I have come up with quick and easy kindergarten literacy activities that use simple letter cards to practise various skills with my students. These cost nothing to make – I just cut up pieces of paper and wrote on them with a Sharpie!

I use the activities alongside my structured literacy routine to help reinforce different skills. These are great after I have taught my students a few letter sounds so that we can start using what we learned!

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I started off with just blank squares of paper. Then, I put them under the projector so that all students could see what I was writing.

I start off by making the first stroke of a lowercase letter. For example, a small downward stroke can be an n, m, r, etc. Next, students start guessing which letter it could be. If they do not guess it, I make the second stroke. They are usually able to guess the letter at this point. Students then have to make the letter sound!

This super easy game works on letter recognition, formations sounds.

Once I have made the cards, I use them to do my phonics review. I hold up each letter, and my students have to make the sound associated with it. This is a great way to develop automaticity with phonics skills.

I start by putting two letter cards together, and students have to blend the sounds. I put a vowel and a consonant together. These can be nonsense words: ag, uj, ed, tu, di, etc. Students aren’t reading words; they are just practicing their blending skills.

Once they can blend two sounds, I add an extra card and have them blend three sounds.

Now that my students have practiced blending three sounds, I start substituting a sound to make a new word: cat to sat, but to bit, sun to sub. I can keep switching beginning, middle, and ending sounds one at a time to make new words.

Again, this is a great way to work on blending and automaticity with reading skills!

Have you ever tried one of these games, or do you have a different one you play? Let me know in the comments!