Phonics Activities With the CAPIT Teacher Cards

Teachers use our Teacher Cards to introduce the new sounds and spellings students will soon learn in the CAPIT Reading Curriculum. They can then place the cards into the Pocket Chart for review or engage students with many fun phonics activities.

The following activities bring CAPIT out of the application and into the physical world and engage individual students, a small group of students, or the entire class. These activities are fun learning opportunities. PK teachers should make this a daily activity (in kindergarten, we suggest doing it a couple of times a week). We list our favorite activities below but urge you to invent your own. Please let us know about them so we can share them with other teachers around the country (we will be sure to give you credit).

Pro Tips

Limitation: Please limit these activities to the Sounds and Letters your students have learned. Over time, you will add more cards, and the activity will increase in length and joy.

“What’s the Sound?” Always ask this question. Whenever a student picks up a letter, ask: “What’s the Sound?” Students should get used to producing the sounds.

Teachable Moments: Let’s maximize those moments. Let’s not correct students or give them the answer. Instead, ask questions: “Hhhmmm. Johny thinks this letter spells the a /t/ sound. With a show of hands, who agrees, and who disagrees?” Get a discussion going. Let Johny own up. Let Johny go and find the sound in the CAPIT Poster or the Sound Chart (in the application).

Activity 1: Find the Pair

Take the Teacher Cards, both Letter Cards and Mnemonic Cards, mix them up, and lay them on the floor facing up. Say a Sound, for example, /t/, and ask a student to find the Spelling. (“t” or/and “T”). The student should pick up the correct Letter Card. Now, ask the student to find the corresponding Mnemonic Card. Now, call on another student to do the same. Repeat the process until the students collect all the cards.

You can also reverse the process. Say: “Can the student with the /t/ Spelling please place his cards in the middle.” Repeat until all the cards are back on the floor.

Activity 2: Memory Game

Take 4 to 6 Teacher Cards, both Letter Cards and their corresponding Mnemonic Cards, mix them up and lay them on the floor facing down in a grid. Ask a student to flip one over, say the sound, and look for its match. Students should match a Letter Card with its corresponding Mnemonic Card and vice versa. A student who finds a match and can correctly pronounce the sound may keep the pair. Now, let another student have a chance. Students should always tell you what they found: M as in Mustache. /t/ as in t-shirt. If a student didn’t find a match or got the sound wrong, have the students re-learn the sound, then put them both back on the floor. After the students collected all the matches, lay another batch of Teacher Cards and play again. Don't put too many cards at once. It's hard to remember that many cards.

Activity 3: Put the Letter on the Mnemonic

Take the Teacher Cards, just the Mnemonic Cards, mix them up, and lay them on the floor facing up. Keep the Letter Cards in your hand. Call one student up. Give her a Letter Card, and ask her to put it on its corresponding Mnemonic Card. When the student finds the match, the student should say the sound and sit back down. Now ask another student to do the same.

Activity 4: Put the Mnemonic on the Letter

This activity is the same as activity 3 but in reverse order. Take the Teacher Cards, just the Letter Cards, mix them up, and lay them on the floor facing up. Keep the Mnemonic Cards in your hand. Call one student up. Give her a Mnemonic Card, and ask her to put it on its corresponding Letter Card. When the student finds the match, the student should say the sound and sit back down. Now, ask another student to do the same.

Activity 5: Find the Spelling

Take some Teacher Cards, but only the Letter Cards, mix them up, and lay them on the floor facing up. Say a Sound, for example, /a/, and ask a student to Find the Spelling. The student should find the correct card, pick it up, and sit back down. The student should lay the card facing up where the other students can see it. Now, call on another student to do the same. Repeat the process until the students collect all the cards. You can also reverse the process. Say: “The student with the /a/ Spellings should put their card in the middle.” Repeat until all the cards are back on the floor.

Activity 6: Same Sound

You can only do this activity with students who are familiar with some Lowercase and Uppercase letters.

Take some Teacher Cards, but only the Letter Cards, both Lowercase and Uppercase, mix them up, and lay them on the floor facing up. Say a Sound, for example, /a/. Now ask a student to find all the possible Spellings (“a” and “A”). The student should find the correct cards, pick them up, and sit back down. The student should lay the cards facing up where the other students can see them. Now, call on another student to do the same. Repeat the process until the students collect all the cards. You can also reverse the process. Say: “The student with the /a/ Spellings should put their cards in the middle.” Repeat until all the cards are back on the floor.

Note: The /k/ Sound has 4 Spelling Patterns: c, C, k, K.