th - phase 3 Letters and Sounds

I received a message from a reader to ask for an activity using the /th/ sound.

Here is a simple video from Mr Thorne who shows you exactly how to  pronounce this sound. It is important if you are not used to teaching phonics that you know that this grapheme can make 2 sounds and you need to be able to pronounce both ways correctly when working with children.

Now onto some activities.
Always start by showing the children the /th/ grapheme and getting them to say it in both ways. If you have Jolly Phonics in school then use the mnemomic with the children. Here is a download from Jolly learning if you do not have it in school. Flick through until you get to the /th/ sound.

Get the children to write the grapheme joined if possible. This helps with the understanding that the 2 letters make a sound and also helps in a multisensory way to remember the sound. I just use whiteboards and pens to do this. Children can practise writing and saying it several times. Whiteboards are much less intimidating that pencils and paper. So much easier to rub out and start again.
You can then practise some blending using sound buttons.
On a white board write the word thin sound it out together. th/i/n. Draw a dot under each sound and press the button as you say the sound. Blend it altogether. Practise with some more soft /th/ sounds. Then repeat with some of the more voiced /th/ sounds like that sound it together th/a/t.

Here are some games I use which are tried and tested and which get the job done for  blending(reading) or segmenting (spelling).
At this point I will mention that you don't need an all singing and dancing activity. I think sometimes people get wrapped up in thinking up a fabulous activity which really distracts from what is being taught. Think about the learning objective and think about how you are going to make sure those children will be better at the end of the session that at the beginning. How have you moved them on? That is the important thing. Putting coins in sand trays, cutting up and sticking, playing skittles and things like that might be fun but what are you trying to achieve in the time available? Do you want them to be having fun digging in sand, cutting with scissors etc or really reading words and getting the job done? Children love playing pairs games, bingo games, etc. All these can be played with 2 sets of word cards.

Pairing children up and giving one child the word cards and the other a white board is very effective. One child reads the word and the other has to write it. They then check it. They can then swap over.

Stand all the children up and assign a number. Children take it in turns to read a word they then sit down, continue until all the children have sat down. They stand up and do it again, faster this time. Put the words up on the board with a bit of bluetac so they can all see them and have a different starting point so they read a different word each time.

Put the word cards face down on the floor and sing 'walk around and find a word, find a word, find a word, walk around and find a word, what word is it? Children walk around and stop when the rhyme has finished. They then shout out their word. Make this fast and pacey and sung to the tune of 'London Bridge'.

To play bingo, just get children to draw a cross on their whiteboards, one vertical and one horizontal to make 4 sections. Children to copy any 4 of the words onto their whiteboard. You then read out all the words, you could even sound talk them so they are blending then reading. So you shout out /th/i/n/k/ and they have to find think on their whiteboards. They cross it off and the first person to get them all shouts 'bingo'.

Bang game, use a set of word cards and add 2 which say 'bang' on them. Children pick a word, read it and keep it. If they pick a 'bang' card they have to give all their cards back. Continue until you have had enough or all the cards have been won. Who has the most?

You could play pairs with 2 sets of word cards or a set of word cards and a set of matching pictures.

Buried treasure can be effective (not in sand trays please) it might be fun but as I said before it distracts in my opinion in what you want to achieve. Use a treasure box (something sparkly, an old shoe box or something) and somesort of rubbish bin. Use some word cards which have real words on and some with made up words on the other. Children read and decide where to put them.

You could simply have a set of picture cards in the middle of the table and children choose one, say the word, stretch it out and write it down.

Link games are good for involving all the children but you must keep repeating until they get faster and faster. There is a good link card generator here

With all that said here is a set of word cards using the voiced and soft /th/ sound.

Click here

Copy several times depending on how many children you are working with. Laminate and cut out.

Here is a useful site for making different resources with the /th/ sound.