Get the most out of our Phonics Pebbles with these great ideas and activities from teacher and consultant, Christine Barker.

It is important for children to begin segmenting and blending simple VC and CVC words early on in a phonics programme, and then to continue practising this skill. As digraphs and trigraphs are introduced, children will easily see how phonemes are working together to make one sound, as each phoneme is on a single pebble. The pebbles can be used with phoneme frames to play simple word building games.

Make the word
Choose a selection of objects containing the focus phonemes and hide them in a bag. Feel for one object and orally segment its name.  Ask the children to blend the phonemes and say the word. If they are correct show them the object. Segment the word again, this time asking children to help you find the pebble for each sound from a selection. Build the word on the phoneme frame, emphasising left to right directionality. Put sound buttons under the phonemes and blend together to read the word. If it is not correct ask children to listen carefully whilst you orally segment and blend the word again. See if they can work together to find the correct phoneme(s).  Each time model segmenting and blending and ask children to repeat with you.

Take it outside!
This game is easily transferred to the outdoor area. Draw a large phoneme frame with sound buttons on the playground. Leave a basket of objects and a pile of pebbles. Children choose an object and say the word, then segment it to find the corresponding pebbles and place them on the phoneme frame in the correct order. They can then jump along the sound buttons, saying the phonemes and blending to read the word they have made.

Alternatively, small piles of pebbles could be left around the outdoor area for children to build words. Clipboards could be available so they could record and read the real and nonsense words they have made. Adding an egg timer would give an extra challenge; how many real words can you make in five minutes?  Can they read all the words on their list? Can they sort the real and nonsense words? A further challenge would be to rearrange all the words to find a secret message.

Pebbles and reading
The pebbles could also be used alongside reading to introduce the focus phoneme(s) in a book and to build some of the words children will find in the text. This could be particularly useful when children are being introduced to alternative spellings.

Once the children have been taught how to play the games, it is important to leave the resources out so that they can practise independently. This also provides good opportunities for assessment.

Find out more about our Phonics Pebbles and the other resources in our Active Phonics range.