ar - park the car

Show your child the ar sound. Can they hear it in car park? Model how to segment the words e.g. c-ar p-ar-k.

Arrange some sound cards that your child has already been taught to make a car park. Say a sound and ask them to park their car on it. This is a good way to recap sounds to help your child remember them.

You can involve younger siblings by taking turns to park and getting your older child to point to the space where they need to park.

Before you start, you will need to hide some objects containing the ar sound around the room e.g. a toy car, shark, farm, jar and a card and make a list of the objects. For younger siblings, you can draw the objects instead of writing the words. Alternatively, you can print a copy of the objects and a checklist below.

Read Shark in the Park on a Windy Day by Nick Sharrat. Can they spot/hear the ar sound as you read? If you don’t have a copy of the book you can watch Nick Sharrat read it on YouTube.

Make a telescope by decorating a toilet roll tube. Then give your child a list of objects to find (you can use the printable above). They should read the word and search for the object, ticking it off when they find it. Encourage them to sound out and blend the words on the list so they know what to look for e.g. c-ar-d, card.

Show your child one of the objects/pictures. Ask them to say the word then sound it out. Can they write the word e.g. jar, j-ar.

You could decorate cards for family and friends and write messages in them.