Phonics Ball Game

Now I've been working as a TA for a whole year, I have a few more tricks under my belt not to mention that I'm starting to build up a bank of activities that I can call on when the need arises. I wanted to share this one with you because, as simple as it seems, the children absolutely love it.

When I was looking for a way to jazz up the way I teach phonics I remembered a toy that my daughter had for her first birthday. As luck would have it, I managed to find said toy in the attic and dust it down. Sadly most of the original balls were missing and my experiments with ping pong balls failed due to the fact they they were just too small and light and floated out in droves rather than one at a time. I considered cat balls  but luckily, 99p stores came up trumps with packs of coloured balls that fitted perfectly.

A permanent marker to write on the sounds and voila, an exciting variation on teaching phonics...

 I have loads of sets of balls with different sounds,  tricky/sight words but you could even use them to teach number bonds or add/multiply numbers.

Sometimes I use it with individual children, on other occasions I make a game out of it where children take turns to release a ball. If they can read it, they can keep it, otherwise it gets put back in.

You could even add a bonus ball which gives a treat if they get it. Good for teachers (and TAs) and parents who get sent home sounds to learn with their children.  Loads of fun, loads of potential learning.