These magnetic letter games are so easy you’ll be able to use them straight away to help close those phonics gaps during Phonics Interventions.
One of the biggest difficulties struggling readers have during Phonics Interventions is visual memory.
Like me, you’ve probably worked with children who can often tell the difference between letters-sound combinations, but might not always remember them.
Phonic Interventions Made Easy!
These children often skip letters, or groups of letters, when they’re reading, or miss out whole chunks of words when they’re spelling.
That’s why playing lots of visual memory games like these magnetic letter games can really help the children who need more Phonics practise
Guess the Missing Letters Game Taken from GAPS- THE Phonics Interventions Programme with RAPID RESULTS!
What You Need
A workbook / whiteboard for each child, and a whiteboard and pen for the adult
Magnetic letters- Choose 1 word from your teaching list to make with the letters
1 minute timer
What To Do
Demonstrate reading the chosen word, blending all together. Take care to highlight the new letter – sound correspondence / spelling alternative.
Ask the children to turn away / close their eyes. Remove some of the letters.
Show the children the word with a part of the word missing. Can the children work out which part of the word is missing? Read what is there all together and take ideas for what it could be.
Challenge the children to rewrite the whole word, replacing the missing letters / making the right spelling choice.
Show the children the original word by replacing the missing letters in the right place.
Can the children independently check their writing? Did they remember the correct choice? Were the letters / phonemes formed correctly?
Repeat with further missing letters from the same word.s
Unscramble It! Taken from GAPS- THE Phonics Interventions Programme with RAPID RESULTS!
What you need
Use magnetic Letters to make 3 scrambled words including the focus letter – sound correspondence / spelling rule.
5 minute timer (optional)
What to do
Present the children with a magnetic letter muddled word.
Can they guess the word? Can they explain why? If you know they are going to find this tricky, place all of the words it could be in front of them for support. These could be on cards or written on a whiteboard.
Support the children as they reason by talking through their ideas . Ask them to tell you how to spell the word that they think it is, by moving the magnetic letters into the correct positions.
Expect all children to re-read the un-muddled word back to check that this makes sense and that it’s spelt correctly.
Repeat with up to 3 words but spend no longer than 5 minutes on the activity in total- set a timer if this helps to keep the children on track.