Phonics

K-2

 * [|Picture Match]** You may choose from 3 games: beginning letter, short vowel and long vowel sounds. These games work well with the Flash Game Maximizer add-on for Firefox. Students see a series of random pictures and must sort them into the correct box. Immediate feedback is provided, and if a student selects the incorrect answer that box closes so that it can't be selected again. By clicking the picture, students can hear the word pronounced as many times as needed. The beginning letter sounds game allows you to select 5 letters, or have the game randomly select letters for you.


 * [|Blending Dragon]** Select from dozens of spelling patterns. As words fly across the screen, students use a very beautiful Chinese dragon to either click on the real words, or avoid the made-up words.


 * [|Phoneme Patterns]** Description from the website: “This resource is a quick reminder of decodable words from each spelling pattern. We use Ruth Miskin's Read Write Inc (which is great!) at school and hence the resource follows the patterns as they appear in RWI.” There are numerous decodable words on resizable cards. The starting or ending sound is underlined. It isn't very flashy, but it sure beats having to type all of these words in manually.


 * [|Sound Buttons Phase 2]** A phonics teaching tool. Select the sets of phonemes which you need and create CVC, CVCC and CCVC words. There is a voice (with a British accent) that says each sound as it is selected. You can use as many of the five sets of phonemes as you like.


 * [|Sound Buttons Phase 3]** Similar to Sound Buttons Phase 2 with the addition of more phoneme sets to choose from.


 * [|Washing Line Rhyme]** Free registration at the Literactive.com website is required to use this activity. Students are presented with a word. They must select the rhyming word from three pictures displayed on T-shirts hanging on a clothesline. To hear each word pronounced, hover over it with a mouse pointer.


 * [|Digby Mole’s Word Games]** You may choose from "end sounds", "first sounds" and "rhymes." Each activity has three levels of difficulty. If students tap the correct word, Digby the mole digs down to retrieve that word. This activity is best viewed full screen using the Flash Game Maximizer plug-in for the Firefox browser.


 * [|Word Maker 1]** The voice on this website has a very British accent, so you may wish to turn down the volume and provide your own narration. Students select a starting letter (called the "onset" on this site) and then an ending letter combination (called the "rime") and put these into the word maker to create a word. There are several activities to choose from, including a summary section.


 * [|Construct-a-word]** Description from the website: "Construct-a-Word provides a simple, engaging way for students to generate dozens of different words by first choosing an ending (for example -an, -ed, -at, -op) and then adding a beginning letter or blend. When a correct word is created, the word is stored in a Word Bank where students can read and review their words. For each ending, Construct-a-Word prompts students to create between 6 and 14 different possible words, adding an element of fun and discovery. It uses animation and sound to guide students through the steps of creating words, and employs prompts that are clear and easy to master."


 * [|Word Forest]** This activity allows you to store three separate word lists, each with up to 26 words. The words are then placed randomly around the forest. Clicking on a word brings it up in a much larger font. Creative teachers will find many uses for this on the SMART Board.


 * [|Nine Squares]** Students are presented with pictures of nine objects, and asked to find the picture that starts with a given sound. Very colorful, and fun animation of a break-dancing owl when a level is completed.


 * [|Fishing Bowl]** Free registration is required to use this activity. Students sort gold fish labeled "b", "d" and "p" into the appropriate fish bowl. There is verbal feedback for each attempt. Letter pronunciation accompanies the student's selection of fish.


 * [|The Easel Game]** Students are presented with three pictures and a letter of the alphabet. The sound of each letter is pronounced. The student selects the picture that starts with that letter. The site is very colorful, and verbal feedback is provided for each attempt.


 * [|Phonic Frogs Word Dip]** This activity requires a lot of involvement of the teacher to provide feedback. There are 15 pages of words using common vowel letter combinations such as "igh" "ai" "ee" and so on. Students select a frog out of the pond, and if they say the word correctly, they can place the frog on a lily pad. No automatic feedback is given because the student must read and say the word aloud. I recommend you download the Flash file, and insert it into a Notebook file. This allows you to make the game screen (and therefore the words) as large as possible.


 * [|Slides]** Free registration at Literactive.com is required to use this activity. Students are presented with a picture of a word, and the first two letter of the word. They are to select the correct ending letter of the word from three possible choices. The words and ending sounds are pronounced. The website is very colorful, and verbal feedback is provided.


 * [|Airport X-ray]** An airport baggage x-ray machine is the setting for this activity. Each bag contains a word. By passing the bag through the x-ray machine, you can reveal the letters in the word one or two at a time. Below the x-ray machine are 3 speakers. Each speaker will pronounce a different word. Select the correct word by tapping the check mark below the speaker. An interesting variation allows you to scan the bag either horizontally or vertically.


 * [|Garden Leaves]** Free registration at Literactive.com is required to use this activity. Students are presented with three ending letter baskets and an assortment of CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words printed on colorful leaves that they must sort correctly into the baskets. Pronunciation of the ending letters and words is provided, along with aural feedback.


 * [|Word Maker 2]** Very similar to Word Maker 1 with the addition of more difficult levels. Be aware that some of the objects are referred to with a British word such as "tin" for can, and "cot" for crib.


 * [|Word Wizard]** Provided with a definition, students spell words from four popular children's books: Chrysanthemum, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Corduroy, and Franklin in the Dark. A children's voice reads the definition, and a space for each letter in the word is provided along with a few extra letters. Clicking the speaker icon will repeat the definition aloud. The students can only put a letter in the correct space. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, they have the option to receive a hint.


 * [|Poop Deck Pirates]** This activity has multiple levels, but the animation remains the same. A pirate flips a coin, and students must decide if the word on the coin is real or a nonsense word. The graphics, and sound effects are fun, but the game play becomes redundant after awhile. Teachers may select from a variety of letter combinations and CVC combinations.


 * [|Help a Hedgehog]** This site will display a word on the screen. If the student can pronounce the word, they may tap the checkmark (aka the "tick"). The goal is for students to read as many words as possible before the egg timer runs out of sand. There are several levels to choose from, but what is especially noteworthy is that teachers can add more words to the list for students to read.

Paw Park Sassy Seals
Students hear a word pronounced, then 5 additional words spoken by fish. They are to click on the fish that has the same starting sound as the given word. Very colorful animations and fun sound effects.