Shortly after students learn the letters and sounds of the alphabet we teach them that the vowels and several consonants actually have two sounds. The consonants “c” and “g” are two of the letters that make different sounds depending on the letters that follow them in the word. The most common sound for the “g” is the “hard” sound as in the word “goat”.  However, if the “g” is followed by an i, e or y it makes the “soft” /j/ sound as in the word “giraffe”.  Word sorting activities are very helpful when introducing a new phonics concept. Using sorting activities, students are able to tell when a certain rule either does and does not apply.  I created these

Oh so many phonics rules to remember! From remembering that vowels have two sounds to the more advanced rules- WOW! It’s quite a bit for our little readers and writers. As we teach the rules, it’s always helpful to incorporate visuals and stories. It gives our students something to anchor to when coming across a word in text or when trying to correctly spell the word when writing. Teaching the “Defender D” rule is super fun! After students understand the magic e rule (the “e” at the end of a one syllable word makes the vowel long), we introduce an exception to that rule. When a word ends in “dge”, the “d” stops the “e” from making the vowel say

There are so many phonics rules! It’s really amazing that most of our little ones are able to break the code and become fluent readers. After students learn the letters and sounds of the alphabet, we kind of rock their world a bit by teaching them that certain letters can have different sounds depending on where they are in the word or by the letters that surround them. The letter “y” is one of those tricky letters. The “y” can be a consonant or a vowel. The consonant sound of “y” is /y/ as in the word “yellow”. Typically at the beginning of the word the “y” makes the consonant /y/ sound. The “y” also has two vowel sounds. Typically,

So what are “Wild Old Words”?  Wild Old Words are “rule breaker” words.  Students are taught early on that a single vowel in a one syllable word is short, however, there is a small group of words that breaks that rule. These words are called Wild Old Words. It’s helpful to teach these words because they are pretty common, so if our student can recognize them right away, it’ll help them become fluent readers. When the vowels “i” and “o” are in a one syllable word that ends in “ld”, “nd”, “st”, or “lt” sometimes the vowel says it’s long name. There are a few examples below. If you’d like to download the FREE poster and word list, just click

The File Folder Phonics activities have certainly been a hit for working with specific phonics skills during independent practice.  We find that sorting activities are great for students just learning a phonics skill and then writing those words just helps to cement the concept. Many of my first grade friends are now being introduced to the oy/oi spelling pattern and this file folder activity which contains a word sort, writing practice and then writing the word within context has been super helpful. To create the file folder activity simply print the templates on office paper and adhere to a file folder. Once the templates are in place, laminate the folder. For the word sorting activity, print the words on card

I’m so excited to have finished the oi/oy phonics bundle. All the activities are laminated and ready to go! These activities were created specifically for independent centers as several versions of each activity are provided so that groups of students can be working at the same. All the activities fit in a 15″L x 11 1/2″W x 3 1/4″H Sterilite container (purchased at Walmart) so that when it is time to teach a specific skill all you need to do is grab the container from the shelf and you’re all set! Easy-peasy. The stackable containers are a great way to store activities. Each phonics bundle contains 11 hands-on activities for teaching a phonics skill.  The bundles contain an anchor chart