Essential Letter-Sound Phonics Kit: PreK-2

Build essential early literacy skills for reading and writing success with our Essential Letter-Sound Phonics Kit, designed for PreK-2 learners. This hands-on kit guides children through the critical stages of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and letter-sound knowledge (phonics), setting them on the path to becoming confident readers.

Develop Phonemic & Phonological Awareness

• Engage in playful "I Spy" sound games using classroom objects, encouraging phoneme isolation ("I spy something that starts with /b/"). This builds auditory discrimination skills.
• Progressive game levels systematically develop skills to isolate beginning, middle, and ending sounds, gradually advancing to phoneme segmentation. These activities enhance phonological processing.
• Move from simple to complex activities by focusing on the key sounds of the English language.

Master Letter-Sound Knowledge

• Use letter charts to introduce the key sound for each letter/digraph; with these, you can phonetically spell all words in English! 
• Use self-correcting 3-part cards to match consonant, short vowel, and digraph sounds with corresponding pictures. The control of error built into the card design promotes independent learning.
  
• Work with high-frequency sounds including consonants, short vowels, and digraphs to build a strong phonics foundation.
• This multi-sensory approach helps children connect sounds with symbols, an essential skill for both reading and writing.
• Color-coded cards and pouches make it easy for children to find the materials they need and to organize the learning environment.

Enhance Phoneme Manipulation and Word Building

• Multiple movable letter/digraph tiles in the alphabets let students start phonetically building words without needing to cross out or erase.
  
• Use the movable alphabets for segmenting, blending, and substitution activities, promoting phonological awareness and pre-reading skills.
• Manipulate letters to explore how sounds form words, which prepares the child for later reading and writing.

These interactive, hands-on materials make learning fun, fostering foundational phonics knowledge through playful sound manipulation and letter-sound correspondence activities. Rooted in the science of reading, this kit provides a structured, yet engaging, way to develop essential literacy skills.

The included teacher guide has much more detail and many, many lesson plans, but here is the big picture of how to use these materials.

Step 1: Gather objects from the room to play I Spy sound games. Four levels teach beginning, ending, and middle sounds plus segmenting.

Step 2: Use Letter cards to teach the sounds of each letter/digraph using the 3-period lesson.

Step 3: Students work independently with 3 to 4 letter cards at a time playing games to quiz each other on the sounds.

Step 4: Using the 3-part letter sound cards, students match letters to iconic pictures featuring the sound. The control cards allows them to find and correct their own errors.

Step 5: Use the alphabets to guide students to phonetically spell words (phonetic spellings are expected/developmental at this stage).

Step 6: Use the writing prompts in the teacher's guide to encourage extensive writing explorations with the alphabets.