The Year of the Goat has arrived! To celebrate Chinese New Year, we’ve created a zodiac themed board game for Year 1 students who have completed the Basic Code.

Reinforce camera words and practice decoding skills with this simple and easy to use resource.

Set up:

• Divide your class into groups of four
• Print and laminate one Year of the Reader Template for each group
• You will need a token for each child as well as one die per group
• Give each child one token to act as his or her playing piece
• Have the children place their tokens on the ‘Start’ horse

NOTE: So that children do not get their playing pieces confused with each other, make sure that every child in each group has a different coloured token.

How to Play:

• The aim of the game is to complete the entire zodiac cycle, beginning from the Year of the Horse and finishing on the Year of the Goat, visiting each zodiac animal along the way
• The child must move around the board in a clockwise direction, moving from the outside to the centre and back again along the word columns, following the arrows the entire way
• Have each player roll the die. The child with the highest number gets the first turn
• Have the child roll the die and move the corresponding number of spaces following the arrows from the ‘Start’ horse
• The child must read the word in the box that he or she lands on and identify if it is a camera word or not, in order to stay in that square
• If the child reads or identifies the word incorrectly he or she must go back to their previous space/position
• When the child lands in the middle square with the Get Reading Right logo, he or she must roll again. If the child rolls a six, he or she can automatically move to the next animal square on the board (the child must follow the same sequence – he or she must not skip more than one word column)
• The fist child to reach the ‘Finish’ square with the Goat wins!

To change the difficulty of the game, simply download the blank Year of the Reader Template. To make the game easier, write single graphemes in the blank spaces, or make the game harder by using advanced word patterns.

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Another holiday is upon us, full of giggles and yells of “EW! COOTIES!”. So, in the spirit of love, we’re handing out yet another free resource!

It’s time to brighten up your classroom with this super sweet phoneme love heart bunting. We’ve included all of the graphemes from each unit of the Basic Code. One phoneme per card.

Phonics displays like this bunting, provide the perfect opportunity for a more subtle reminder. While those little eyes are wondering around the room, they’re landing on graphemes

Instructions:

• Print the Phoneme Heart Bunting Template
• Cut out and laminate the desired hearts (you may want to start with the phonemes from the unit you are currently teaching only)
• Punch a hole on the top of each side of the laminated heart, where indicated
• Cut a piece of string long enough to be hung from one end of your classroom to the other and thread the hearts onto the string at even intervals, adhering them with a piece of sticky tape

NOTE: Some teachers string it across the top of their Interactive Whiteboards or display boards.

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Assess the camera word knowledge of all of your returning students!

Instructions:

• Print one copy of the Camera Word Reading Response Sheet (double sided) for yourself, filling in the names down the left hand column
• Print one copy of the Camera Word Reading and Spelling Response Sheet (double sided) per child and hand out

Camera Word Spelling:

• Using the list of camera words on your Camera Word Reading Response Sheet, slowly dictate one camera word at a time to the entire class, having them write down the words on their Camera Word Spelling Response Sheet as you read them. Be sure to tell the students to write only one word in each box
• Once you have finished reading, have the students colour in the pictures on their sheet
• While the students are engrossed in colouring, it will give you time to call each child up one at a time to assess his or her camera word reading (make sure they bring their sheet)
• Mark the Camera Word Spelling Response Sheet first, circling the words that have been spelled incorrectly

Camera Word Reading:

• Then flip the sheet over to the Camera Word Reading side and ask the child to read each of the camera words on the page
• As he or she reads, use your Camera Word Spelling Response Sheet, either ticking or crossing the box depending on if the child reads the word correctly or not
• Circle any words that the child has read incorrectly

Send the sheets home with the children as home learning. The bottom of the sheet explains to parents that the children need help with the circled words.

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Enjoy some of our most popular Christmas themed phonics activities. Happy Holidays from Get Reading Right!

Santa’s Little Helper

• Download and print the Santa’s Little Helper Template
• Each pair of Christmas decorations contains a word spelled two different ways, one correct and one incorrect – both phonetically decodable
• Have the child read the pair and choose which word is spelled correctly
• Create a path for Santa’s Little Helper to the right gifts, by only colouring in the Christmas decorations that have the correctly spelled word

NOTE: We have included a blank page of Christmas decorations for differentiation. Use simpler word patterns to make the activity easier, and more advanced word patterns to make the activity more difficult.

Phoneme Christmas Tree

• Download and print the Phoneme Christmas Tree Template
• Have the child work from the top of the Christmas tree to the bottom, filling in the blank baubles with graphemes to create decodable words
• An example of the finished product can be seen here

NOTE:If your child needs more instruction, download this Example Phoneme Christmas Tree Template with the first three baubles filled in as an example. Use only one unit of phonemes to make the exercise simpler, or use all six units from The Basic Code to make the activity harder.

Pass the Christmas Present

• Download the Pass the Christmas Present Template
• Write a decodable word on each of the blank gift tags and then cut them out individually

NOTE: Camera words work well too.

