2. Go Fish!

Create a set of flash cards with the uppercase and lowercase forms of 8 letters (16 cards total per set). Separate students into groups of two or three, with each student receiving three cards. Put the remaining cards into the pile. Have students play Go Fish. Each student should ask another member of their group for a letter to try to make a match. If there is no match, they draw a new card from the pile to add to their hand.

3. Letter Says

Try this phonics-friendly version of Simon Says: Give each student a card with an uppercase or lowercase letter. Limit to no more than 6 total (e.g., C, c, S, s, O, o). Give instructions based on letters: “Simon Says, if you’re holding an uppercase C, touch your nose!”

Tip: For an easier version, use only uppercase (or only lowercase) letters.

4. Letter Swap

Write a word on your board, such as POT. One by one, let students erase one of the existing letters and replace it with a new letter to form a new word. For example, POT could become COT, PIT, or POD. COT could become CAT, PIT could become SIT, or POD could become NOD. Continue until students are unable to form new words.

Tip: Add complexity by allowing students to add or delete letters POT could become SPOT or PIT could become IT.

5. Letter Lineup

Many letters are formed with straight lines (e.g., A, M, and T). Create a set of uppercase letters, and challenge students to sort them according to how they’re formed: only straight lines (e.g., X and W), only curvy lines (e.g., S and C), and a mix of straight and curvy (e.g., B and P).

Tip: Repeat this activity with lowercase letter cards. Have students discuss which letters use only straight lines in uppercase, but use curvy lines (or a mix of straight and curvy) in lowercase (e.g., A / a and E / e).

6. Spelling Challenge

Get a little friendly competition going on in the classroom! Put students in small groups. Give each group the same set of letter cards (e.g., a, d, g, h, i, l, r, u). Set a timer, and have each group come up with as many words as they can with the letters provided. At the end, have each group read and spell their words aloud. The group with the largest number of correctly spelled words wins!

7. Vowels Up, Thumbs Up!

To help students differentiate between vowels, pick a vowel and then instruct students to put their thumbs up when they hear the vowel. For example, for short vowel o /o /, use words such as pat, pot, pod, pad, sad, sod, tap, top, lot, lit. After the game, have students help you write the words on the board to reinforce spelling.

8. Silent Simon

This is a version of Simon Says that’s completely silent! Create large cards with decodable action words (e.g., stand, sit, wave, spin) and body parts (e.g., hand, face, nose, chest, leg). One by one, silently display the cards. If it’s an action word, students should perform the action. If it’s a body part, students should point to the corresponding body part.

9. Eyes on OO!

The vowel digraph oo can be challenging for some students. Slowly read aloud a list of words. Have students form the two o’s with their hands, and hold them up to their eyes like binoculars when they hear the sound. For example, your list could contain ruff, roof, room, rope, hop, hoop, bat, and boot. Go through the list a second time, asking students to help you spell each word.

10. Reading Hopscotch

Use masking tape to create squares on the floor. Next to each square, place a card with a decodable word. Have students line up and play hopscotch one by one, jumping forward one square for each word they read correctly.

Tip: This is a helpful activity to strengthen students’ proficiency with tricky spelling patterns, such as –le (e.g., in candle, sample, table, tickle).

11. Human Syllable Bee

Have a small group of students come up to the front, and give each one a letter card. First, challenge the group to spell a word with their letters. Then, have one more student come to the front, and give them a card with a slash on it. Have the remaining students determine where the syllable break is, and direct the “slash” to stand in that position. Swap out the letter cards and repeat with a new word.

After every few words, have students change positions and move between holding cards and sitting at their desks.

12. Syllable Boxes

To help students strengthen their understanding of closed syllables, give them a worksheet with a list of words with a closed (e.g., lemon, visit, model, and topic). Have students draw a box around the closed syllable.

Tip: Include words that do not have closed syllables (e.g., hero, baby). Have students try pronouncing these words with closed syllables (e.g., her/o and bab/y) to see how silly they sound.

13. Word Bingo

Create a 4 x 4 grid. Have students write high-frequency words (e.g., he, be, we, go, so, no, me) in the spaces; encourage students to put the words in a random order. Then read the words aloud one by one, and have students mark off a word when they hear it. When a student has a straight line marked, they have BINGO!

14. Flash Card Race

Write or print high-frequency words on a set of flash cards. Distribute one set to each student. Say a high-frequency word, and challenge students to hold up the corresponding flash card as fast as they can.

15. Mystery Sentences

At the beginning of the week, display a “Mystery Sentence” in your classroom. This should be a sentence that is missing the phonics components that you will be teaching that week. For example, for the week that you are teaching the diphthong ou and the vowel sound that appears in ball (spellings: aw, au, al, ough), the Mystery Sentence could be: “I s__   a sm___   m__se, and it made no s__nd. It might h__l away my lunch or put its p___s on my desk. What ___t I to do?”

As the week goes on and students learn new skills, fill in the missing blanks. For example, this sentence would be revealed: “I saw a small mouse, and it made no sound. It might haul away my lunch or put its paws on my desk. What ought I to do?”