Below are a list of ideas that I think work well as part of an online Phonics session either live or pre-recorded. They can all be easily adapted to suit Phases 2-5. Under each photo is the activity title. If you click on the title it will take you to the original Facebook post.
Display some sentences with lots of mistakes. It could be missing capital letters, full stops, letter formation or incorrect use of graphemes. Children spot and correct the mistakes.
I’ve used this activity several times within online sessions. Get the children to draw a grid on a piece of paper. Now hold up instructions for them to read which tells them what draw in each box.
Play the Ray/Web Spellings/Snowflake Spellings
Have a template that the children can print or draw. You say a word and the children move a counter/coin/milk bottle lid to spell that word.
I love playing this. I normally plan it in at least once a week. Display a list of words on the board that use the previously learnt graphemes. Have children write numbers down the side of a board or piece of paper. Give them clues to the word. They then have to read all the words and find the answer.
A good active game to play. Have two pots one holding number in words and one with the action. Take a piece of paper from each pot to create a mini bootcamp. Children read and do the actions.
Loose Parts Letters or Words
One to give as a challenge that children can upload a photograph of afterwards. It could be letters of the alphabet or tricky words.
Children will need a selection of coloured pencils. You hold up a tricky word written in a certain colour and they use that coloured pencil to write that word on their piece of paper. For example you hold up the word ‘said’ in green so they have to write the word ‘said’ in green pencil.
Display the actions for each letter. Say a tricky word. The children then show that actions in order to spell that word.
“said”
s – star jumps
a – a little jump
i – in and out jumps
d – down and up
“what” w – wink
h – hop ten hops
a – a little jump
t – twist
A useful resource to make to help demonstrate reading words with adjacent consonants in Phase 4.
Show clues for children to guess the word inside.
Make the monsters using envelopes and model reading and sorting words according to the graphemes they use. You could then encourage children to make their own monsters at home to help sort words.
Race to complete the missing graphemes. It can work well with simple CVC words all the way up to Phase 5 alternatives.
Match speech bubbles to toys or pictures for characters. Children could write their own speech bubbles too.
Display a list of six words, letters or graphemes depending on the phase the children are working. Roll a dice and show the children. They then write the corresponding word/letter(s) onto a board or piece of paper.
I really easy one to play that can be adapted to suit Phases 2-6 both decodable and tricky words. Display around 6 words. Get the children to close their eyes and then take one away. The children then write down the missing word. Repeat with the other words.
Adapt to suit the phase you are working with the graphemes around the bottle. You spin the bottle and the children need to run and find something that starts with or contains that grapheme. It could be that they write a word instead rather than finding an object.
Either have a grid drawn for the children to see on screen or one that they can print out and use for the lesson. Show the children the directions and they move that number of spaces and in the correct direction to find the word.
Play the classic spot the difference. You can words using the wrong grapheme, written in different colours or letters not formed correctly.
Display a list of objects that children need to read and then go shopping for around the house. If they don’t have it they could write it on a piece of paper and add it to their bags instead.
Play the classic code breaker game. Display the code with corresponding letters then hold up a code for the children to solve and reveal the word.
Phonics Family 