Teaching Reading with Phonics Centers - Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Phonics centers are the core of my teaching when it comes to emergent readers. As an early literacy teacher for over 25 years, I’ve learned a thing or two about how children successfully acquire and practice reading skills. In Kindergarten, our focus is letter sounds. That is the foundation of decoding letters as symbols for sounds we hear in language.

Once students can tell you which letter makes which sound, we are ready to move on to isolating those sounds. The next step is learning to both blend (put together sounds) and segment (break a word apart into it’s individual sounds). Phonics centers are perfect for teaching this in a fun, interactive way.

In first grade, there are many different ways to help students practice manipulating letters and sounds, and one of the best ways is focusing on CVC words and word families. In this post, I’ve outlined some of the simple activities I’ve used over the years to teach my students to read. I’ve included pictures of my students’ favorite activities to give you a sense of we use a mixture of hands-on activities and simple writing tasks. Many of the tasks include versions to explore advanced spelling patterns as well, such as blends and digraphs. This is a easy way to differentiate your centers and instruction.

NOTE: All of the phonics centers pictured in this post are from the Phonics Bundles Collection. You can choose to see specific pictures by clicking the links at the bottom of this post.

PROMOTING SUCCESS IN READING

Some things to keep in mind when planning your phonics centers:

Provide a lot of time and repetition to foster confidence and mastery.
Make sure activities are hands-on and FUN.
Mix activities to include both reading and writing.
Differentiate by offering extended activities for students who need a challenge.

A PEEK INTO MY CLASSROOM

Below are some photos of the kinds of phonics centers we use to teach CVC words, word families and simple sentences:

This activity is an example of how to prompt students to practice a simple sentence frame with 7 different endings. Students become very confident after practicing with their friends, and the flip-up nature makes it fun! There’s a writing component to challenge students who are ready.

Simple sentence flip books by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

My students love to make booklets of any kind. Here they are creating word family booklets with a bit of writing practice included. We also have versions for other spelling patterns later in the year. We keep these in our reading bags to practice over and over.

Phonics Booklets by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Here’s an example of an easy, open ended phonics center. Just toss these word cards in a bin with a dry erase marker, or some letter tiles, and you have endless practice for students. Once again, the words can be CVC or practicing more complex spelling patterns.

Phonics Spelling Cards by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Another way to keep it fun and interactive! We use lots of “clip and check” activities because they are so fun, no prep, and self-checking! Students clip their answers and then flip the card over to see if they were correct. You can make your own cards with any phonics rule you like!

Flip and Check Self checking centers by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Sorting, sorting, and more sorting! My students love to sort and I take full advantage of their enthusiasm! Here are some of the sorting cards we use.

Sorting Phonics Sounds Centers by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Any kind of word building will encourage students to say the word slowly and identify sounds individually, which is an essential skill for phonological awareness. Below are a few examples of how simple it can be! When I do these activities, I introduce them with versions where only the first sound is missing. Then I use missing medial and ending sounds. Finally, the whole word is blank, but students can still see how many sounds they will need to fill in. All of these little clues help with critical thinking and decoding.

Building Words Phonics Puzzles by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Word families are an essential part of my phonics teaching because we can focus exclusively on the first sound, which changes in every word of a given family. For more advanced students, word families cover more complex spelling patterns, such as long vowel pairs and diphthongs.

Phonics Flower Flip Books by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Letter Sounds Song by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

building cvc words whimsy workshop teaching

Phonics Centers at Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Letter Sounds Alphabet from Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Supported Spelling by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Reading Bugs Sliders Program by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Spin and Write CVC words by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Matching words and pictures CVC by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Matching and writing CVC words by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Teaching phonics with CVC words at Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Crack the Code phonics pictures by Whimsy workshop Teaching

For more advanced learners, we begin to work on simple sentences.

We still make it as interactive as possible!

Building Seasonal Sentences by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Sentence matching pictures by Whimsy Workshop Teaching

Looking For a Specific Center?

Here is a visual list of all the centers included in the Literacy Centers Bundle Collection, along with the link to the bundle and a more detailed preview:

Click HERE to see PHONICS BUNDLE 1