&npsp;
This aspect is all about sound discrimination – helping children to be able to listen carefully to distinguish sounds means that they will find it easier to distinguish the phonemes in words. This is also a great opportunity for lots of discussion with children, extending their vocabulary, which in turn improves their cultural capital. Research shows that the size of a child’s vocabulary is the best predictor of their future success so this is the perfect time to develop their language skills.
Activity Village has a number of resources below to help with teaching Aspect 1.
This game encourages careful listening and helps children to develop their vocabulary and observational skills. It also incorporates maths skills as you can use number, shape and information about size to help with the descriptions.
This bingo set is part of our Phase One Phonics collection, but of course can be enjoyed for any reason! It is a great game to encourage careful listening.
These environmental sounds flash cards are a great discussion point and can be used to extend children’s vocabulary and develop their understanding of the world. Use them before a listening walk to make predictions about what noises the children think that they might hear.
This is a great starting point for discussing children’s favourite sounds. Go through the pictures and ensure that the children understand what each picture represents. Discuss what sound each picture makes.
This is a great way for children to think about their favourite sounds and record what they like and what they don’t like pictorially. If you have more than one child, you could compare their favourite sounds or rank them in order of popularity.
This is a fun game that encourages turn taking and careful listening. We developed it as part of our Phonics Phase One resources, but of course it can be enjoyed for any reason.
Our ‘Phonics in the Garden’ is full of ideas for listening games that can be played in the garden. They cover most of the aspects of Phase 1 and help children to develop speaking and listening skills and give you some great ideas of ways to introduce new vocabulary.
Help the children to develop their memory skills by asking them after a listening walk if they remember which environmental sounds they heard. Discuss the sounds and ask the children to colour in anything that they heard.
Take the children on a walk and encourage them to listen carefully to the sounds that they hear. Remind the children how to be good listeners and discuss the importance of listening carefully when they are outside. When you return from your walk, make a list of the things that you heard.
Do the things in the picture make a loud or quiet sound? This Phonics Phase One activity has been designed for Aspect 1 - to encourage children to listen, and think about the sounds they hear.
This is a really fun activity to do that encourages children to explore sounds and use their imagination. Ask the children to colour in the monsters on the sheet and then discuss with them what noise they think each monster would make.
Using masks is a great way to encourage children to make animal noises. Use them whilst singing songs such as ‘Old MacDonald’, or you could play a game where the child must hide with the mask on and make the animal noise. The other children guess which animal they are.
Farm Animal Masks
