Phonics centers that will keep students busy and learning

I’ve written about different ways to structure your phonics lessons and meet the needs of all your students. One question remains … what are the rest of the students doing while you teach small groups? Today I’m sharing ideas for phonics centers!

These days I am seeing a lot of criticism of small group teaching, because there is concern about what the rest of the class is doing.

There is (legitimate) concern that the rest of the class is losing out on explicit instruction from the teacher, and that they may not be using their time well when the teacher is working with other students.

I understand this concern. Since we know that students benefit from explicit instruction in foundational skills, we don’t want them to spend most of the phonics time working independently.

However – if we are truly meeting the needs of all our students, we will need to spend time doing small group teaching. Even if you teach a whole group phonics lesson, you will need to follow up with students who need extra scaffolding, feedback, and other support.

While you can limit the amount of time students need to work independently through an approach like Walk to Read, there will likely still be time that students need to work on their own while you meet with one or more small groups.

How can you make sure that they’re doing work that will help them grow as readers?

Ideas for meaningful literacy centers

1 – Word work (phonics centers)
2 – Buddy reading (decodable passages or books, reader’s theater, partner plays, etc.)
3 – High frequency word practice (editable reading games are perfect for this!)
4 – Listen to audio books (here are some free apps for this)
5 – Independent reading of books students are accountable for (such as decodable books you’ve used in phonics lessons)

In the post I’m going to zero in on word work. What kinds of word work activities will maximize student practice so they can practice previously taught skills to automaticity?

Here are some ideas for low prep phonics centers your students will love!

1- Roll & Read Games

When I was earning my Orton-Gillingham, I was always on the lookout for activities that would build fluency with our current sound-spelling. I often reached for Roll & Read.

My student and I took turns rolling a die and reading the corresponding column as smoothly as we could. Sometimes we’d pause so I could explain the meaning of a word.

When one of us read a column, we colored a dot at the bottom to show that we read it. We would stop playing when we colored in the circles for all six columns.

My student (who happened to be my youngest son) loved the fast pace, and these games were great for building his fluency with tougher words!

In the shop:

• Roll & Read Level 1 – CVC Words, Blends, Digraphs & More
• Roll & Read Level 2 – CVCE Words, Vowel Teams, R-Controlled Vowels & More
• Roll & Read Level 3 – Diphthongs, Prefixes, Suffixes & More

2- Follow the Path Games

Even my reluctant readers have been willing to play these Follow the Path games with me, because they enjoyed the race to the final space. (And more often than not, after we’re done they’ve asked, “Can we play again?”)

These aren’t quite no-prep, because you need to cut out the cards for each game. But it’s worth the trouble, because when kids land on a gumball they draw a card and read four words in a row. Another way to increase practice is to require students to read each word they pass until they reach the space they’ve landed on.

In the shop:

• Follow the Path Level 1 – CVC Words, Blends, Digraphs & More
• Follow the Path Level 2 – CVCE Words, Vowel Teams, R-Controlled Vowels & More
• Follow the Path Level 3 – Diphthongs, Prefixes, Suffixes & More

3 – Four in a Row

Here’s another no-prep game that’s easy for you and fun for kids. Just print the game of your choice, and have kids take turns reading words and covering with a manipulative.

Whoever gets four in a row first, wins! This is a quick game, so after kids finish they can play a few more times.

In the shop:

• Four in a Row Level 1 – CVC Words, Blends, Digraphs & More
• Four in a Row Level 2 – CVCE Words, Vowel Teams, R-Controlled Vowels & More
• Four in a Row Level 3 – Diphthongs, Prefixes, Suffixes & More

4 – Buddy Spelling

Unlike our other games, this one focuses on encoding (spelling) in addition to decoding. With this game, students roll a die and note the space they land on. Then the other player reads a word from the answer key for the first player to spell.

Finally, the first player checks his/her spelling against the answer key and marks the appropriate face on their recording sheet (see image above).

In the shop:

• Buddy Spelling Level 1 – CVC Words, Blends, Digraphs & More
• Buddy Spelling Level 2 – CVCE Words, Vowel Teams, R-Controlled Vowels & More
• Buddy Spelling Level 3 – Diphthongs, Prefixes, Suffixes & More

And there you have it! We’ve got four simple phonics centers that you can pull out again and again. The best part is – once students learn the format of a game, you won’t have to reteach it. Simply switch out the featured skill. This means more practice for your students, and less interruptions for you!

Have you seen the rest of our phonics series?

 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10