Looking for fun and engaging ways to teach middle sounds in your phonics lessons? Come along to see how small group games transformed my teaching when it came to this skill. Not only will your students be engaged and grasp middle sounds with ease, but they’ll also have fun along the way!
What Are Middle Sounds?
Middle sounds or medial sounds are exactly what they sound like! They’re the sounds you can find in the middle of a word. They can be a short or long vowel sound. Learning to identify middle sounds is a key component of phonemic awareness since it’s essential for segmenting and blending sounds to read words.
In kindergarten, we start out with common CVC words that have short vowels as the medial sound. Eventually, children move on to working with long vowel middle sounds as well. An important thing to keep in mind when teaching middle sounds is that this skill will be practiced all year long. As children learn new word patterns and sounds, you will continue to increase the difficulty of these activities.
Middle Sounds Games for the Win
If you know me, you might already know my love for learning games. I teach kindergarten after all! Over the years, I have discovered there is no better way to snag student attention and keep it than with games. Even for those tricky skills that take a little extra patience and attention to detail to teach, like middle sounds!
For this reason, I created a ton of kid-friendly phonics games that focus on practicing middle sounds. We use them most commonly in small groups, but many of the games are also suitable for whole-group teaching and even center time too! All in all, I came up with 16 different games to target middle sounds. Let’s take a closer look at a few of my favorites from this resource and how we use them in my room.
1. Middle Sounds Sorting Game
One of my favorite activities from this middle sound resource is a sorting game. In this game, you’ll decide what middle sounds you want to target (both short and long vowel options available) and place the corresponding phonics picture cards in a pocket chart. Then, you’ll place the sorting headers for each vowel sound targeted in the pocket chart as well.
One at a time, students will take turns selecting a card, saying the word, and identifying the middle sound they hear. If they answer correctly, they sort it into that category by placing it under the header. I like to have students choose the next friend that goes after them if they answer correctly. If they don’t answer correctly, I have them try again. This game is great for when you’re introducing new sounds, or just getting started with this concept. Since it’s played in a group format, students will get the added benefit of observing their friends. Plus, it makes a great follow-up center activity to play with a partner after kiddos understand how to play.
2. Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down
My kids absolutely love this one! In this game, everyone gets a thumbs-up and thumbs-down sign. These are just little cutouts that I attach to popsicle sticks. Then, when we’re ready to play, I hold up a card with two pictures on it. Students must look at the pictures and determine if the middle sounds match. If they do match, they hold up the thumbs-up sign. If they don’t they all hold up thumbs down.
To help avoid any overwhelm that might occur, I have my students wait until I say “ok” to hold up their signs. This way, I can say each word slowly, and the children can listen to the sounds they hear. This avoids children rushing to hold up their sign, rather than slowing down and listening to those middle sounds! This is another one that we play during small groups, but you can also play this as a whole group too! Instead of using the signs, have children use hand signals to indicate thumbs up or thumbs down.
3. Middle Sounds Cupcake Game
Another trick I have learned over the years while teaching kindergarten is that if you combine games with other fun themes that students love, you’ve got a winning recipe! Case in point, this Make a Cupcake Middle Sounds Game! To play this game, every student gets a “cupcake wrapper” card. Then, you’ll place picture cards in the middle of the table that look like components of cupcakes. Each card also has a picture of a word we’re going to be identifying the middle sound for.
The teacher will ask students to “make a cupcake” by finding something on the table that has a specific middle sound. For example, “Can you make a cupcake with something that has the middle sound /a/?” Students will search the table until they find a picture with that middle sound. They place it on their wrapper and the game continues until all the cards are chosen. This simple game is always a hit, so I like to laminate the pieces and use them over and over again.
4. Trash It!
Ready for another middle sounds game that will make your students smile? Trash It! is always a student favorite! I love this game because it’s great for warm-up during small group teaching, and can be played again and again. To prepare, I like to laminate the picture strips along with the trash can cards included. I store these by sound so that when a group comes to my table, I can easily grab the set that will suit their skill level best.
To play, each student gets a picture strip along with a trash can card. They must say the words and identify the middle sound in each one. Then they find the word that doesn’t belong and place the trash can card on it to “trash it”. These are also great teaching tools too. Just use one strip at a time and work through them as a group. Students will have to pay attention and listen carefully to identify those middle sounds!
5. Feed Me Middle Sounds Game
This last game I’m going to share is another student favorite and can be played in multiple ways. Feed Me is great for small groups, but you can also call on students to complete a card when working with your whole group. It can even be used as a center game once students know how to play too! I love the versatility of this game!
The idea here is that students will choose a card that has two pictures on it. They say the words and identify the middle sounds. Then, if the words have matching middle sounds, they get to “feed” their card to the mouse. The picture cards look like pieces of cheese and students LOVE being able to “feed” the mouse! This is a great game to play when you feel like your students are losing interest. They will perk up right away when you ask them if they’d like to feed the mouse!
More Engaging Games for Middle Sounds
Do you love these games to teach middle sounds? Me too! They really make a huge impact on how smoothly my small groups run each day. Not to mention, the variety included for each game for short and long vowel sounds makes it easy to customize what my students are working on while ensuring everyone gets to play the same fun game. I love being able to tailor each game by skill level and give my kids exactly what they need. Don’t forget though friends, these are just a few of the games inside my Middle Sounds Resource! Inside you’ll get:
- Match It Up
- BINGO
- Fluency Strips
- SWAT
- Roll & Write
- Road Races and more!
There are a total of 16 games included, which means you’ll have plenty of options to practice this skill throughout the year. Many of the games are designed to be played in small groups, but you’ll also find that some of them (such as Roll and Write) work really well for centers and independent learning time as well! And I didn’t forget about whole group teaching either. Many of these games are easily adaptable to be used with your whole class at once.
Phonics Games for the Whole Year
If you love these games, the fun doesn’t have to end here! I have a huge, growing bundle of phonics games that you can use all year long. Inside this bundle, you’ll find endless games for a variety of phonemic awareness skills including:
- Letter Identification
- Rhyming Words
- Initial Sounds
- Blending
- Segmenting
- Final Sounds
- Middle Sounds and more!
The best part about purchasing this Phonics Games Bundle is that you will get all future additions for free! So if you’ve been looking for a fun and easy way to make teaching essential phonemic awareness skills more fun in your room, this bundle is going to save the day! No more worrying about how to teach new skills in an engaging format. All the work is done for you and I know your students will love using these games just as much as mine do. Head on over to my shop to check it out! When it comes to teaching phonics skills this bundle will save you so much time!
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