Minimal Pairs Activity

Kindergarten

The activity that I developed would be part of a center time activity where the students would be able to use movement along with reading the minimal pairs.
At the center there will be two sets of letters. The first set of minimal pairs that the students will see is b/a/t and s/a/t. The beginning and ending sounds will always be consonants and the middle sound vowels. Each letter is attached to other letters behind it. Like a flip chart.

     B                  a            t                                               S                    a             t
Beginning      Middle      End                                     Beginning     Middle      End


The student will have to throw a bean bag and try to land on the beginning, middle, or ending sound for one of the minimal pairs. In this case the student landed the bean bag on S. The student will then walk over to the S and replace it with the next letter on the flip chart. As you can see from the graphic below, the new letter is R. The student would then have to read each word before the next student could throw their bean bag.


      B                 a                t                               R                             a                    t
Beginning       Middle         End                      Beginning              Middle              End

When a student lands on the middle bean bag, then the vowel will change for both minimal pairs. If the vowel changes from an A to an I, the student will have to read both words and determine which word is real and which word is nonsense.


      B                   i               t                                     R                               i                  t

Beginning         Middle      End                             Beginning               Middle           End


After the each student in the group had five turns, the students will move to the next center.