Sound Charts & Chants Free Sample

Hi everyone! This is Jolene from the Candy Class. I know it is summer for many of us, and most of us are not thinking about morning routines in the classroom at this point, lol! However, I wanted to share something that has been a part of my mornings since my very first day in my own classroom. That is chanting phonics while pointing or holding a picture card. It started off simple and hectic for me. I had a wall full of alphabet cards on the wall and a bunch of bright eyed students staring at me. I was pretty much thrown into a classroom. I had an August graduation. I literally graduated, and I got a teaching job the next day by God's grace. School had already started the week before. The classroom they gave me was an old storage room. So there I was, not having everything together as much as I would have liked for my first day of school, and we just started chanting our alphabet sounds. A is for apple a-a-a. I also went on to make-up a bunch of other songs for the calendar that day that became a part of my morning routines. Thankfully, it all went fine. The kids lived. I lived. They began to learn and master. And they even began to smile and chant confidently and enthusiastically each and every morning.

Fast forward, my phonics routine in the morning grew. I begin adding diphthong and vowel team phonics cards. We started chanting blends and more. My chants also changed and evolved over the years. Today, my cards read things like Crown on a Clown ow-ow-ow. The sound is emphasized in two words that make up a fun expression for the kids to remember. Then the sound is chanted three times.

One thing I like about the phonics chant routine is it is daily repetition in an area where students need mastery. Sure, it is not something you are going to get points for higher order thinking if someone walks in your classroom for evaluation at that time (but hopefully they will have sense to get the importance of this). To me, when it comes to higher order thinking,  the information we know is used in those higher order thinking processes. If a students does not know, how can they use something they don't know in higher order thinking? That is why, I find it very important all these sounds be something more than a cute lesson covered for only one week. Chanting the sounds are a fun and easy way to set foundations for automatic recall by making it something that is part of the daily morning routine.

When I first opened The Candy Class, I knew without a doubt that I wanted to create a phonics chart and chants set because I never could find large cards for every single sound I taught, ever. I also wanted the saying written on the cards, and not just a card with a picture. However, I had a few set-backs at starting that project because I did not have the clipart needed to create them. Nor did I have the small fortune I would need to buy the clipart for a project this size. My idea sat on the back burner. Finally, I was able to get the clipart for it, and I gained the skills to draw up some of my own too! Yay! I've since gone on to make other versions of my sound charts and chants. This is a sneak peak of my new set about to be released very, very soon! I have opted to change the name from Sound Charts and Chants to Phonics Posters, but the meat is all still the same. I am loving that it matches my Heart of Gold teacher binder! :)

I do have a sample of these that cover the short vowel sounds. Click here or on the image to grab it.

I hope you enjoy your free sampler, and it helps your students master those short vowel sounds. Thank you for stopping by for a visit! Feel free to share about what you do to build phonemic awareness below. 

Jolene from The Candy Class :)