Literacy

Noisy Letters

Can be used for BM and other languages.  Adapt the cards for other letter combinations if necessary, e.g. in BM   c= English /ch/;  sy= English /sh/

Objectives

To encourage careful listening and distinguishing of sounds

To motivate students through TPR and team activity

Preparation/Materials

Cards with the letters/sounds covered so far - one per child, up to a maximum of 5 letters/sounds

Teaching Method

• Children take a card with a sound or letter on it, but do not reveal it to other children.  Teacher makes sure child knows the sound the letter makes before the child returns the card.
• The children move round the room making their sound continuously until they have found everyone else making the same sound, and have formed a group together.
• Each child secretly writes his/her letter, then all the group compare, to make sure he/she is with the right group.  (Or they can write the letter on their palm to show the teacher to speed up the process if you do not want them to get paper and pencils out.)
• At first, play the game with very easily distinguished sounds, e.g. s, i, t, p, a, n.  When the children are more used to distinguishing sounds, you can do more similar ones, e.g. s, f, sh, ch, x
• Once the children have grasped the idea the teacher can make it competitive by making the first group to find all its members the winner.

Notes

Teachers with very big classes may wish to play with only half of the children at a time.

This is a good way to get children into groups for another activity.

Keep the letter/sound cards from this activity for the activity “Bag Letters” and “Circle Swap Shop”.

This activity is adapted from the National Literacy Policy, copyright Her Majesty’s Government, UK