Phonics lesson plans and ideas

Circle time suggestions:

Flashcards

• Use flashcards and show them to the children.  Before you start with flashcards, you can ask the students to clap their own name into syllables. Ask a student to clap the word shown on the flashcard into syllables. Let the whole class repeat the word out loud and let them clap the word. Create a row of cards with one, two, three or more syllables. Explain to the students that there are long and short words and you can tell the difference by clapping the words into syllables.

• Use a set of flashcards of any topic and sort them by the starting letter.

• Use a set of flashcards of any topic and sort them by the ending letter.

• Lay down all the flashcards, ask the students to have a good look. Then they must close their eyes, and you take a flashcard and hide it. Ask the students which card is missing.

• Lay down all the flashcards. Name 3 or 4 flashcards out loud and let the students lay the cards down in the exact sequence as you mentioned them.

• Use all the flashcards including the rhyming ones. Lay down 3 or 4 cards with one that doesn't rhyme. Let the student determine the odd one out.

• Play a rhyming memory game with the flashcards.

• Hand out the mini rhyming cards to all students. Make sure they're shuffled. Let all the students call out their card one by one. After everyone is finished the students stand up and walk to the fellow student who has a rhyming match. Repeat this by shuffling the cards and dealing them again.

• What else rhymes? Make rhyming pairs with the mini flashcards and ask the students if they can rhyme more words.

• Let a student pick a rhyming pair and create a sentence with these two.

• Search for items in your classroom that start with a particular letter, for instance the letter s. Also search for items that do not begin with that letter. Start sorting the items into piles. Starts with s, does not start with an s.

• Write all the letters of the alphabet on individual cards. Put the cards in a "hat" or bag. Go round and let each student grab a card. They can not show the letter to the other students. All the students get a minute to think of some words that begin with the letter that they've picked from the hat. Pick a student who will start by calling out words that start with the letter indicated on his or her card. The other students listen closely and raise their hand if they know which letter is on the students card.

• Choose a letter of the week and let all students bring an item from their home that starts with that letter.

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z

bee- see - shelf - me
door - pray - floor - poor
told - weak - old - cold
hot- knot - got - tell
loop - tow- snow - glow
dove - dance - love - glove
rain - pain - train - nice
proud - bill - cloud - loud
bold - lip - fold - mold
part - dart- nut - tart
bread - head - dear - dead
pin - steam - cream -dream
tail - sail - small - pail
took - fool - cook - book
bell - nest - rest - west
feel - need - heel - peel
cane - lane - made - sane
fame - gave - came - lame
harm - jar - bar - car
pack - max - quack - sack
round - sound - sit - ground
chair - hail - pair - hair
toad - road - hold - load
hint - mice - rice - lice
sun - kit - run - nun
short - snort - sort - great

rain
fly
snail
bump
book
fine
kick
yawn
lake
cat
bash
cab
fax
fast
beck
lend
get
feel
lime
bee
wag
rang
bat
tuck
cow
rose