While there is definitely a time and a place for worksheets, I prefer to use resources that allow children to touch, move and experience the concept I’m teaching. There has been lots of research to prove that children learn best when they are relaxed and physically involved in their learning, which is why I use games, cards and puzzles to help teach English. 

These are some of the resources that I use:

Rhyming Cards

For Preschool and Reception children these cards can be used in a number of ways to help young children master rhyming. Older children can begin to see the root of each rhyming pattern for spelling and can begin to make fun rhyming sentences, poems or stories.

Phonics

I use letter cards to play a wide range of games with children and help them learn firstly, initial phonemes (single letter sounds). From there we can begin to put sounds together to read and spell simple words. Following on from this I help them to learn the vowel and consonant diagraphs (such as ch, sh, th, ai, ee etc.) and their variations. I can also teach the Jolly Phonics actions and songs that accompany each phoneme and diagraph.

Fun and Games!

These are a few of the games and puzzles I use to help develop understanding of concepts such as alphabetical order, building large ranges of language and vocabulary, and word building. Learning definitely can be fun…and not always requiring worksheets!