Phase One: Voice Sounds
Purpose: To explore how different sounds are articulated. This will make it easier for them to make the sounds clearly when they sound out words later on. The activity also gets children to listen carefully, remember a sound and recreate it. This skill will help them when they begin to segment words for spelling in Phase Two.
My daughter started school last year and I did this game with her before she started. We made some cones from thin card (you can use paper) and experimented by making different noises through the cones.
Then I made a sound and asked her to copy it. You could model sounds such as the up and down wail of a siren, the honk of a fog horn, a peep, peep, peep of a bird. Try to use a mixture of loud and soft sounds. Ask your child to copy the sound using their megaphone.
Afterwards she made some sounds for me to copy. We took a piece of treasure for each sound we copied correctly because she liked to win things!
You could also use the trumpets to practice making some letters sounds e.g. the sound at the start of their name. Practicing how to make sounds is really important to help children to be able to pronounce the sounds when they read and spell.
If you have a go at this activity and share any photos or videos on social media I would love to see them. Please tag @miniwritersclub and use #miniwritersclub and let me know how you get on.
Anna