A few weeks ago, I was catching up with another teacher friend. She is in her first full year of teaching 1st grade. Being so passionate about teaching 1st grade, I asked her how it was going- hoping she loved 1st graders as much as I do. She paused, and then responded with, “Valerie, I love first graders, and I love almost everything I’ve been teaching in 1st grade…except phonics. It is so boring!”
I was surprised- I LOVE teaching phonics. I love unlocking the phonics code for students, I love giving them the tools they need so they can decode, I love seeing them piece together the different things they know about how letters work- phonics instruction is probably one of my favorite parts of my day in my 1st grade classroom.
I followed up by asking why she felt phonics was so boring. She mentioned that every day they do the exact same routine, follow the exact same strategies, and have the exact same pattern of introducing the phonics pattern, hearing the sound, talking about the rules, encoding, decoding, lather, rinse, repeat…ugh yep, phonics can be very repetitive- the name of the game is explicit instruction with a lot of touch points for practice.
I agree- we know that phonics instruction IS systematic and explicit, and sometimes that can feel like we are doing the exact same boring thing with our students. But, there are so many ways we can use phonics tools to help engage students, making learning and practicing phonics engaging and exciting, and help students love reading as they grow as phonics detectives!
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Phonics Boxes
Teaching phonics is one of the core skills of teaching first grade. When I was a new
first grade teacher, I quickly learned that phonics instruction happened both in whole group lessons and in small group lessons. Students need so many opportunities to practice phonics skills in order to master phonics and reading- it was a significant portion of my day.
One of the things I love about teaching 1st grade is small group teaching. I love having 4-6 kids around my teacher table for focused instruction. I love the opportunities to practice learning in independent centers that other kids get while I am doing small groups- small group instruction is my jam. While I love small group instruction, small group instruction also requires intentional planning, preparation, and a variety of tools to help students be successful.
A few years ago, I started using a small group management tool that literally changed my teacher life. I felt like by the end of the day, my teacher table was a hot mess. I was tired of disorganized materials, not being able to find what I needed, and wasting instructional time. My small group area was not effective and I was doing A LOT of extra (and unnecessary) work.
One day, I had to run into my favorite red spot box store to pick something up and happened to notice all the school supplies were marked down- clearance school supplies is like a teacher’s Christmas morning- I was so excited! As I was browsing the aisles, that is when I found the solution to my disorganized teacher table chaos- a plastic pencil box.
I immediately bought 6 clear, discounted pencil boxes, and my phonics boxes were born.
My phonics boxes have evolved over time. I have slowly added or swapped tools as I have learned more about teaching phonics. Today my phonics toolboxes are filled with phonics tools that integrate multisensory learning, help students hear phonics sounds, and tools I truly believe take my phonics instruction to the next level. The tools have been intentionally picked to make learning impactful and fun!
Teaching Phonics with Phonics Kits
Over the last few years, I have slowly built phonics kits so that I have an entire classroom set. Each student has a numbered box, and they are responsible for taking care of the materials inside the box. I have a very systematic way of introducing each tool in the box. I work incredibly hard the first few weeks of school to set students up for success with these learning tools as they learn how to use the tools and how to responsibly manage their materials- double win!
Phonics Tool #1- Mini Hand Mirrors
The first tool box “must-have” is a mini hand mirror. I love having these small mirrors available for when we introduce new phonics sounds. Students can use the mirrors to see their mouth shape and position as we learn new sounds. I encourage students to also use the hand mirrors to check their mouth position in relation to the mouth positions on the “Vowel Valley” or “Consonant Chart” in our classroom. I love building the connection between how the sounds feel in our mouth and what they hear as we are learning new sounds.
The mirrors also come in handy when we are learning sounds that are very similar, like /f/ and /th/. Many students have a hard time distinguishing the differences between these two sounds, and will often end up using the letter f in place of the th digraph- spelling math like maf. With the mirrors, they can both feel and see the difference in mouth position for these sounds, noticing that /th/ is a tongue biter sound.
Phonics Tool #2- Toobaloos aka Phonics Phones
The next tool in our phonics toolkit is the phonics phone. If you are not familiar with a phonics phone, it is a simple, yet effective tool that allows students to hear phonics sounds as they stretch out a word. Toobaloos look like plastic, play phones. The phones amplify the sounds back to the students so they can hear the sound clearly. I like to have students use their phonics phones when introducing a new sound so that they can clearly hear the sound. Students love using these phonics phones as we learn new sounds.
