I found a set of plastic rings at the craft store (You may also find these at party supply stores.) and put together a fun phonics game to help my daughter both sound out simple words, and then blend the sounds together to read the word. I collected some tiny objects from around the house. My daughter is just learning to read so I started with simple 3 and 4 letter words.
Examples: pig, fan, hat, drum, sled, fish, hen
Using a Sharpie, I wrote one letter on the face of each ring. Plan in advance which letters you will need, DON’T just write all the letters A-Z – you won’t need all of them, and most likely you’ll need to repeat a few letters.
First, have the kids sort the “rings” from the “things.”
Next, have each player (2 players worked really well) pick 1 thing from the pile. Then have them say the name of the “thing” out loud so that they can hear the sounds in the word. Ask questions like: “What do you hear in the beginning? In the middle? At the end of the word? “Have them repeat the word out loud to help them.
“P-I-G” Place the beginning sound ring on a finger, making sure to start on the left side, and continue to the middle sound, and then the end. Once all the rings are on the hand, have them try blending the sounds together to read the word.
When they are done, put the rings and thing back, and pick anther “thing.”
We had SO MUCH fun playing this game!!
Written by Anne