How Can Word Riddles Boost Phonics Skills? Crack the Code!
We teachers are always looking for ways to help our students boost phonics skills! Yes, there are phonics programs that provide a base to start from, but some students need enrichment and some need more practice or support.
Have you tried using word riddles? They can help your students boost their phonics skills.
How Can Riddles Help Kids with Phonics?
Riddles are like puzzles for words. To solve them, students practice reading and listening skills, problem solve, and work to understand words better. Students will get practice with lots of different sounds and word meanings, which will help boost phonics skills!
They Help Children Develop Critical Thinking Skills
Riddles and word puzzles help our students develop their critical thinking skills. To solve them, they need to take in information, analyze that information, and problem solve creatively.
Word Puzzles and Riddles Build Creativity
Word puzzles and riddles boost phonics skills by supporting the building of creativity and imagination. These skills are so useful in areas such as science or math and support communication! Children also will learn new words to build their vocabulary.
Students will Improve their Concentration and Memory
Solving riddles and word puzzles require students to pay attention to detail and over time they will improve their abiloity to retain information.
Word Riddles Can Help Students Build Teamwork and Collaboration Skills
Working with peers on word riddles encourages building of teamwork and collaboration skills. I love having students work in groups to solve them, which fosters teamwork and builds classroom community!
Where can you find word riddles to use with your class? Keep reading to find out!
How Can you Incorporate Word Riddles into Independent or Small Group Practice?
After teaching a phonics skill, there are a few options:
- For students who need extra support, try some word riddles at the teacher table.
- Students who would benefit from enrichment can grab word riddles to solve at their seat.
- If you want students to try some cooperative learning, have word riddles at a center or the rug and they can work together to solve them!
- Students can work 1:1 or in a small group with a teaching assistant or volunteer.
- I like to have a folder with the answer key available for students to check their work.
- The answer key will also make this an easy activity for a sub, or make it easier for assistants and volunteers.
Where to find Word Riddles? Try Ready to Go Activities from Teachers Pay Teachers
If you want to boost phonics skills for your students, you can definitely search online for word riddles related to different phonics skills… but wouldn’t it save tons of time if you had ready-to-use activities and resources from Teachers Pay Teachers?
I created tons of word riddles to incorporate phonics skills (and grammar) that my students were working on and they can be found all in one resource!
These skills are adressed:
- Short vowels (CVC words)
- More CVC words
- Consonant digraphs
- Consonant blends
- Double consonants
- Double vowels
- Silent e (vCe)
- Y endings
- R controlled vowels
- Long vowels
- Floss Rule (double f, l, s, z)
- consonant-le (final stable syllables)
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- More antonyms
- Homophones
- Suffixes
To help you or substitute teachers, answer keys are included to make it easy for sick days! They are an effective way to help students check practice their phonics skills.
Five Star Reviews:
“This is a great resource to use during my phonics stations. I tend to use it more when we are at the end of a unit in order to challenge them a little more”.
“My class is begging to do more of these. They loved the riddles and it really got them thinking. Thank you!”
Other blog posts you may want to check out:
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Are you ready to rock your phonics instruction? You got this! Let me know if you have your own hot tip about teaching phonics skills!
