Letter Combinations at Home
Your child will search for things around the home that have common letter combinations in their names.
Learning Area(s): Reading and Writing
MATERIALS
- paper or sticky notes
- something to write with
LET'S PLAY
Before you begin, choose a letter combination from the list in Tips that your child is familiar with and write it on a piece of paper.
To get started, tell your child that they are going to be searching for objects and places around your home that have common letter combination sounds. Show the letter combination paper and say, for example, “You will look for items around our home that have the sound and spelling of this letter combination: th that makes the /th/ sound in the word thin.”
Put the letter combination paper on a table or the floor to allow room for your child to bring three to five objects. If your child identifies an item that is difficult to move, like a wall clock, give them a piece of paper or a sticky note to draw a picture and write the word of the item to place in the group.
Have your child search throughout the home for things to bring back. Review the objects with your child as they say the word and the letter combination sound. If your child enjoys this game, choose a different letter combination to go on another search for things.
TIPS
- The items listed under each letter combination are just examples in or around your home. Your child may find other items that are not on this list.
| sh | ch | th | ph | -ck | wh- | -dge | -igh |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fish | chair | tooth | phone | clock | whistle | bridge | light |
| brush | cheese | thumb | photo | sock | wheel | badge | thigh |
| shoe | bench | moth | trophy | truck | white | edge | night |
| shell | couch | mouth | sphere | rock | whisker | wedge | bright |
| bush | lunch | thermometer | elephant | brick | fridge | ||
| dish | chip | thermos |
- Hide the words from your child because they are practicing saying a word and deciding if they hear a letter combination sound.
- Some letter combinations like -igh have sounds that can be spelled other ways. If your child brings back an item with the correct sound, like kite, tell your child they did a good job of matching the sounds, show them how kite is spelled, and discuss how it doesn’t have the igh letter combination in the word (even though it sounds the same). Set the item aside.
- If there are items outside that have the letter combination you are using, you might want to encourage your child to go outside or look out a window.
- You might like to have your child use a tablet or phone camera to take pictures of each item. Help your child spell the word for each item using an application on the digital device to make a digital album. Or print out the pictures and have your child label them in order to make a book of the letter combination search.
- Watch a letter sounds video to practice making the sounds together.
