Small group reading time is powerful, but keeping students engaged can be tricky! Hands-on activities for small group reading make learning fun while building fluency, comprehension, and phonics skills. From word-building games to interactive story retelling, these easy ideas will keep your readers excited and learning. Let’s dive in!
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Before we dive into these hands-on activities, you might be wondering, what are my other students doing while I am meeting with my small groups. Find tips for that here. Or, check out my center rotation routine.
Basic Phonics Activities (Letter Sounds & CVC Words)
🔹 Resource: Guided Reading Phonics Activities & Intervention
For my students who struggle with letter sounds and CVC words, I use simple, interactive activities to build foundational skills. The plus side of these resources is the wide variety of ways they can be used.
Letter & Picture Card Games
These letter and picture cards are great for:
- Letter & Sound Matching – Match letters with their corresponding pictures.
- Alphabetical Order Sorting – Arrange cards in ABC order.
Or, try using the picture cards in these ways:
- Memory Game – Flip and match picture pairs with the same vowel sound.
- Word Building – Use letter tiles to spell words from the pictures.
- Storytelling – Have students create simple sentences using the pictures.
CVC Word Games
One of my favorite ways to help students with phonemic awareness is by having them manipulate sounds within words, focusing on the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. A favorite way to manipulate sounds is to let your students be “detectives” and finding the missing sound on these cards.
We also do word sorting activities where students group words by vowel sounds, which is especially helpful for my English Language Learners (ELLs) who struggle with similar-sounding vowels.
These simple, hands-on activities make a huge difference in building confidence and fluency!
Sound Discrimination Games
I love using beginning sound games to build phonics skills! I’ll call out a sound, and students find a picture that starts with it. We also play Odd One Out, where they spot the word that doesn’t belong on a picture strip. Another favorite is Say & Cover Mats, where students match sounds using magnetic letters, foam letters, or blocks—switching up materials keeps it fresh every time.
- Listening for Beginning Sounds: Students identify pictures that start with the sound I call out.
- Odd One Out Game: Using picture strips, students find the word that does not belong based on its beginning sound.
- Say & Cover Mats: Students use magnetic letters, foam letters, or blocks to match beginning sounds.
Clip It Cards for Sound Practice
Practice beginning and ending sounds with fun, interactive clip cards. The clipping style game repeats throughout each of the Guided Reading game packs! No need to reteach game instructions over and over!
Reading Game with Word Cards
When students are ready, try using word cards for a fun OOPS game!
- Students take turns pulling word cards from a basket
- If they can read the word, they keep it!
- If they draw an “Oops!” card, they return all their cards.
Advanced Phonics Activities (Blends, Digraphs & Simple Sentences)
🔹 Resource: Guided Reading Blends & Digraphs Activities
As students grow in their reading skills, they move beyond CVC words into more complex phonics patterns. This resource helps students recognize and apply blends, digraphs, vowel teams, diphthongs, and r-controlled vowels.
Listening & Sound Discrimination Games (Blends & Digraphs)
I love using fun, hands-on games to help students recognize sounds in words! One of my favorites is listening to sounds, where students listen for a blend or digraph and cover the matching picture with counters, mini clips, or erasers.
(image of the page 10 resource in the blends & digraphs pack: https://www.dropbox.com/work/All%20Students%20Can%20Shine/Products/Guided%20Reading%20Bundle/Blends%20%26%20Digraphs)
We also play sound and picture matching, where they pair digraph picture cards with the correct sound card. Another go-to game is which one doesn’t fit, where students find the word that doesn’t belong in a given set of blends—like spotting the odd one out in slide, sloth, snake, sled. These activities keep kids engaged while strengthening their phonics skills!
(image gallery using pages 16 and 20 of the blend and digraphs pack: https://www.dropbox.com/work/All%20Students%20Can%20Shine/Products/Guided%20Reading%20Bundle/Blends%20%26%20Digraphs)
Digraph & Blend Games
A few simple games can make practicing digraphs fun and engaging.
In Connect 4 – Digraph Edition, students spin a phonics spinner and find a matching digraph word on their board, trying to connect four in a row to win. For extra practice, I love using missing digraph sound activities where students write in the correct digraph and sound out the word. Another easy option is digraph clip cards, where students pick the correct digraph for each picture. These hands-on activities help reinforce tricky sounds while keeping students motivated!
