Word Workshop is a free phonics game for kindergarten and 1st grade. A picture appears and a teacher's voice says the word. Your child taps the letters that spell it, one sound at a time, and each finished word becomes a sticker in a friend's sticker book. Ten words fill a page, and there are 14 pages.
How it teaches
There is one box for each sound, not each letter, so sh, ch, th, ck and ll are a single tile, the way children are taught to hear them.
The other tiles are close calls (b and d, a and e, sh and ch), so a child has to listen to each sound. Two tiles that make the same sound, like c and k, are never offered together.
A wrong tile wobbles back and the word is said again slowly. After two misses the right tile lights up.
The first word on each page is blended out loud, slowly and then at normal speed ("caaat... cat"), so a child hears the sounds join into the word. After that, a word spelled right first time is simply said once; a word that needed help is blended again.
The 14 pages
The pages follow the same order as our phonics worksheets and decodable readers: short vowels first, then ck and double letters, digraphs, and blends. Each finished page links to the worksheets for that skill.
Page 1: Kate the squirrelShort a: cat, hat, rat, map, bag, van, pan, fan, jam, ham
Page 2: Fen the armadilloShort i: pig, wig, pin, lid, bib, kit, zip, fig, six, fin
Page 3: Pip the pigShort o: dog, mop, log, box, fox, cot, pot, top, pod, rod
Page 4: Hal the hedgehogShort u: bus, cup, sun, mug, rug, jug, hut, gum, cub, bug
Page 5: Len the raccoonShort e: bed, hen, pen, jet, net, leg, vet, peg, ten, web
Page 6: Viv the possumShort a, i and o: van, pig, fox, hat, wig, box, jam, lid, log, fan
Page 7: Chad the badgerAll short vowels: bed, sun, cat, zip, dog, cup, hen, jet, rug, map
Page 8: Bet the yakck and double letters: duck, sock, lock, sack, rock, puck, bell, doll, hill, well
Page 9: Chuck the woodchucksh and ch: fish, dish, shell, shed, cash, chick, chin, chest, bench, lunch
Page 10: Deb the skunkth, ng and nk: bath, moth, path, ring, king, wing, sink, tank, skunk, bank
Page 11: Ken the koalal-blends: flag, clock, sled, plug, clam, plum, block, glass, cliff, slug
Page 12: Jade the red pandar-blends and s-blends: crab, frog, brick, crib, grass, grill, stick, stamp, stump, stack
