Picture Sorts have been a game-changer for my students.
Phonemic Awareness needs to be directly taught in Kindergarten and 1st Grades. Learn more about phonemic awareness in this blog post. At my school, we try to teach the skills both universally to the whole class and then in small groups during Guided Reading groups. Obviously, this small group instruction is very important because it gives teachers a chance to assess students and deliver instruction that is just right for the student's reading level.
One strategy that works well to develop Phonemic Awareness in small groups is Picture Sorts. This engaging activity is hands-on and the students love it! Picture sorts can be used with sounds in all positions of words such as the beginning, middle, or end.
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| Beginning Sounds Picture Sorts |
Levels of Picture Sorts
According to Jan Richardson in her book The Next Step in Guided Reading: Focused Assessments and Targeted Lessons for Helping Every Student Become a Better Reader, certain picture sorts are appropriate for certain levels of text during Guided Reading. The graphic below shows the recommended picture sorts for each Guided Reading level. Picture sorts are ideal for Guided Reading Levels Pre-A through F.
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| Short Vowel Picture Sorts with Word Cards |
Traditional Picture Sorts
- Give students pictures that represent two very different sounds as they begin sorting. As students become more proficient, then the sounds can be more similar.
- Tell the students the picture. It wastes time to have them guess and that is not your objective. Phonemic awareness, which is hearing the sounds, is always the goal.
- Have the students say the picture.
- After that, they put the picture in the correct place.
- If they are not able to figure out the sound then they need more instruction. To help, have students stretch the sounds in the word. When the student is segmenting the word, they can use dots, fingers, their arm (shoulder, elbow, wrist). Then the student stretches the word to hear every sound (ie. B-A-G).
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| Dot Cards to Help Students Stretch Words |
- First, the student decides what sound they hear in the position on which you are working (initial, medial, or final).
- The teacher continues to scaffold as necessary.
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| Initial Blends Picture Sorts with Word Cards |
More Activities for Picture Sorts
- Sort Pictures and Words – You can do a traditional sort but add in word cards. This can be added after students can hear sounds in all positions of words.
- Picture Sort Memory – Play memory with the Picture Sorts Cards – For example, if you are working on initial consonants the game might go like this: You can choose an even number of picture cards for the letter D and an even number of cards for the letter J. Mix up the cards and put them face down. The students turn over two cards. If the cards begin the same sounds then they are a match. If they do not match, the student turns them back over. Then the next student takes a turn.
- Picture Sorts Charades – Tell the students the sounds you are working on. Have the students draw a picture card. Then they act out the card and the other students guess what the picture is based on the sound you are working on.
- Guess the Picture There are two variations of this game.
- Sound First – Tell the students the sound and then give a clue about the picture. For example, the sound is M. You use it to clean floors, you would not use it on the carpet, you have to dip it in a bucket of water.
- Sound Last – Give multiple clues about a picture. Tell the sound as the last clue. If they can guess it without giving away the sound, then ask what is the sound for the picture.
An Easy Strategy
