Tag: language learning

AGO Phonics (especially Aqua level 1) works great with children in their first months of learning English, or kindergarten aged native English speaking kids just beginning to learn how to read.

With beginners and younger students, simple games with few rules work best. Kids under 5 don’t usually have the patience or dexterity to play ‘Last Card’ or other games that involve holding cards in a fan.

The following AGO Phonics activities are great for developing letter and sound recognition, and easy for young kids to play!. 

1: Find the phoneme “karuta” game:

(A simple ‘Karuta’ type game with AGO phonics cards).

Setup: 

Place all or a selection of phoneme cards FACE UP on a table (the less cards, the easier). Put all action cards aside.

Play: 

The teacher / parent calls out a phoneme sound several times) – e.g. for the g card: “Gih, gih, gih!”.

Students look around for the card. First to touch it wins it. 

If students get stuck, even after repeating the sound several times, the teacher can call out anchor word examples one at a time (e.g. “gih, gih,  gorilla”)… 

If students still can’t find it… the teacher can pick up the card and read through it with students for practice then return it to the face up pile.

After a card has been won, work with the students to read all the words on the card together and lastly, pronounce the target sound last (e.g. “gum, golf, gorilla, gih”). The winner then keeps the card in a pile. 

Continue in this way for several minutes. It works well to switch from this activity to “Rock Scissors Paper Battle”, or “Numbers Battle” when about half of the cards are still remaining. 

Other Notes: 

In some cases, there may be two cards that make the same sound (e.g. the f card and the ff card). In this case, there are two points up for grabs (and it’s an opportunity to demonstrate that more than one letter combo makes the same sound), or if it goes unnoticed, just call out another letter and continue.

Don’t let kids touch multiple cards (i.e. let it be known they only get one (or perhaps 2) chances at guessing per round, before they’re ‘out’).

You can play this game with the AGO Phonics app – whereby the student that wins a round, gets to (secretly) make the hint sounds using the AGO Phonics app (or put headphones on, to provide assistance as they say the sound and target words).

Note: It can work well to play this game for several minutes, then switch to another game such as “rock scissors paper battle” or “number battle”, with students holding onto the cards they have already won.

2: Rock Scissors Paper Battle:

Setup:

Spread all, or a selection of AGO Phonics cards face down, including action cards. Get students to mix them up. Pair up players (or put in groups of three). This game works with up to eight students.

Play:
Groups each play rock scissors paper. The winner gets to choose a face down card. If it’s a phonic card, they read it, then put it in their score pile. If it’s an action card, the player puts it in their score pile, then picks up another card. 

The process repeats until all cards are picked up or time is called. Most cards at the end, wins!

Notes:This game can require the teacher to actively take steps to make sure students are kept honest and fulfil the reading / interaction component properly. i.e. There is a temptation to cheat by playing rock scissors paper as quickly as possible and skipping the reading part! 

If you are having trouble with cheaters, try this: Catch a pair of guilty students (i.e. those most blatantly  winning through cheating), pause the game, and get all students to watch as you make a point of returning all of the cheaters ill-gotten cards face down to the table again, resetting their score. Students will heed the warning and quickly learn not to do this again!

3: Number Battle (AKA High Card Wins):

This game works best with groups of four or less. (bigger classes can be split into smaller groups).

Setup:
Spread all, or a selection of AGO Phonics cards face down. Get students to mix them up. 

Play:
Each player selects a face down card. If they get an “action card”, they put this in their score pile (earning a bonus point), then select another card. 

Once all students have a numbered card, they all now read out their cards (the 3 words then the phoneme). The student with the highest numbered card wins all the other numbered cards from the round (adding them to their score pile). If it is a tie, tied students turn over new cards (adding action cards to their score pile) until they have a new numbered card. Now the player with the highest number wins all other numbered cards from the round. 

Most cards at the end, wins!