5 Simple Homophones Activities
Are you looking for homophones activities to incorporate into your ELA block?
Homophones can be tricky to get the hang of, so having a variety of lessons and activities can really help get this ELA concept to “click” in your students’ brains!
I have 5 simple homophones activitiesΒ that are both effective AND fun!
What is a homophone?
Homophones are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different definitions!
I’m talking hare/hair, there/their/they’re, too/to, might/mite, and all those other goodies π
Keep reading to learn all about these 5 homophones activities!
Idea #1: Make a matching game
Create a homophone matching game!
This homophone matching game is great in small groups!
First, create pairs of various homophones (either on index cards or print them out).
Put all the cards face down on the table.
Students will flip over two cards at a time and try to find the pair! (Like pair/pare, lead/led, sea/see, hear/here etc.).
This may seem rather easy, but it drives home the concept that homophones are going to look different, but kids may need to “hear” the word in their head to differentiate between each one.
After students find all matches, make sentences with each word.
For example, if a student matched together “bare” and “bear,” talk about each definition and then make a sentence for each one.
This works fabulously for all kinds of topics (I wrote about this game in my Common & Proper Nouns activity post too!).
Idea #2: Read Alouds
Who doesn’t love a read-aloud?!
There are some super fun read-alouds for homophones – hopefully your school library has at least one or two of these!
Here are some awesome homophone picture books (Amazon Affiliate links):
Idea #3: Create a picture book
Students will create a mini book showing various homophone pairs!
On each page, students can draw a line down the middle of the page.
They will write down two homophones (like hare/hair).
Then, they will draw an illustration to show each homophone!
This is a fun one to see how creative students can get.
I recommend making this homophone picture book a center, and kids can work on it over the course of a week.
Idea #4: Practice, practice, practice!
Practice makes perfect!
Concrete review and practice really gets those concepts to “stick.”
My homophones color by number worksheets work perfectly for practice made fun!
How does it work?
Students first answer homophone questions.
Each answer choice has a color written next to it.
Students color a picture based on their answer choices!
No prep, easy to grade, and engaging.
What could be better?
Grab the homophones color by number worksheets HERE.
Idea #5: Homophones Scavenger Hunt
Use picture books to go on a homophones scavenger hunt!
What does this mean?
Students will use picture books to find words that have a matching homophone!
Have students use their reading notebooks for accountability for the scavenger hunt to record what they “find”!
For example, if the book says “the girl’s hair,” students can write down the word “hair” in their notebooks along with the word that is a matching homophone (“hare”).
This makes a great literacy center – just put out a stack of picture books!
It’s pretty fun to see what the students find as a homophone, and it definitely gets those creative minds working!
Need more HOMOPHONES activities?
I have lots of resources for homophones available at Glitter in Third on TPT!
Click the links below to check them out π
- Homophones color by number worksheets
- Homophones for Google Classroom
- Homophones interactive notebook
Want a reading comprehension freebie?
Are you new to color-by-numbers?
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It’s super fun for students (and doesn’t take an entire class period to complete, like some reading comprehension passages!)
It’s no-prep, fun, and super easy to grade (just peek at the picture!)
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