It's almost the end of the year and your Kindergarten students have learned so much! It is amazing how far they have come, especially in the area of phonics. At the start of the year, they were just learning their letter sounds, and now they are blending CVC words, or perhaps even long vowel words! As the year comes to a close, it is important to focus some time on reviewing all the phonics skills they have previously learned. Continual phonics review is key to really getting those phonics skills to stick. Here are a few simple end-of-the-year phonics review ideas that you can try with your Kindergarten students.
Small Group and Center Activities End of the Year Phonics Review Ideas
Throughout the year I like to pull previous phonics skill centers and add them to our current center rotation. This keeps my students practicing ALL the phonics skills, not just the current ones we are working on. For example, when we are practicing spelling CVC words, I might throw in a middle sound picture sort into that week's center rotation. Part of learning how to spell CVC words is identifying that middle sound, so it is the perfect add-on to that phonics skill.
During the last month of school, I dedicate all of my phonics centers to reviewing previous phonics skills. Usually, we have 2 phonics center stations per day, so I pick a few centers that they practiced previously to use for those. I try to select centers that my students enjoy, to make them a little more engaging. For example, one year my students were obsessed with write the room activities, so I had them do at least one phonics write the room each week. For skills, I like to pick at least one center per phonics skill, so one day they may have a beginning and ending magnet mats, then another a consonant blend picture sort. Just grab a few here and there and plug them into your center plans.
The same goes for my small group table. At the end of the year, we have some phonics assessments that we have to go through. I pull previous center activities and do them as a small group lesson. Then, when I have to assess, they already have lots of recent practice on those skills. While I am assessing, students are working on an independent phonics activity, like a page in their phonics interactive notebook or a phonics worksheet.
Whole Group End of the Year Phonics Review Ideas
At the end of the year, you will also want to continue your phonics lessons through the end. Here are a few ways you can practice end-of-the-year phonics review with your students in a whole group lesson.
Anchor Charts
Anchor charts are a simple end-of-the-year activity because your students can create them with you! You can do one for each skill and have students come up with what goes on the anchor charts. For example, you can do a middle sound tree map and have students come up with words that have each short vowel middle sound. Or you can do one for a specific consonant blend that maybe they struggled with and have them draw pictures and write words for that consonant blend.
For more anchor chart ideas, you can check out this resource. It includes pre-made anchor charts for every phonics skill that you just have to print and glue to prep. Find it here:
Find it on TPT here: Phonics Anchor Charts for the Year.
Phonics Games
What's a phonics review without some fun games! If you have flashcards or phonics pictures, you can easily do all of these games with your students. It gets your kids up and moving and having fun without realizing they are learning.
Here are a few of my favorite games to play:
- Four Corners: Place 4 phonics sounds around the room. Play 4 corners and call out a word with one of the phonics sounds. Whichever students are at that sound is out. You can have a student have to call out the word or have each student at each corner come up with a different word that has that phonics sound in it.
- Musical Chairs: Place a flashcard on each chair. Play music and have students walk around the chairs. When the music stops, they sit down and grab a flashcard, and whisper read it to themselves. Tip: Leave the same number of chairs as the number of students so you don't have any pushing/shoving.
- Hopscotch: Draw hopscotch on the ground outside. Write words or phonics sounds in each box. have students read the words, say the sounds, or come up with a word that has that phonics sound in it. This is great to do wherever they have recess, you will see students just go over there and do it on their own during recess time!
Check out this blog post here for even more engaging whole group games to play: 4 Engaging Phonics Lesson Activities to Try
Roll and Read
A Roll and Read activity is my go-to last-minute phonics review idea. Grab a phonics roll and read, display it on the smartboard and you've got a ready-to-go lesson. Add in a huge inflatable dice for more fun or use one on your computer. I like to have students come up one at a time to read one word, then call on additional students to read the rest of the words in the column.
You can even create your own custom roll and read activity here:
Find it on TPT here: Editable Roll and Read Activity Template
Picture and Word Sorts
Last, but certainly not least are picture and word sorts. You can just grab a stack of picture sorts and word sorts and do one per day. It is a great way to review all those phonics skills with a single activity.
If you want to challenge your students a little more, I suggest doing an “open” sort. With an open sort, you give them a group of pictures or words and students have to figure out what phonics skill you need to sort them by. For example, you might give your students a group of words that all have different blends. They would have to first identify what all those words have in common, then sort them. Your students would say “They all start with consonant blends!”, and then have to figure out what consonant blends, and sort them into each blend. Find the Phonics Picture Sorts here.
Looking for more end-of-the-year phonics review activities?
Check out my Kindergarten Phonics Review Unit for 3 weeks worth of done-for-you lesson plans, activities, games, worksheets, assessments, and MORE! It covers all of the Kindergarten Phonics skills with engaging and hands-on review.
Plan your End of Year Phonics Review!
Hopefully, this helped you plan some fun and engaging activities for your end of year phonics review! I'd love to hear what you're planning.
