Phonic Group Mat

Let’s Learn Sounds!

My Musky kit comes with a variety of thematic mats to make me learn about different concepts in a simple, fun and engaging way. Whenever I get stuck, I know Musky will help me out. My parents have brought me the best learning buddy. I wanted to learn about phonics. Our teacher told us that there are seven phonics groups.

There is a map for each group. I started with the first group and once I was confident that I knew about all the phonic sounds in this group I started playing with another one. I involved my mother, father and friends too. We all enjoyed playing and learning with Musky. It’s my best buddy!

Phonics is a method of teaching reading and writing that focuses on the relationship between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes). It involves teaching students to recognize and decode the sounds of the English language and connect them with the corresponding written symbols. Phonics instruction typically begins with teaching students the sounds associated with individual letters and then progresses to teaching them more complex letter combinations and the different ways they can be pronounced. By learning phonics, students can improve their ability to read and write, develop their phonemic awareness, and become more proficient in decoding and understanding written texts.

Some phonics programmes start children off by learning the letters s, a, t, n, i, p first. This is because once they know each of those letter sounds, they can then be arranged into a variety of different words (for example: sat, tip, pin, nip, tan, tin, sip, etc.).

Had a great time playing with your cute little learning buddy, Musky? Check if you can answer these questions.

Phonic group- 1

Q1. How many words begin with the /s/ sound?

Q2. Find the word that begin with /t/ sound and ends with /n/.

Q3. Direct Musky to the word which means a sitting person.

Q4. Pick a color and find all the same beginning sound words.

Q5. Pick the ‘a’ vowel family CVC words on the mat.

Phonic group- 2

Q1. Find words beginning with the sound /d/.

Q2. Pick a color and find all the words of specific sound.

Q3. Which word starts with a group 2 sound but ends with the group 1 sound?

Q4. Find the words with /ck/ sound.

Q5. Pick the /i/ family vowel CVC word.

Phonic group- 3

Q1. Pick a sound and find words with the same beginning sound?

Q2. Which color is the word ________?

Q3. Find the word with the beginning sound /o/

Q4. How many CVC words are here?

Q5. Find the words beginning with sound /g/

Phonic group- 4

Q1. What is the word on D2?

Q2. Choose a color/sound and find its words.

Q3. Direct Musky to the word which means some delicious dish.

Q4. Find words with /oa/ sound.

Q5. How many 3 letter words do you see?

Phonic group- 5

Q1. Let us see which word resides on the block C4.

Q2. Let’s find the words with short /oo/ sound.

Q3. Where is the word______?

Q4. Which word means a place to keep wild animals?

Q5. Let’s find the words with short /ng/ sound.

Phonic group- 6

Q1. How many words end with /sh/ sound?

Q2. Find long /th/ sound words on the mat.

Q3. How many words begin with /ch/ sound?

Q4. __ax complete and find the word directing Musky.

Q5. How many single-letter sound words do we learn in this group

Phonic group- 7

Q1. What is the word on A6?

Q2. How many CVC words in /ar/ sound?

Q3. Which words have /er/ sound in them?

Q4. Who makes the quack quack sound?

Q5. Which words have /ou/ sound in them?

Teachers Note

As an Instructor, you can always make these games fun by framing new questions according to what you can see on the mat. Implementing ideas like, make fill in the blank chits for kids to pick and complete the word. Or maybe some word related fill in the blank sentences can be used. These mats are a step closer to learning reading and writing for them.

The concept of the X and Y axis has been introduced in the mat to make it more fun and exciting for kids. As a teacher you can instruct students to go on a particular block using axis location for e.g. B6. The child has to reach block B6 and spell the word and identify the phonic sound. To make class more lively you can play phonic rhymes for children to understand the sounds better.