I was looking for a fun and light way to help a child understand the 'give me 5' strategy in the classroom, i.e. When the teacher says ‘give me 5’, s/he is expecting eyes watching, ears listening, mouth closed, hands empty and body still. In the game the children are individually trying to collect all 5 of the instructions required to be followed when a teacher instructs, ‘Give me 5’. The exclamation marks in the game represent the distractions in the classroom that might stop children from giving their full attention. Just as in real life in the classroom, the longer it takes for the children to ‘Give 5’ the more likely there will be consequences, e.g. moved to amber on the traffic light, loss of play-time, teacher will be disappointed etc. Therefore, the game is a race against time for all players as a team or individually (depending on how you’d prefer to play it) to have their full set of 5 instructions before the sad face jigsaw is complete. I found this game worked well. The children enjoyed playing it and after a few games, they could recall the 5 instructions and found it easier to apply them in the classroom.

Banana Split Digraph Game A good fast- pace game which has children recognising and “sounding out” words that contain a split digraph (a_e, e_e, i_e, o_e, u_e). The instructions for play include 3 variations. There is a total of 69 words, real and alien, in the style of those found on the phonics screening test.

Wordsearch using ten words each containing the phase 2 digraph CK. The words read from left to right only and are in lowercase.

A brilliant grapheme–phoneme correspondence game in which children race to find the one matching grapheme between one card and another. Every card is unique and has only one grapheme in common with every other card in the deck. The match can be difficult to spot as the size and positioning of the symbols can vary on each card. All phase 3 and 5 phonemes appear in the game. In order for the game to work mathematically, there are additional images which I've based around the theme of literacy. These images do also help to break up the graphemes and add to the fun. Game 1) Set-up: Draw/ turn over two random cards and place them face-up on the table between all the players. the players look for the identical grapheme between the two cards (same shape, same colour, only the size can be different). The first player to find the right grapheme names it out loud and puts their hand on it, as in snap. When all of the cards have gone, the winner is the player with the most cards. Game 2) Set-up: shuffle the cards, place one face down in front of each player and make a draw pile with the remaining cards, which will be placed face-up in the middle of the table. Object of the game: to be the player who has gained the most cards from the draw pile when the game ends. On go, the players flip their card face-up. Each player must be the fastest at spotting the identical symbol between his or her card and the first card of the draw pile. The first player to find the symbol names it, takes the card from the draw pile and places it in front of him or her, on top of his or her card. By taking this card, a new card is revealed. The game continues until all the cards from the draw pile have been drawn. The game stops once all the cards in the draw pile have been gained. The winner is the player who has gained the most cards. Game 3) Set-up: deal all the cards, one at a time, to all players, starting with the player who won the last game. Place the last card in the middle of the table, face-up. Each player shuffles his or her cards and makes a draw pile placed before him or her, face down. The object of the game: to be the fastest to get rid of all your cards – make sure you’re not the last! How to play? On go, the players flip their draw pile face-up. Players must be faster than the others to discard the cards from their draw pile by placing them on the card in the middle. To do that, they have to name the identical symbol between the top card of their draw pile and the card in the middle. As the middle card changes as soon as a player places one of his or her cards on top of it, players must be quick. The winner: The last player to get rid of his or her cards loses the game. See here for the original game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TfDH0Rnpyc

This set of phase 5 real and alien words have been created in the format of the Phonics Screening materials. It contains all phase 5 graphemes. For all 19 graphemes, there are 4 real words and 4 alien words. For easy reference, the grapheme is displayed at the top of each page. It is a really useful resource as an assessment in the run up to the screening, especially as it includes all of the words that have appeared on the test since 2012. The words from previous screening tests have been indicated with a star to the left of the word. I've found it useful throughout the year to use the 8 words as a check before moving on to the next grapheme. I have them in a file in order but also use them for games and activities. The words can be cut and laminated to use in snap/pairs but I've found the most successful game to be 'Beat the Detective'. The children seem to love it. - The 8 words are scattered at one end of the classroom. - A detective is chosen. - The rest of the class have their white boards and pens ready, pretending to be Officers in a police station. - They write the particular grapheme on their board. - Teacher says, 'Detective ready?' Detective replies 'Ready'. - Teacher says, 'Officers ready?' Class hold up their white board to show that they have written the particular sound on their board. - Teacher calls out one of the scattered words. - The Detective walks quickly to the scattered words and tries to bring it back to the teacher before someone in the class manages to write the word on their board. -For a more challenging game, don't let the children write the grapheme first; just have them write the whole word when you say go.

30 different Bingo sheets containing Phase 3 Digraphs and Trigraphs. Lowercase letters. Bingo Caller's Sheet.

Labels for Maths exercise books. Editable word document ready to personalise with student name, class and teacher.

10 simple activities for children to use during rainy day play or busy time. I printed the sheets and put them in a little folder, with some coloured pencils, at the start of the Summer Holidays with the suggestion that it might be fun to do in the car on long journeys.

30 different Bingo sheets containing Phase 3 Digraphs and Trigraphs. Lowercase letters. Bingo Caller's Sheet.

Two sheets - one with dotted numbers 1-20 for tracing and one blank. 0-9 A-4 size digits with arrows to indicate starting point. To be printed and displayed in the classroom.