Phonics Practice with FELT...that's right old-school FELT!!!

I don't know if you have inherited any little treasures from a retired teacher or not. If you have you probably inherited many felt pieces in all different shapes, sizes, and colors. I have had these pieces for 6 years and did NOT know what to do with them but held onto them for that "someday I will need them and wish I had them" moment.

Today it came.

I was reviewing my student's assessments on long/short vowel and realized many of them needed an extra review. After speaking to my neighbor across the hall, she told me about Letters Training she went to and an idea to practice decoding words with felt. From there, my lesson plans went out the window (Well, actually we were supposed to have a field trip but after a 2 hour delay due to ice we cancelled!)

Each student received 3 pieces.

• a green triangle
• a yellow square
• a red apple

Each shape/color was to identify a beginning, middle, or ending sound.

At first, I said a word and isolated a sound (beginning, middle or end) and had them touch the felt that matched the sound I gave. For example, the word stick (st-i-ck) and the students were to find the sound /ck/ they would point to the red apple because it was the ending sound.

Sounds easy, right? The first few were a piece of pie and then I threw in blends and they became more challenging. It didn't take too long and the little darlings were catching on. I took it one step farther and we took away the red apple and use the green triangle for short vowels and the yellow squares for long vowels. I started by writing a word on the board and they read it to me then identified whether the word was short or long. Then I simply said the word (to eliminate them relying on spelling patterns) and they had to identify: short or long.

After about 15 minutes of review, they seem much farther ahead this morning than they were last week so mission accomplished! I also made these lollipop response sticks years ago (I cannot remember the source on TpT) and we have used these as a re-teaching tool as well.

Any strategies you would like to share that work in your room??