How can we help our students who are beginning readers? If you have students who are struggling with letter sounds, segmenting sounds in a word, decoding CVC words, or who are struggling with sight words, here are 5 of my favorite intervention activities to help students with these skills.
First Sound Fluency Practice
If you’re working on first sound fluency, or the ability to identify the first sound in a word, this is an easy game that students love. Here’s how I use this with my students.
- Start with a picture card for each sound you want to focus on.
- Have students say each word and isolated the beginning sounds together.
- Next, give them more pictures that have the same beginning sounds as the original pictures, and have them say the word and sort it in the row with the same beginning sound!
- Once you’re done sorting, give each student different colored place holders. Make a letter sound, and have them put their place holder on a picture that also has that same sound.
CVC Word Segmenting and Blending
You can find these little squishy worms at your local craft store, or sometimes Target. They normally have more than 3 sections, so I just cut them apart. These are such a great tool for segmenting and blending because it makes it more hands on. If you scroll to the right, you can see a video in action. These are such great little tools for our beginning readers who need some hands on feedback.
Sound Smash for CVC Words
What kid doesn’t like to smash things? In this activity, you give students a CVC word, and then place a ball of playdoh under each letter. As they make the sound for each letter, they smash the playdoh. Then, they slide their finger along the bottom to blend the word. This forces students to make sure they’re making a sound for each letter of the word. You can find the template in my CVC and ABC Intervention resource, which you can read about about here.
Play Cootie to Practice CVC Words
Cootie is such a fun and simple game, and it’s a great motivation for students who are practicing reading CVC words. Students simply pick a word, read it, and then build their bug with each word they get correct. It’s a simple but effective way to practice reading CVC words.
Bumpy Sight Word Practice
I love to make “bumpy words” for the sight words a student is really struggling with. You can have students say it, spell it while tracing, and then say it again. The tactile practice makes such difference!
So there you have it! 5 quick and easy intervention activities for beginning readers.
You might also enjoy:
- ABC & CVC Intervention Activities
- 5 Simple Ways to Help Reluctant Readers
- How to Boost Students’ Reading Confidence
- Free Reading Support Guide for Parents
