Blend to read
each word and decide whether the word is real or fake.
Phonics
Learning Opportunities
To practise
blending for reading.
To motivate
children to read words.
NB. Using
fake words ensures that children have to learn to blend and not just
recognise words by sight. Some children are very good at recognising
words and it can be a useful early strategy. However, as children
get older and need to be able to read more and more words they will
find it increasingly tricky to learn them all by sight.
Organisation
Whole
class, small group or 1:1.
Once
children are familiar with the game, they could play it independently.
Teaching
ideas
You will be
given the chance to choose exactly which GPCs will be included in
the words that will appear in the game. These match the suggested
words in Letters and Sounds for teaching each new GPC and set of GPCs.
Alternatively, you could choose a general mixture of words from each
phase for revision purposes.
Click
to get a new coin.
Model
sound talking each sound in the word and then blending the sounds
together and saying the final word. Ask the whole class to repeat
this with you as you point to each sound.
Ask
the children to decide whether the word is real or fake. Make sure
they all give an opinion and don't sit passively. The easiest way
to do this is to ask them all to give an action (e.g. thumbs up/down
or get them to suggest some suitable actions along the pirate theme.
For subsequent
words, ask the children to sound talk and blend the words. It works
quite well to ask individual children to do this and then get the
whole class to repeat the sound talking and the blended word. If the
initial child struggles to blend the word, ask other members of the
class if they can help out.
Again, ask
the children to decide whether the word is real or fake.
Extensions
Please
remember these are just ideas. You know your children best and can
adapt this game in anyway you like to help them learn to blend.
Letters
and Sounds has instructions for a small group, hands on version of
buried treasure (see p 60). It is vital that children get lots of
this type of hands on practise to back up any whole class work.
Resources for this small group game can be found below.
Paper
Resources (Word)
Coin
Dustbin
Treasure
Chest
Pirates
Play
Interactive Buried Treasure Game