Have you bought a set of flashcards and are now wondering what to do with them? Here are 10 fun games and activities to play using your Phonics Flashcards.
You could play these games using sound cards, high-frequency word cards or tricky word cards. When selecting the cards to use for each of the games, include some that they know when to help with their confidence. Add or change the cards when they become confident with them but come back to the same ones after a week or so, to make sure they can remember them.
Hidden Sound
Hide a sound somewhere in the room, without your child looking. Ask them to find the sound card. As they search, help them by saying the sound/word on the card loudly when they are close and using a whispering voice when they are far away.
From A - B
Place some sound/word cards around the room. Give your child instructions about how to move from one sound card to another e.g. hop to the sh, jump to the ai or tiptoe to the word to.
Sight Word Stepping Stones
Make a line of high-frequency word cards. Your child could hop, skip or jump along them but they have to read the word before they can move to the next one. The quicker they can read them, the quicker they can travel. Set a timer and take it in turns to see who can get across them the quickest!
Kim's Game
Place 6 flashcards face up. Give your child a couple of minutes to look at them. Ask them to close their eyes while you remove one of the cards. Can they spot which card is missing?
Noughts and Crosses
Draw a noughts and crosses board on the back of the whiteboard. Place a phonics flashcard on each space. Take it in turns to read a sound/word and cover the card. The first person to get three in a row is the winner.
Finders Keepers
Hide some sound/word cards around the room. Call out a sound/word and challenge your child to find it. If they find a card but it’s the wrong one, they should put it back in its hiding place. If they find the correct card they can keep it.
Word Dig
Place some of the phonics flashcards under the lid of the phonics box so that you can read the words/sounds through the lid. Fill the tray with sand, flour, glitter or shaving foam. Invite your child to dig around with their hands to find the words. Can they read them when they find them? Shake the tray gently to cover the words. Can they write the sound/word using their finger?
Four Corners
Stick a piece of paper with a word/sound in each corner of the room. Ask your child to pick a corner and stand by the piece of paper. Have the matching word/sound flashcards in a pile, pick one and read the word/sound. If your child is standing by the matching piece of paper they score a point. Shuffle the cards and play again.
Bingo
Place 10 cards face up. Each player chooses 4 and copies the sounds/words onto their whiteboard/piece of paper. Shuffle the cards and place them in a pile face down. Choose one player to be the bingo caller. They choose a card and read it out loud. If anyone has that word/sound on their board they should cross it off. The winner is the first person to cross off all of their sounds/words.
Guess the Sound
Choose a sound flashcard e.g. sh. Give your child some clues e.g. this digraph (sound made from two letters) is at the end of fish and the start of shop. Repeat with different sound cards.