Home learning: Pre-phonics

I spy first letter sounds
Place some objects on a tray and ask your munchkin to find an object beginning with the letter sound. A more physically active version could be to hunt around the house for an object beginning with the sound.

Hidden letters
Write some letters on a page using a white crayon and use watercolour paints to reveal the letters. As your munchkin discovers a letter encourage them to say the phonetic sound. For older children in Reception and Key Stage 1 replace the letters with CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words or common exception words.

Rhyming basket
Make a simple rhyming activity to help practise rhyming pairs and learn about literacy in a playful and hands-on way. Put together a very simple and easy activity using a basket and some small toys from various Playmobil, Lego and other small world play sets. Make simple pairs of rhyming objects and then mix them all up to be found and matched. For example: goat and boat, man and fan, chair and bear, snake and cake, cat and hat, duck and truck, fox and box, mouse and house, car and star, dog and frog etc. The game is simply to pick one object, say its name out loud, then looking through the basket for another object which rhymed with it. In some cases you may need to name at the objects first and say them clearly to emphasise the main sounds. Then place the rhyming objects into pairs and jump along the line, saying them together again. ‘A fox and a box, a man and a fan, a dog and a frog!’ etc.