Sticky Note Phonics Race

This is such an easy, fun phonics activity that can be done at home. I love a sticky note, ever since a teaching colleague got me hooked on them at school. I bought these. This activity is a great use of them. It is as simple as writing the letters sounds on sticky notes, sticking them up and that’s it. With the added element of being ‘a race’ means that children and toddlers alike will love it.

Set Up

So as I mentioned above, this activity is ridiculously easy to set up. Choose which sounds you want your little one to practice. I chose 8 different letter sounds. It really depends on how confident your child is with their letter sounds. I included ones that I knew M knew really well to help build her confidence and then digraphs (two letters making one sound) ‘ff’ and ‘ll.’ We hadn’t spent much time on digraphs but she knew the single letter sounds “f" and “l" and I thought it would be a good way to introduce them. Write your chosen sounds on the sticky notes, I used these. Stick all the sounds somewhere in your home where they can be easily reached. And it’s ready to go.

So the aim of the race was to take the letter sounds off the starting wall and move them to a second wall in a different room in the house. Having to sort them into matching sounds as they stuck them back up. As I wanted it to be a ‘joint’ effort and to not be in competition with each other, I ‘timed’ them completing the challenge to see how long it took them and if they could beat a certain given time. They got straight to it and were running through the house waving their sticky notes as they went. M was able to sort them confidently and as she did it I asked her about the sounds that the letters made. F understood that she had to move them quickly to the new wall. She also understood that the sticky notes represented sounds, as she would point to them and say “a” or “s” (not correctly). But this was not the reason for her playing. F was practicing saying the sounds, which will help with her speech. She felt proud, that like M, she was saying sounds and pointing to a sticky note.

They both loved it and the constant back and forth between rooms meant it was also a bit of a physical work out. M managed to correctly sort them and was happy to correct and reposition the ones that F had put up. This is an activity that we will be doing again and again as we learnt new sounds and to see if the girls can beat their record time!