Topic: Phonics/Alphabet Games for Grade 1-2? Read 2608 times

ggonza3 · « **on:** April 28, 2022, 06:14:09 am »

Hi!

I am teaching the alphabet to 1st and 2nd grade (1-2 letters a week) and I am at the point where I am really stumped with what activities I can do with them? They are really low level so I have been focusing on the sound, letter recognition, and easy vocabulary with the letters. Are there any activities you have done that are engaging and fun for them?

Things I have done in the past and are bored with at the moment:
-coloring
-bingo (grid and line)
-ball toss on vocab
-ABCYa games
-matching (pictures only)

Thank you!!!!

JenniferNZ1 · « **Reply #1 on:** April 28, 2022, 07:26:44 am »

Hi
If you are allowed to use the internet the
www.eslintherok.com
site has some very easily adaptable games. Easy preparation and my students enjoy playing the games - my students are grade 3 and 4 but I am sure grades 1 and 2 would enjoy them too.

If you have mini whiteboards with markers/erasers you could have them write some words with you sounding the letters out and then showing them. Make sure you use regularly spelt cvc words eg cat, dog, hat, egg, bad, bed,
I am not sure which letters you are up to.

Students can just practice writing the letters on the whiteboard. I have found that whiteboard writing is not so intimidating for students as they can erase any errors. However I encourage them to just X out any errors so they can keep writing.
When you want them to stop I call out 'boards up' (and model with my own board) and the students raise their boards. I quickly look around at what they have written while saying the sound of the letter. Fast if they wrote a lot of letters and slow if they just wrote a few.
Then I hold my eraser and ... pause ... and 'erase' and quickly erase my board and hold it up while counting down slowly from (about) 5. The fun element of writing.

I hope one or more of these will be helpful.
Have fun!

Another simple activity is to have 2 letters at the top of the board and 2 at the bottom. You say a sound and students have to stand (if the letter is at the top of the board) or sit (if it is at the bottom of the board). Keep it moving and have fun with it. You can move the letters around to make it more exciting.
Variation - have the letters on the left and right of the boards and the students stand to the left or right of their desks accordingly. Yes, some students will just be copying others movements but hopefully will be having a positive attitude to English.

XiaoYan · « **Reply #2 on:** April 28, 2022, 08:56:09 am »

One of my favorite things to do with 1-2 graders is print out the letters in huge size and arrange the letters on the floor to make a human size board game. I also print out "go forward 2 spaces" and "go back to spaces" and "change places" (1 or 2 of each depending on the length of the game).
I have students roll big soft dice, and they have to say the name of the letter they land on or the sound the letter makes, or else go back to where they were.
This game works best once they know more than 6-8 letters. Otherwise it's short.

You can also play this game as a board game. (attached below, template not mine. this is my filled version. you can change it to the letters your students know) You'll need dice and playing pieces (말 in Korean).

You can re-use the big letters to make a toss game. Toss the dice/ball/object and say the sound/name of the letter the object lands on. You can also play with a print out letter chart. Like, if they know A-G, make a small chart with each letter, and they have to color the letter on the chart as they throw. First to all 7 letters wins.

You can make a cap flick board too. Just make a chart of the letters they know, arrange them in a grid, assign points (first row 1 pt, second row 2 pts, etc), and give them a little score card. You'll need a cap, coin or other small flick-able object. They have to be able to name the letter or make its sound to get points.

Odd One Out - is minimal pairs work. (if you don't know about minimal pairs, please go study them. sorry i don't have time to explain)
This game is good for phonemic awareness and practice hearing the sound differences. You can use my template and change the words to the ones they know. Mine are all first sounds (you can change it to be initial, middle or word final sounds as needed)

Hidden Picture - put pictures of letters or words they're learning behind the boxes. One box disappears at a time, and students must guess what the word/letter is. You can get them to say what letter the word starts with, ends with, etc etc. (i got this template from on here years ago, and adapted it to phonics)

bebethao · « **Reply #3 on:** December 22, 2022, 12:07:59 pm »

There a quite a few PPT games you can play with them. I suggest maybe checking out taysteachingtoolkit .com. She has some PPT games that can be used for reading and letter recognition.

For non-PPT games, if you have magnet alphabets you can do a sound/letter recognition running game. Put the magnets on the board. Put students into teams. One person from each team start at the back, and walk (fast) to the front to grab the alphabet you say. Team who grabs the most correct letters is the winner.

Another version of the running/walking game is to have two whiteboards at the front of the class on desks a little away from each other. Have alphabets on the board at the front. (This is used kind of like an aid because they most likely wouldn't have memorized all the letters.) Students start at the back. The teacher says the name/sound of the letter and students walk to the whiteboards to write down the letter they think it is. Granted they won't be able to write as well, but this kind of gets them into the practice of writing.

Also this is surprisingly fun to 1st and 2nd graders, but if you have English books in the classroom, tell them to grab a book. Say a letter but specify upper or lower and tell them to find it in the book. They get a kick out of being able to recognize and identify the letters.

Another game my 1st graders love is the kimchi reading game. It's played kind of like the Korean Baskin Robbins game (if you know that game). Students have to read 1-3 letters. My classes are small so I give them 4 lives. I have a PPT clicker so I just give it to the students to press however many letters they want to read. When they want to stop they pass the clicker to their friend. Students keep reading until the kimchi pops up. If they get kimchi'ed they lose a life or are out of that game (depending on how you wanna play it). All my elementary students love this game. And you can use it for any type of reading you want to do.

hangook77 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 26, 2022, 10:59:57 am »

Story ppts. Download some of those and read to the class (K teacher can translate if necessary). Make a game or activity related to it. Posters, artwork, crafts, etc. ESL games too.

« **Reply #5 on:** January 30, 2023, 06:01:40 pm »

Quote from: ggonza3 on April 28, 2022, 06:14:09 am

Hi!

I am teaching the alphabet to 1st and 2nd grade (1-2 letters a week) and I am at the point where I am really stumped with what activities I can do with them? They are really low level so terraria have been focusing on the sound, letter recognition, and easy vocabulary with the letters. Are there any activities you have done that are engaging and fun for them?

Things I have done in the past and are bored with at the moment:
-coloring
-bingo (grid and line)
-ball toss on vocab
-ABCYa games
-matching (pictures only)

Thank you!!!!

Create an obstacle course with letters written on different stations. Students must perform a task at each station, such as saying the sound the letter makes, before moving on to the next.

sehk0417 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 21, 2023, 10:05:28 am »

This thing is very nice material for me. thank you teacher.

Topic: Phonics/Alphabet Games for Grade 1-2? Read 2608 times

Phonics/Alphabet Games for Grade 1-2?

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