Phonics games are fun! And here’s one that’s super easy to make both for teachers and parents at home with their own children. We’ve put together an Obb and Bob Phonics Sorting Game resource pack for you to try, either for preparation for the Phonics Screening Check or just for consolidation in your phonics sessions. The pack contains “stickers” that can be cut out and stuck onto a suitable mini bin, as well as word cards to be used during the game. It’s worth noting that these particular words are taken from the previous two years year 1 Phonics Screening Checks.
Instructions
1. Purchase two mini bins – you can either choose the same colour or two contrasting colours – it’s up to you! I chose two different colours as I thought they would look better in photos. These two came from B and Q (though perplexingly they are not on the B and Q website!)
2. Peel the stickers off the bins and ensure they are completely dry.
3. Cut out the various stickers from the Obb and Bob Phonics Sorting Game.
4. Stick everything on as you can see in the picture – or do it however you prefer!
5. Using the word cards within the resource pack, cut them out and put them in a pile face down on the table. Ask each child to pick up one card at a time and put them in the Obb bin if it’s an “alien” word, or the Bob bin if it’s a real word. They’ll soon get the hang of it. At the end, count how many words are in each bin – if Obb has the most words the children win, if Bob has the most words the teacher wins! (or something like that!).
This really is a great game that children love – and once you’ve got the bins, you’ve got that resource forever!
Other Ways to Use your bins
- Make number cards, ask children to only add prime numbers to the bins.
- Using your number cards, ask children to only add multiples of 2, 3, 5 etc to the appropriate bin.
- Sort animal cards into vertebrates and invertebrates.
- Sort words into verbs and nouns.
- Sort 2D and 3D word cards.
- Sort metaphors and similes
- Any other ideas?
Take a look at the rest of our Phonics resources here.
