Phonics Fun with Mrs Mactivity: Phase Five Activity Pack

(Review / Gifted)

I can't believe the school year is almost over! My son is quickly coming to the end of Year One and will soon be taking his Phonics Screening Check. As I also teach Year One, revising all we have learnt in phonics is high on the agenda both at home and at school!

Phonics is the systematic approach to learning to read and spell, with the 44 phonemes (sounds) being taught in different phases throughout Reception and Year 1.

By the end of Year 1, children are given a Phonics Screening Check to assess whether they have mastered the basic phonics system, and identifies any areas they need help with as they go into Year 2. It checks that your child can:

• Sound out and blend graphemes (the letter/letters that represent a sound) in order to read simple words.
• Read phonically decodable one-syllable and two-syllable words, e.g. cat, sand, windmill.
• Read a selection of nonsense words which are referred to as pseudo (or alien) words.

When your child learns phonics, they will also be taught "tricky words." I wrote a post explaining why these words are classed as tricky, and how you can help your child learn tricky words in a fun, multisensory way, which is full of easy ideas.

When the lovely Mrs Mactivity asked if I'd like to review the new Phase Five Phonics Activity Pack, of course I said, " Yes, please!" The new bundle contains a wide range of different activities, which focuses on the revision of phonemes (the way it sounds), graphemes (the way it is written) and tricky words in the last phase. Here's just some of what you can expect to find when you download the 12 page pack: 

• phonics rainbow balloon tracing
• name your own sea monster
• phonics charades 
• phonics word jungle 
• playdough mats for tricky words 
• phonics word builder 
• tricky words goals activity
• tricky words rainbow activity

Mrs Mactivity loves to encourage you to take the multisensory approach to learning, which is one reason I love her products so much. Despite being a paper-based pack, the activities include writing, colouring, acting out, using playdough and being imaginitive! It's not very often you come across resources as diverse as this! 

Here's what we've used in class for revision this week! 

I let the children loose on the tricky words rainbow activity one morning for their "morning activity" - the independent activity set up at their tables ready for them as they arrive in the morning. 

Tricky word rainbows ready for a morning activity.

The sheet needed little explanation, and they really enjoyed getting down to business! We chose not to draw a picture in each shape to represent the word, but to practice writing neatly and compactly in the spaces. I think they look really effective, especially those that were coloured in! And it kept them quiet for a good while too!

The children worked hard to complete their tricky word rainbows

Don't they look good coloured in?

We also used the sound sorting activity to help revise the /ph/ (as in phone) and /ou/ (as in found) phonemes. These are alternative spellings for sounds taught in previous phases, /f/ (as in fish) and /ow/ (as in cow).

Children choose words from the list and write them in the correct cloud.

It's really important for the children to begin to consider different ways to spell sounds that they already know, and to learn when to use each different spelling. I'm a great advocate of reading regularly so that the children can see how the word is written and can then visualise if their own spellings look right, based on experience! This will take time but obviously, the more a child reads, the better they become at just knowing which spelling to use!

They then colour coded the words!

Another activity used in class this week was the balloon tracing activity. I have a small group of children who are quite new to Phase 5, so I gave them this activity in place of the more difficult one above. 

The idea is for them to say the sound, e.g. /ea/ as in bead, then trace inside the bubble letters with a coloured pencil. They should repeat this with different colours, saying the phoneme each time, to create a rainbow inside each letter! Hopefully, by linking the aural with the physical motion of writing, they are more likely to commit these to memory. It's important that the children say the sounds correctly however, so I asked our lovely Teaching Assistant to keep a check on them.

Although not in the Phase 5 Activity Pack, I also used the Phase 3 Sentence Handwriting Sheets with a group of children this week, to aid handwriting and fine motor skills, and to help revise phonemes and graphemes from earlier phases. I just thought they deserved a little mention here too!

Great activity for revising earlier phases, and helping with letter size.

There are so many great resources to help with learning or revising phonics on the website, whether you are a teacher, home educator, childminder or parent! I will be printing off the whole Phase 5 Activity Pack to use with my son at home over half term! There's even some cute Alien Word Cards to use to practise reading nonsense words in the lead up to the Phonics Screening.

So, for only £9.97 for a whole year's premium membership, what are you waiting for? Pop over to Mrs Mactivity's wonderful website today - you won't be disappointed! And while you're at it, why not follow her on Instagram too, for new resource updates and ideas on how to use them!

Do you have a child learning phonics? What are your favourite kinds of activities to use? I'd love to know! Why not share your ideas and leave us a comment below. If you enjoyed our post, why not follow us below on:

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