I also love that Toobaloos are multipurpose- they can be used for phonemic awareness work, identifying sounds within words, stretching out words for encoding or decoding, and building fluency as “whisper-ma-phones”.
There are many tutorials online about how to buy the materials to make your own phonics phones. There are also several options on Amazon where you can buy classroom sets of phonics phones for a relatively inexpensive price.
IMPORTANT NOTE- Before allowing students to use the phone, I have the students practice producing the sound without the phones so that I can ensure they are practicing correctly- I do not want students to make incorrect sounds and then mishear the sound for the grapheme. I also spend significant time teaching students how to properly use the phones so they can use them safely and without damaging their hearing.
These 2 tools are by far a student favorite- students love the magnetic wands and chips. This is another tool that can serve multiple purposes and help students with both encoding and decoding words.
These chips are an excellent stand alone tool for mapping out the sounds in a word as we are encoding. We use the chips to help us identify sounds in a word and map the sounds in a word. Students can tap the sound, map the sound with the chips, and then write the word, placing one phoneme under each chip. The chips also help students practice continuous blending of words as they practice saying each sound as they push up each chip.
The chips are also helpful for phonemic awareness practice. Students can use the chips to identify where they hear a specific sound in a word, or to change the sound in a word to make a new word.
The partner tool to the magnetic chips is the magnetic wand. The magnetic wand is a favorite for students, it allows students to move from successive blending to continuous blending. They can use the magnetic wand to “scoop up” each magnetic chip with the wands as they blend together sounds. Students love scooping up the sound chips with magnet wands- this is a highly engaging activity.
Phonics Tool #5- Mini Alphabet Cards
Mini alphabet cards are a must have in the phonics tool kit! They are the most dynamic tool in our phonics box. I hand out a new card every time we introduce a new letter and sound in our whole group lessons. As students build their letter/sound decks, they can use their cards for many different phonics activities, like:
building words
sound drill practice with a partner
tracing letter pathways
building the alphabet-similar to an alphabet arch
creating word ladders by changing one sound at a time
hands on encoding practice
The possibilities are endless. I like the smaller cards because then all students can use the cards in their space without crowding each other. Our curriculum came with several sets of these small cards, but they can also be easily made. I also have a free set in my TPT store.
Phonics Tool #6- Bumpy Boards
If you have taken Orton Gillingham, you might already know about bumpy boards. Bumpy boards are a hard plastic mesh board that you can cut into smaller squares for your phonics tool box.
The bumpy board is a great way to add multisensory elements while practicing letter formation and pathways. Like many of the other tools, these boards are dynamic and can be used in a variety of ways. One way to use the bumpy boards is to have students place their letter cards under the bumpy board to trace while they practice making the letter sound. Students can also place memory words under the bumpy boards and trace them as they practice spelling the words.
My students love using the bumpy boards under paper and then writing the letter or memory word with a crayon. This creates a textured, crayon rubbing effect as they practice these skills.
Phonics Tool #7- Sight Word Cards
While our tool boxes are mostly designed to support phonics skills and building letter/sound fluency, it would be a missed learning opportunity to not have some type of sight word practice available for kids in their phonics tool kits. Sight words are those tricky words that are not phonetic, so children must “learn them by sight”. I also include commonly used words that might be phonetic but the phonics patterns fall outside of our grade level phonics scope and sequence- therefore students will be much more fluent readers if they have the words committed to memory.
As we learn new sight words, students get a card that has the sight word printed on it and the tricky or “heart part” identified. They can use these cards to help practice reading the words in flashcard drills or spelling the words by tracing them on the bumpy boards. To learn more about the importance of sight word practice, you can check out our blog about sight words.
Looking for More Strategies for Teaching Reading?
Learning to read is such a complex and dynamic process and teaching phonics is not the only skill necessary to effectively help students become readers. Check out several of our other blogs in our Teaching Students to Read series.
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Tool Kits for Other Learning…
These little tool boxes have been a game changer to my phonics instruction. They started as a way to support my students in my small group learning area, but have grown into tool kits that every student brings down for our whole group lessons. I prefer to color coordinate the tools to help with organizing- each kit has the same color magnetic wand, chips, and phonics phone. I also love that the boxes stack nicely on top of each other for easy storage- we can keep them on a shelf until we need them for our phonics lesson.
I love these tool boxes so much that I am working on putting together math tool boxes for my 1st graders filled with the tools they need to develop number sense, fact fluency, and fluent problem-solving skills.
I am always looking for fun and exciting ways to teach phonics- it can become routine and boring. I hope these tools support you as you teach your 1st graders to read!
