Literacy: Phonogram Rocks

Materials Needed:  Dollar Tree river rocks, Dollar Tree knick-knack trays and/or empty Dollar Tree Zen Gardens, two paint pens(red for consonants, blue for vowels), matte clear coat spray

How to Make

1. Sort rocks according to size and how many you can fit in your storage system.  You want at least three rocks for vowels and two for each consonant.  I only do one rock for multi-letter phonograms.

2.  Draw on rocks and allow to dry completely.

3.  Spray with hubby's acrylic coat spray stuff.

I use these for teaching introducing new phonograms.  I don't use them for mass word building.  There just aren't enough rocks.  I use a printed alphabet for that.

In addition to the phonograms themselves, I also made a few rocks for symbols.  Our program has you underline long vowels and put numbers below your silent "e".  See an example below.

But the thing that I use them MOST for is our daily phonogram dictation.  Below, she is quizzing herself on the sounds, and only those she knows are invited to the "party" at the top of the mat.  The first picture in this post is another way we quiz.  I say, "Put all the "er" sounds in the box."  Or I say, "Put ch, k, sh away."

I could just have her write or do phonograms orally, but I find that the rocks provide a fuller sensory experience and make everything stick better.