Onset and Rime Activity

This printable onset and rime activity is the perfect addition to your phonics lessons. Activities, like this onset and rime slide activity, are great for helping kids develop their phonological awareness and early reading skills. The onset and rime lists groups that have been included in this activity are:

• an – can, fan, van, pan, ran
• ap – gap, tap, cap, map, nap
• at – bat, cat, rat, mat, hat
• ed – red, bed, fed, ted, sled
• en – hen, ten, pen, men, den
• et – jet, net, pet, wet, vet
• ig – dig, wig, pig, big, fig
• in – bin, fin, tin, pin, win
• ip – dip, rip, lip, zip, sip
• op – hop, top, stop, mop, pop
• un – sun, bun, run, nun, fun
• ug – bug, hug, pug, jug, mug

How to use this resource?

• Provide each small group with one word family to focus on. Alternatively, each group member could have their own word family.
• Students move the letter strip to make a word, then match the word with the correct picture using the picture strip.
• Students say the word and then use the word in a sentence.

The Importance of Students Practising Onset and Rime

By using an activity like this onset and rime slider, you are allowing students time to develop crucial phonological awareness which is foundational for reading and spelling. By practising making and saying these words students will be enhancing their decoding skills as they recognise and predict word patterns. Practising reading these words aloud will enhance your students pronunciation, articulation, and oral language development.

Download and Slide Today!

Use the dropdown menu to choose between the editable Google Slide version of this resource or the easy to print PDF. It is strongly advised that you laminate this resource to ensure the durability as students move the slider up and down to make words.

Lindsey Phillips, a Teach Starter collaborator, contributed to this resource.

More Onset and Rime Activities

Looking for more resources to add to your lessons on onset and rime? We have you covered…

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Onset and Rime Roll-a-Word Game

Build real and nonsense words by blending onsets and rimes with this hands-on literacy game.

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Onset and Rime Match-Up Activity

Practise building words by matching the onset and the rime using this match up activity.

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Onset and Rime - Interactive Peg Cards

Form words by blending onsets and rimes using this interactive Google Slides activity.