This is the activity that will support learners still at the stage of matching letters to sounds, particularly the long vowel sounds in the CVVC letter pattern. The words I have used in this condensed version are:

laid, paid, nail, rail, sail, tail, rain, wait, lead, read, leaf, leak, heal, meal, seal, team, bean, leap, beat, heat, meat, neat, seat, feed, seed, weed, heel, peel, reel, seen, deep, jeep, feet, meet, died, tied, load, road, toad, boat, coat, goat, foal, loaf, soap

You will find everything you need with:

• 45 PICTURES for Letter Tiles
• 96 LETTER TILES (Print multiples if you are going to use bigger groups)
• 45 FLASHCARDS
• WORD LIST
• DONKEY Card Game (44 cards with word and picture/22 rhyming pairs)
• Triple P Screen (Phonic, Phonological and Phonemics) to identify skill targets and track progress for at-risk students

Phonemic awareness is easier with PICTURES for LETTER TILES because of the multi-sensory way it is used. The learner hears the word, their eyes see the dots (number of phonemes), then their fingers find the letters that correspond with the sounds. The picture reminds them of the word and the number of boxes is the clue for the number of letters they need. They do not have to think about writing or how to form the letters. The focus remains on phonemics and more time is spent segmenting, matching and blending sounds. In the case of CVVC words, there are three sounds for four letters and remembering the vowel combinations that make the sound.

Long vowel sounds can present phonemic difficulties for some students. While there has been some predictability in decoding the regular sounds letters make up to this point, long vowel sounds are exceptions to previously learnt patterns. Some learners just see the first vowel and try to decode a new word with the short vowel sound. When this doesn't work they usually guess. Learning "When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking" works for the students I teach. The vowel tiles in this product are red, distinguishing them from consonants. Explicit teaching will do the rest with consolidation through games. I also use the terms 'short vowel sounds' and 'long vowel sounds' so students learn to differentiate the different sounds and the letters that can represent them.

Phonemic Development is thought to be the single most influential component of successful reading. Certainly, from my experience in working with struggling readers, the lack of phonic, phonological or phonemic skills can be a significant obstacle to progress.

The primary use of this product is phonemic awareness but you can also:

• Match the Flashcards to pictures (there is a discreet numbering system for you to check), then
• Use Letter tiles independently to make words
• Use the Flashcards for pre-post testing (I use underlined words)
• Use the Flashcards to improve fluency
• Use the letter tiles to make new words – even nonsense words (poat) have a place in phoneme awareness when sound/symbol correspondence relies solely on auditory input.

The DONKEY Card Game I have included consolidates reading and rhyming CVVC words and uses the same pictures to facilitate mastery. I have avoided the ea/ee confusion in the words I have chosen. You can also use these cards for explicit teaching as they are illustrated and they are a great way to use mixed ability groups and be inclusive. Even pairing rhyming words is a good small group activity before learning to play. Games are the ideal way to consolidate as repetition leads to mastery.