(image gallery of 3 pictures. 1st picture: connect four page 26, 2nd picture: missing sound page 32, 3rd picture: 43 of the blends & digraphs pack:https://www.dropbox.com/work/All%20Students%20Can%20Shine/Products/Guided%20Reading%20Bundle/Blends%20%26%20Digraphs)
Vowel Teams & Diphthongs Sorting
Simple matching games make vowel teams and diphthongs easier to grasp. In read & match, students pair words with the correct picture, like matching “train” to a picture of a train. Another great activity is same sound sorting, where students find and group words that share the same diphthong sound. These quick, hands-on games help reinforce tricky vowel patterns in a fun and interactive way!
(image of either of the activities pictured above, or a gallery of both. These are in the blends/digraphs pack: https://www.dropbox.com/work/All%20Students%20Can%20Shine/Products/Guided%20Reading%20Bundle/Blends%20%26%20Digraphs)
R-Controlled Vowels & Sneaky E Practice
One of the ways to practice r-controlled vowels, as well as silent E, is with write & wipe cards. This game focusing on “sneaky” e words, helping students recognize silent E changes to words, for example tap —> tape.
(image: write & wipe game from blends/digraphs pack: https://www.dropbox.com/work/All%20Students%20Can%20Shine/Products/Guided%20Reading%20Bundle/Blends%20%26%20Digraphs)
Simple Sentences for Phonics Fluency
Sentence strips help students practice blends, digraphs, vowels, and r-controlled sounds while building fluency. Black dot tracking guides their reading, making it easier to read smoothly and confidently.
(image page 141 of blends & digraphs pack)
Sight Words Activities & Short Passages
🔹 Resource: Guided Reading Sight Words & Short Passages
Sight word recognition is key to fluency, and I use engaging, hands-on activities to make it fun!
Fast-Paced Sight Word Grab Game
- I place sight word cards on the table.
- I call out a word, and students grab the correct card.
- As the game continues, I add more words to challenge students.
For struggling readers, I modify the game by allowing them to focus on one word at a time in a non-competitive format.
Spell That Word Game
I love this game because of its easy differentiation! This game includes words in the pre-primer, primer and first grade list. Students can spell the words with wipe-off markers or play-dough for more hands-on fun.
(image of the spell that word game in the sight word bundle: https://www.dropbox.com/work/All%20Students%20Can%20Shine/Products/Guided%20Reading%20Bundle/Sight%20Words)
Reading Comprehension Activities
🔹 Resource: Guided Reading Comprehension Activities
Once students master decoding, we focus on comprehension skills. I use interactive tools to help students understand, connect, and discuss texts.
Strategies for Stronger Readers
Retelling with picture cards helps students summarize key events in a story. I also use question cards to spark deeper thinking and graphic organizers like Venn diagrams and story maps to explore characters and themes. These simple tools make comprehension more interactive and engaging!
(image gallery: 1st picture: the story sequencing activity from the reading comprehension pack/2nd image: question prompt cards. pack: https://www.dropbox.com/work/All%20Students%20Can%20Shine/Products/Guided%20Reading%20Bundle/Comprehension)
Cootie Catchers
If you really want to grab student attention, print out comprehension cootie catchers, which can work with any book!
(image of cootie catcher from reading comp pack:https://www.dropbox.com/work/All%20Students%20Can%20Shine/Products/Guided%20Reading%20Bundle/Comprehension)
Assessments & Progress Monitoring: Tracking Growth
Finally, I made some assessment pages for my guided reading groups. Tracking student progress is essential for targeted instruction.
Here’s how I assess reading skills:
Quick Check Assessments
- Letter recognition & sounds
- CVC word fluency
- Sight word mastery
- Blends, digraphs, and vowel sound fluency
Everything you see above can be found in my Guided Reading pack.
I put a FREE game for you to try in the preview file.
Just click on the picture below and download the preview!
I have finished ALL my guided reading game sets!
Click on the pictures below to see what is inside each set.
Are you looking to start guided reading groups in your classroom?
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Take care for now,
