New South Wales Department of Education
Plant Features
Pine needles are actually modified leaves. In the 16th installment of 20, young scientists explore plants. Through an analysis of leaves — shape, veins, and edges — pupils see how to classify plants based on structural features.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Alphabet Borders
Help young scholars name the letters of the alphabet. They use the provided alphabet border and letter cards to take turns saying and finding various alphabet letters. This simple game can be extended by having learners focus on the...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Recognizing Letters
Boost letter recognition with an activity that challenges young scholars to match a plastic letter to one printed on a card.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Letter Recognition, Alphabet Tiles Name Sort
Beginning readers practice identifying alphabet letters using upper and lower case letter tiles. Each class member is given a T-chart, letter tiles, and a name card. They then separate the letter tiles in their name from those not in...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Letter-Sound Correspondence, Words Around Us Memory Game
Scholars employ memory and letter-sound skills like the classic game Concentration to succeed at this literacy game. Partners choose from rows of upside-down cards, trying to match letters to images with the corresponding initial sound.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Fluency: Letter Recognition, Speedy Alphabet Arc
On your mark, get set, match! Learners use a complete set of letters, matching each to its outlined letter on an arc. As they choose letters, they name them aloud. For added difficulty, another arc is missing most of its letters to...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Letter Recognition, Hungry Letter Mouse
Scholars take turns writing and identifying letters on a whiteboard. Learner one writes a letter; learner two finds it on the alphabet strip. If they are correct, Mr. Mouse gets to eat that letter, and if they are incorrect, Mr. Mouse...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Letter Recognition: Tap Stack
Practice letter recognition using this fun alphabet game! Focusing on a suggested six target letters, this partner activity has learners saying and recognizing letter names as quickly as possible. Using a randomly chosen letter as the...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Syllables, Clapping Names
Scholars practice identifying and counting syllables. Images of classmates are cut out and placed on a chart. Learners clap and count the syllables in each child's name. They finish by writing the number of syllables under the...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Syllables, Syllable Graph
Scholars make a pictograph based on the number of syllables in each picture card. They choose a card, say the name of the object on the card, break the word into syllables, count the syllables, then glue the picture onto the number chart...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Onset and Rime, Sound Detective
Play letter sound detective with your class, and snoop out sounds, onsets, blends, and rhyme. In pairs, children take turns choosing a card from the pile; as they sound out part of the word, their partner attempts to figure out which...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Onset and Rime, Guessing Game
An activity challenges scholars to show what they know about onset and rime. Learners choose from a stack of picture cards and give onset and rhyming clues to see if their partners can guess the word they are holding.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Matching, Sound Maker - Sound Smacker
Scholars sort words based on their initial phonemes. They choose cards, say their names, and match the initial phoneme to the one posted on one of the sorting bins. If the initial sound matches, they put the card in the sound maker bin,...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Matching, Phoneme Go Fish
Go fishing for initial sounds with this engaging phoneme game! Similar to the card game Go Fish, pairs use picture cards and try to match initial sounds. They set aside any pictures that are a match and ask their partner for specific...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Isolating, Sound Quest
Scholars cut, paste, and identify specific initial, medial, and final phonemes by placing them on a phoneme chart.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Segmenting, Phoneme Photos
This great activity incorporates counting, phoneme segmenting, and class photos. In pairs, learners take turns saying, counting, and checking the number of phoneme segments found in their classmates' names. They count the phonemes and...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Segmenting, Phoneme Hopscotch
Your class will love playing phoneme hopscotch! Scholars choose a card, say the name of the object on the card, break the word into phonemes, count the phonemes, then hop that many spaces on the hopscotch mat. Super fun!
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Isolating, Phoneme Quest
In this phonics activity, little learners glue picture cards under the initial, medial, and final phonemes represented by the lead sound cards. An image of a shark broken into three parts represents the initial phoneme /sh/, the medial...
Curated OER
Phonological Awareness, Phoneme Manipulating, Phoneme Position Sort
Scholars make new words out of old ones by manipulating phonemes. Pupils mix and match initial, medial, and final phonemes to change words like cap into cup or head into bed.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Onset and Rime, Say It Now
Pairs use onset and rime cards to make as many words as possible by blending the onsets with the rimes.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Onset and Rime, Change-A-Word
Kids use their phonological know-how to identify and segment onset and rime blends. Double rime picture cards (cat and hat) are chosen, then matched to onset cards that make each word, such as the k sound for a cat and the h sound for a...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Onset and Rime, Word Maker Game
Scholars use a set of onset and rime cards to construct and write various simple words. Pairs take turns pulling cards from a bag and blending the onset card with the rime card to create a word. They record the onset, the rime, and the...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Encoding and Decoding, Letter Cube Blending
Emergent readers use a letter cube to identify, blend, and make words. They roll each of the three-letter cubes, mark down the letters they rolled, then blend the letter sounds together to make a word. They record each word on a...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: High Frequency Words, Word Bowling
Go bowling for high-frequency words! Partners take turns drawing bowling ball cards and read the word printed on them. If the learner is successful, they record their score on a scorecard.