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A fun way to teach PHONICS! Fun for all levels!
As long as your students can sound out some of the letters of the alphabet, you can do this activity. It works for more advanced levels, too.
On little pieces of paper, write a few different sounds a multitude of times (if your class has twenty students, have maybe 4 different sounds copied 5 times, equaling 20). Put them in a bag of some sort.
Now introduce, or review the sounds you have prepared. Make sure that ALL your students can say the sounds.
Explain that the students are going to each have a sound (piece of paper), and they must walk around the class MAKING the sound (not just saying the letter(s)) in order to find other students in the class with the same sound. In order to ensure that they do not simply show their paper to someone else, or say the letter(s), tell them that once they have memorised their sound, they should put their paper in their pocket.
Let them choose a paper and make sure that they keep them hidden from the others.
Go over the sounds once more to be certain, then let the students go crazy. Let them walk around and be noisy in the class. Before you know it, you'll start to see small groups forming!
As a motivator, you can do many things such as make it a competition to see which sound can form their group the fastest. However, like many other suggestons on this site, use whatever variation seems most appropriate!
I have had great success with this so many times, and I hope you do too!
Peace and Love,
(I'm currently teaching in Guangxi, China. Please feel free to contact me with questions or with some more suggestions on how to teach low level beginners! My e-mail is email@example.com. Also, please visit my website at www.hksar.ca/aha)
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