Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Matching, Initial Phoneme Picture Sort
An activity focuses on phonemic awareness and initial letter sounds. Scholars sort picture cards by saying and matching the initial sounds each word makes.
Curated OER
Reading Group-Beginning Sounds
Kindergarteners study beginning letter sounds in this interactive plan. They will match picture cards to the letter sound that each image begins with. After working together as a whole group, pupils participate in a game in which they...
Have Fun Teaching
Brick Breaker: Initial Consonant Blends
Practice initial consonant blends with a fun, interactive game! Choose the sounds you'd like to practice, and then have kids place the appropriate pictures for their brick breaker boards. Spin the spinner to select a blended sound, and...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Sound it-Bag it
Scholars sort picture cards based on the initial phoneme they hear as they say the name of each image. They pick a card, say its name, then place it in one of five bags based on how its initial phoneme matches the initial phoneme...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Matching, Sound Train
Make a phonics train filled with matching initial phonemes. Early readers say the name of the objects on each of their cards, identify the initial letter sounds or phonemes, then paste them on a train. They make three trains, which means...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Matching, Pack-a-Backpack
Scholars sort words based on their initial phoneme or sound. Learners are given two backpacks, each with a picture card; they search and match picture cards with the same initial sound as the ones on each backpack.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Isolating, Bag-of-Sounds
In pairs, pre-readers take turns holding up objects from a bag. As one child holds up an object, the other names it and says its initial letter sound. They work together to sort the objects into piles based on how they isolated and...
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
Phonics: Letter-Sound Correspondence, Letter-Sound Match
Boost initial, medial, and final sound correspondence. Scholars practice decomposing word sounds using image cards and a worksheet. Learners cut out 10 three-letter images, sound them out, and glue them on the worksheet. Each word is...
University of British Columbia
The Outsiders: Identity, the Individual, and the Group
S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders is the anchor text in a unit that asks readers to reflect on their own identity, their place in their family, in groups with which they identify, and in school.
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...
Curated OER
Maniac Magee: Fishbowl Discussion
Split the class into two groups for a fishbowl discussion using of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee. The first group initiates the conversation by reviewing the important points of Chapter thirteen while group two members are listening,...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Letter- Sound Correspondence, Brown Bag It
Sorting objects according to their initial sound get scholars thinking about letter-sound correspondence. With 26 brown bags labeled with a letter of the alphabet, learners browse magazines and cut out images that begin with the...
Curated OER
Phoneme Substitution, Harder (With Letters)
Emergent readers create new words by changing a phoneme, using sets of letter cards to spell out each CVC word. They begin by substituting initial sounds, then final sounds, and lastly the middle vowel. Help them sound out each word,...
Curated OER
Reintroduce /r/
The /r/ sound can be a difficult one, but scholars use some helpful tips to get it right. After examining the letter shape they listen to you pronounce this phoneme and describe what you are doing to create the sound. They try on their...
Curated OER
Introduce /n/
What is this letter? Once your class is ready to explore the letter n, use these strategies to combine word examples, pronunciation, and letter recognition. First, can they identify the letter? Make the /n/ sound, explaining how you do...
Curated OER
Simple Keys and Nutrition
An inventive and engaging lesson on nutrition, food groups, and the food pyramid is here for you. In it, young dieticians learn about the basics of nutrition. They use the book, Frog and Toad are Friends, to help them foster discussion...
Goethe-Institut
Life in a Refugee Camp
To raise awareness of the complexity of the immigration debate, class groups examine facts about one aspect of life in a refugee camp and then, in a jigsaw activity, share what they have learned with their new group. Groups then prepare...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Kindergarten Skills Unit 6
Throughout 15 lessons, scholars explore four and five-sound and rhyming words, closely examining initial and final consonant sounds, and begin reading the text independently. Each lesson follows a similar routine; an introduction to...
Curated OER
In the Time of Butterflies: List-Group-Label
Use the list-group-label strategy to introduce your class to In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez. The teacher begins by writing a word on the board (dictatorship is suggested here), and then the kids write as many words as...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness
Kindergarteners and first graders alike are engaged as they learn the initial sounds of objects by taking turns flipping cards to form a long train. This complete and ready-to-print activity helps young ones build the basic foundations...
August House
Anansi Goes To Lunch - First Grade
Greed is the theme of this collection of multidisciplinary activities. As a class, read The West African folktale, Anansi Goes to Lunch by Bobby Norfolk, and take part in a grand discussion about it's plot and theme. Reinforce the theme...
Curated OER
Beginning Sounds - Kindergarten Reading
Students practice the use of beginning sounds to improve their emerging reading skills. In this beginning sounds instructional activity, students review beginning sound of words before participating in a "Bingo" type game that has them...
Curated OER
Beginning Sounds
Students find the beginning letters of words. In this alphabet lesson, students sound out words to find the beginning sound and the beginning letter. They play a game to mark these letters on a card.