

"Such a great buy!! So many resources in one bundle!!! Thank you!!!" - Sandra M.

"A great activity to have the students doing when you are working on small groups or great center work." - Tara H.

"Very cute! My kids love working on these activities for centers. Thank you!" - Melissa K.


Phonics MEGA Activity Packs

Short Vowels


Long Vowels


R-Controlled Vowels


Blends


Hands-On Phonics Ultimate Bundle of Bundles!

This is the ultimate in phonics bundles! A bundle of my 4 bundles (short vowels, long vowels, r-controlled vowels and blends) that includes ALL 18 of my MEGA activity packs!!! If you were to buy these packs individually it would cost you $127.75 but I have marked it down nearly 50% to only $65.00! You can also earn additional TpT credits towards future purchases when you leave feedback!




Find these free samples in my Free Resource Library!



Thanks for stopping by!











Join my free resource library! Click here!

133 views0 comments

תגובות


bottom of page