Use materials that will help preschoolers and kindergartners associate sounds with texture. For example, ask children to write the letters "sh" in shaving cream or use glitter glue pens to write the letter "f" on a piece of felt. Place a piece of paper over some bubble wrap, then ask children to write the letter "b," explaining that the bumpy bubble wrap begins with "b."
Write letters on card stock with a thin line of glue, then sprinkle fruit flavored gelatin over the glue. When they are dried, encourage kids to trace the letters with their fingers then smell them. This works especially well for the letter "o" (use orange flavor), "g" (grape flavor), "ch" (cherry flavor), and "l" (lemon flavor).
If your students can write, hold a letter scavenger hunt in your classroom. Hide small trinkets, toys or other objects around the room that begin with the letter you are studying. Each item should have a label that spells out its word. Give students 8 minutes to find as many objects as they can. Ask them to write the names of the items they find in their journals.
Use an online bingo card creator (see Resources) to create cards filled with phonemes or word families you are currently studying. Call out the sounds and challenge children to locate them on their bingo cards. The first student who fills all the spaces wins the game.
Draw a hopscotch outline on the playground. Inside each space, write a consonant digraph (like "ch") or a vowel digraph (like "ay"). Play hopscotch with one variant: children must speak the digraph sound before they can jump over it. Keep the game interesting by varying the layout of the hopscotch playing area. Instead of using just traditional square boxes in a vertical line, try creating a circular pattern or a curvy pathway.
Write digraphs or word families with white crayon on white card stock. Give kids watercolor paints and ask them to paint over the page to discover the hidden words.
Purchase commercially-manufactured scratch board paper and ask kids to write their letters and sounds on the black surface with a pencil to uncover the underlying rainbow of colors.
Set out a stack of old magazines. Ask students to search for photos of items that begin with the sound being studied. Make a poster by asking the students to glue their pictures to a large piece of paper attached to the wall.
Incorporate phonics into your holiday celebrations and decorations. For example, create a phonics tree in December. At the beginning of the month, cut ornament shapes from colored card stock. Each day, ask the children to write one word that begins with the sound being studied. They can also decorate their ornaments with colored pencils, markers and glitter glue. Punch a hole at the top of the ornament and use a ribbon to tie it to the classroom's holiday tree.