5 Phonics Activities with peardeck you NEED to try !

Peardeck has changed the way I instruct since doing virtual in the best way possible! And I want to share that goodness with you. I have 5 phonics activities with peardeck that you NEED to try with your students. The best part about these 5 activities is they can be easily adapted to any level or skill.

What is Peardeck?

Peardeck is one of the easiest online tools to get started with if you are new to the technology game. If you have used a google slide before, you can use a peardeck. And if you’re reading a blog article about peardeck, chances are you’ve used a google slide before! So congrats! You’re already half way there!

 

To get started with peardeck, you will create a google slide first using all the functions of the slide as you already are accustomed to doing. 

 

How to use Peardeck?

Once your google slides are created, adding in peardeck features is a simple way to let your students interact with what you’ve created. You have choices as to how students can interact with your slides. Students can:

• Type in a text box
• Choose a multiple choice answer
• Draw anywhere on the slide
• Drag and drop and icon
• Visit a website you embed 
• Number

 

Phonics Activities

So now that we’ve covered the basics of how to use peardeck, let’s get onto how you can practice phonics activities with peardeck that you can implement tomorrow. These 5 activities have all been tried and tested on my 3rd graders multiple times! 

 

1. Activity: Find the word with [targeted sound] 

• My favorite type of slide with this: Drag and drop
• Other options that could work: Draw anywhere

 

Create a slide with many different words. This can be scattered words across the screen or a table. I have done both for visual interest. Have students drag and drop an icon to all the words that have a certain sound you are targeting. Example:

Teacher: “Today we are looking for all the words that have the same sound that the ar have in star. Drag the dots to all the words that have the same ar sound.”

 

 

In our current distance learning model, we first practice this skill in class through a peardeck. Then I have my students work on similar activities independently. Students greatly benefit from repeated practice of looking at a set of words and identifying which words follow a certain pattern. All of my digital word work, which you can find here, all include activities where students must identify patterned words from a given list. 

 

2. Activity: Which one doesn’t belong

• My favorite type of slide with this: Type text
• Other options that could work: Draw anywhere, Drag & Drop

Give students a grouping of 3 words, 2 of which follow the same sound pattern. Have students identify which word is the odd word out that does not match the sound pattern. I prefer the text on this one so students must also type the corresponding graphemes, but of only one word, keeping the activity fast paced.

 

 

 

3. Activity: Box that sound

• My favorite type of slide with this: Draw anywhere
• Other options that could work: This is kind of a one size fits all type activity; you need the draw feature !

Give students one giant word on their slide. Tell them the targeted sound you are looking for. Students draw a box or circle around the corresponding grapheme. This also works great if working with prefixes or suffixes. 

 

4. Activity: Phoneme Grapheme mapping

• My favorite type of slide with this: Level 1: Drag and drop    Level 2: Draw anywhere

 

Level one – Phonemes only. Create a phoneme grapheme board, or sound boxes. Create circles or squares to represent sound cubes using the drag and drop feature. Give students a word. Have students put a circle or square in each box to represent the number of sounds they hear

 

Level two – Phoneme Grapheme Identification. Create the same sound boxes for students. However this time enable the draw anywhere slide. Give students a word. Students now have to put letters into the boxes to represent each sound. 

Phoneme grapheme mapping is a teaching practice that has revolutionized how I approach phonics instruction. To learn more check out this blog post where I dive in-depth on what the what, why, and how of phoneme grapheme in your classroom instruction.

5. Activity: Secret Syllables 

• My favorite type of slide with this: Draw anywhere 
• Other options that could work: Drag and drop

 

This one of the more simple phonemic awareness activities with peardeck and done exactly like it sounds! Give students a set number of words. Have students draw in syllable breaks or circle words with a given number of syllables. 

 

These are 5 basic phonics activities with peardeck will help fast track you on your journey to get started in your classroom. Once you become comfortable with these 5, you will begin seeing how the sky is the limit when it comes to peardeck! Pick one of these activities and try it out. Then tag me on social media so I can cheer you on!! Happy phonics teaching, my friends!