Embedded Files
In our classroom, Dahlia and I wanted to launch the new phonics unit, “The Mystery of the Silent e”, in a playful, engaging and creative way. We decided, in light of everything we are learning in this course, to create some phonics stations with plenty of room for choice.
We sat together and brainstormed activities that we thought would be exciting, but also responsive to both the age we teach and our students’ current levels of understanding with the silent e rule.
We came up with five station ideas that we thought would appeal to different learning styles. After our planning, we got straight to creating the materials!
Station 1: Memory
In this station, students worked in partnerships and small groups to pair silent e words with their matching picture.
Station 2: Charades
In this station, students chose a word card and then acted it out for the peers in their group. Students had to guess the action while also thinking about a word that contained a long vowel (knowing it was a silent e word).
Station 3: Build it
In this station, students picked a card with a silent e word and built it with play doh. They also had an opportunity to pick a blank card and make up a silent e word of their own to build with play doh.
Station 4: Read and Cover
In this station, students worked independently or with a partner to read silent e words and cover the matching picture using a snap cube.
Station 5: Draw it
In this station, students used silent e wands to add an e to CVC words. Once they created the new word, they wrote and drew a picture of each word (CVC and CVCe) and made a magic flip book!
We found that trying these playful activities brought joy to our classroom. In order to create the conditions for this playful learning, we tried incorporating lots of choice and variety of materials. We also chose activities that we would appeal to students’ preferences. For example, play doh is a popular choice time activity, so we found a way to incorporate it in our stations. Lastly, we did not manage or supervise any station. Rather, we visited stations to offer our support when needed. What we witnessed was self-directed learning and students supporting each other.
We thought it went really well. It was evident that the students were engaged and having a lot of fun. We learned how simple and easy it can be to incorporate play into our classroom. Offering choice was a large factor that impacted motivation and sustained attention to the activities. For example, some students managed to try each and every station. However, other students chose to remain at one station for the majority of the allotted time.
PXL_20241107_192416600.mp4Charades
Charades
"broke"
PXL_20241107_194032986.mp4Draw It
Draw It
"cut --> cute"
PXL_20241107_192313278.mp4Build It
Build It
Students reading and building different words
We reflected on this activity after it was complete. We both felt a sense of calm and enjoyment in the classroom and in ourselves. The purpose of the stations was to foster exploration and because of this, it was a low stakes, low pressure period of the day. At the same time, we felt that students were challenged and observed them taking risks in their learning. While we purposely varied the activities so that some were very open-ended and others were more closed-ended, we noticed that the most closed-ended activity was the least visited. This observation will likely impact the way we plan playful learning in the future.
Hi! I love all the game ideas! I am going to make a memory game today with my trick words and some phonics concepts as well! Charades looks so fun too! Thanks for sharing the fun ideas!
-Kim O'Connor
I love these ideas and clearly your students did too! I especially loved the charades, build it and draw it stations. All types of learners have access to practicing this skill in this lesson! I wonder if there is a way to use these stations again and again with different phonics skills? Did all learners visit each station or did they have a choice as to the ways they wanted to practice silent e? Thanks for getting my wheels turning for my phonics instruction. - Lyndsay
Page updated
Report abuse