• Gift wrap a Christmas story book in a layer of newspaper and tape it shut. Repeatedly wrap the present in layers of newspaper, adding a word gift tag in between each of the layers
• Have the children sit in a circle, playing Christmas music and handing the present clockwise around the circle. Stop the the music intermittently. Whoever is holding the present must unwrap one layer and read the word gift tag
• Continue on in the same manner until all of the layers have been unwrapped. It is best to try to have as many layers as there are children so that each child gets a turn at reading a word
• When the present is finally unwrapped, reward their hard work by reading them the Christmas book

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In the lead up to the Christmas holidays we’re well aware that Christmas activities are always appreciated – even more so when they’re educational!

Our Martian Candy Cane worksheets are designed to help children practise their camera word recognition, decoding and fluency skills. You can keep it as simple as a phonics rotation activity, or you can create a classroom display, which is also a fine motor skills project, with our bunting instructions below.

Instructions for Candy Cane Bunting:

• Print Martian Candy Canes worksheet
• Photocopy one per child
• Instruct children to colour the camera words red, the decodable words green, and to leave the Martian words white
• Once coloured in, have the children cut out each of their candy canes
• Punch a hole in the top of each candy cane
• Cut a piece of string long enough to be hung from one end of your classroom to the other and thread the candy canes onto the string at even intervals, adhering them with a piece of sticky tape

NOTE: Some teachers string it across the top of their Interactive Whiteboards or display boards.

Yep, it’s as easy as that!

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Here at Get Reading Right, we love December! The only thing as exciting as learning to read, is Christmas!

Instructions and Link:

• Our Colour by Phoneme worksheet is designed to help children practise their decoding and grapheme recognition skills.
• Simply print the Colour by Phoneme worksheet, photocopy one per child, and you’re one phonics rotation activity richer!

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Reinforce your students’ grapheme recognition with this free, quirky Halloween resource!

Instructions:

• Print Grapheme Spider Web Template
• Photocopy one spider web and fly word page per child
• Give each child one spider web and one fly word page

NOTE: You will need to give each child a pair of scissors and a glue stick to complete the activity.

• Have the children cut out each of the words on the fly word page
• Instruct the children to read one word at a time, placing it in the correct grapheme section of the web (see example below)
• If the word placement is correct, stick the word down
• Give them a few minutes to decorate and colour in their phoneme spider webs. Display the finished work in the classroom as a festive holiday creation

We have included a blank spider web and fly word page for differentiation. Use single graphemes to make the activity easier, and more advanced word patterns to make the activity more difficult.

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Decoding Home Readers!

As teachers we are sure that you are all too familiar with these types of parent comments:

“Why has Jessie brought home this ridiculously hard book? You know she struggled through the whole book!” or…

“Please put my child up a reading level because this book is far too easy.” and…

“The pictures in this book don’t match the words!” or even…

“I just want Jacques to love reading. What happened to reading just for fun?” and of course…

“Hani has read this book a dozen times. Why does he keep bringing the same book home?”

It is understandable that parents may have misconceptions about the purpose of home reading. So let’s clear this up by providing the reasoning behind our decisions!

Your free bookmarks – send the right message home!

We have come up with a neat little resource that will allow you to summarise in one sentence, the purpose of each book. Help guide parental expectations so they can most effectively help their child. Just slip a bookmark in that home reader and you’re good to go!

To sail through home reading, simply print the Bookmark Template, then cut out and laminate the bookmarks. There are six numbered bookmarks as well as a blank version, just in case there is a comment that we haven’t covered.

NOTE: We have also included black and white versions, so that children can colour and decorate their own bookmarks.

For instructions on when to send which bookmark home, click here.

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With Spring, comes the end of Term 3. The Foundation year are most likely to be working their way through Unit 5 of the Basic Code. Keep your students enthused and raring to go with this fun and simple outdoor game!

You will need:

• Paddle pop sticks
• Four flower pots
• Scissors
• Glue
• Blue tack

Set up:

• Download, print and photocopy the Phoneme Flowers Template
• Cut out flowers individually and laminate
• Glue each picture flower to the top of a paddle pop stick

N.B. Coloured paper and paddle pop sticks add a nice dash of colour.

• Use a whiteboard marker to write one of the four digraphs: ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘th’, ‘wh’ on the blank flowers and blue tack to a flower pot
• Step outside into the sunshine and mark out a large square in the playground (about the size of your classroom)
• Place a flower pot at each corner of the square

How to play:

• Have children sit in small groups in the centre of the square, giving each group a set of picture flowers.
• Children must work together to place the correct picture flowers in their corresponding digraph pots (one flower at a time).
• The first group to place all of their flowers in the correct flower pots and make it back to the centre of the square wins.

N.B. However, if even a single flower is incorrectly placed, every group must go and retrieve their flowers and start again.

To make the game easier (to use early next year), only photocopy blank flowers, writing single phonemes on each flower e.g. ‘s’. Have the children match the exact phoneme to the correct flower pot.

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