Letter clusters lesson plan
Vowel and Consonant clusters
Level 2 (Early starters) Age 5-12
Phonics mini lessons for ESL kids teachers

Letter clusters
These mini lessons focus on the phonetic sounds of clusters of letters. Students learn to [hide_on_uk]recognize[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]recognise[/hide_on_us], pronounce and write common clusters of letters.
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Materials:
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Age: 5-12 years
Time: 10-15 mins
Objectives: Identify and recognize 3 letter clusters per mini-lesson.
Lesson materials
Flashcards:
- Letter clusters – have the lowercase letter cluster on one side of the flashcard and the corresponding image on the other side
Printables:
- Printing sheet for the 3 letter clusters practiced
Songs:
- The ABC song
Supplies:
- blackboard / whiteboard with chalk / markers
- device to play the song on
Use this mini-lesson plan within your main lesson for letter cluster phonics practice – teach 3 letter clusters each lesson.
Make sure your students have studied the lowercase alphabet letters mini-lessons before doing the letter clusters.
We strongly advise NOT dedicating a full lesson to letter clusters – we suggest including a 10-15-minute section each lesson for teaching and reviewing the clusters. Different clusters should be taught over a series of lessons and reviewed each lesson.
Suggested order of min-lessons:
Lesson | Clusters | Cluster words | Additional cluster words |
---|---|---|---|
1 | oo /ʊ/ ee /i:/ ou /aʊ/ | foot bee cloud | book, cook green, queen house, mouse |
2 | th /θ/ sh /ʃ/ ch /tʃ/ | three sheep chin | mouth, cloth ship, brush chips, chest |
3 Review | oo /ʊ/ ee /i:/ ou /aʊ/ th /θ/ sh /ʃ/ ch /tʃ/ | foot bee cloud three sheep chin | book, cook, hook green, queen, teeth house, mouse, shout mouth, cloth, teeth ship, brush, fish, shout chips, chest, bench |
4 | ai /eɪ/ oa /əʊ/ ea /iː/ | train goat sea | snail, rain soap, boat leaf, tea |
5 | er /ə(r)/ ar /ɑː(r)/ or /ɔː(r)/ | river car corn | finger, farmer star, shark fork, horse |
6 Review | ai /eɪ/ oa /əʊ/ ea /iː/ er /ə(r)/ ar /ɑː(r)/ or /ɔː(r)/ | train goat sea river car corn | snail, rain, nail soap, boat, road leaf, tea, peas finger, farmer, letter star, shark, arm fork, horse, storm |
7 | ue /u:/ ui /u:/ oi /ɔɪ/ | glue fruit coin | blue, cue juice, suit toilet, soil |
8 | oo /ʊ/ oo /u:/ th /θ/ th /ð/ | foot moon three mother | wood spoon, boot moth clothes, weather |
Mini-lesson procedure:

1. Sing “The ABC song”
Start this section of the lesson with the ABC song to indicate that it’s alphabet time. If possible, have the letters of the alphabet stuck around the walls of your classroom, high enough so your students can’t take the down, and point at each letter as it is sung. If not, it’s not a problem, sing along with the song and have fun.
Lyrics for “The ABC song“
Verse 1:
A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N
O P Q R S T U
V W and X Y Z
I can sing my ABCs,
Won’t you sing along with me?
Verse 2:
A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N
O P Q R S T U
V W and X Y Z
I can sing my ABCs,
Won’t you sing along with me?
[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
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2. Review the letters clusters learned in previous lessons (lesson 2 “th sh ch” onwards)
Use your flashcards to quickly run through the letter clusters learned in previous lessons. This should be a quick run through, eliciting each letter, cluster sound and picture:
- Hold up the first letter cluster and ask, “What letters can you see?” – elicit the letters (e.g. “ou”)
- Then ask, “Is for?” – elicit the phonetic sound (e.g. “/aʊ/”)
- Finally, turn over the flashcard showing the picture and ask again, “Is for?” – elicit the word (e.g. “cloud”)
- Continue with the rest of the letter cluster flashcards

3. Introduce the letter clusters with flashcards
For the new letter clusters, follow this basic procedure. This section of the lesson should be fast paced and fun.
1) Have everyone gather around you so they are close – have them sit on the floor with you, if possible. You want everyone to be close enough, so you can easily pass cards back and forth with them.
2) Hold up a letter cluster flashcard so all students can see it.
3) Elicit the letters on the card (e.g. “t” and “h”).
4) Teach the sound of the cluster (e.g. “t” “h” is for /θ/”). Chorus again and check individually, paying special attention to difficult sounds and tongue/teeth position.
5) Provide an example of an object that begins with the letter. Double-sided flashcards with the letter on one side and a picture on the other are great for this. (e.g. “What’s this?” (elicit “t” “h”). “And a is for…?” (elicit “/θ/”). “And ‘/θ/’ is for … (turning the card over) “three”. Chorus the word and check individually.
Therefore, a typical interaction for a single letter cluster (covering points 2-5 above) would be as follows:
Teacher: (showing a flashcard of the cluster th) “What letters are these?”
Students: “t and h”
T: “Good! t h together is /θ/
Ss: “/θ/”
T: “t h is for /θ/ .. /θ/ .. /θ/. Repeat /θ/”
Ss: “/θ/”
T: “/θ/”
Ss: “/θ/”
T: “/θ/”
Ss: “/θ/”
T: “t h, is for /θ/, is for (turning the card over) three .. three .. three .. repeat three”
Ss: “three”
T: “three”
Ss: “three”
T: “three”
Ss: “three”
T: “Good! What’s this?” (showing “th”)
Ss: “/θ/”
T: “Is for?” (turning the card)
Ss: “three”
T: “Well done!” (now asks individual students)
4. Check the 3 letter clusters
Do a quick final check of the 3 new clusters:
1) Hold up the first cluster and ask, “What’s this?” – elicit the sound (e.g. “/θ/”)
2) Turn over the flashcard showing the picture and ask again, “Is for?” – elicit the word (e.g. “three”)
3) Continue with the other letter clusters
5. Introduce 6 new words
Students will now learn some new words with the 3 clusters they have just learned. Either print out or draw on the board pictures for the additional cluster words (see “Suggested order of min-lessons” at the top of this page).
First, we need to teach / elicit the words. Bring everyone’s attention to first picture and teach / elicit the word. Then chorus 3-5 times. Repeat for all the pictures.
6. Test 6 new words
Can your students remember the new words? If using printed pictures, slowly reveal each picture until a student shouts out the answer. If drawing on the board, slowly start to draw the picture until someone guesses what it is and shouts out the work.
7. Read the words
Select a picture but don’t show it to your students. Start writing the letters for that word on the board. Get everyone to sound out each letter as you write it. Help with clusters. For example:
m o u t h
Finally, see if anyone can piece together all the sounds to make a word – and show the picture to confirm the correct answer (while giving lots of praise!).
8. Write the words on the board
Give a marker / chalk to a student and have them come to the board. Show him/her one word from the previous slides on a piece of paper, but don’t let the rest of the class see.
The student writes the word on the board and the rest of the students must shout out the word.
Repeat for the other words with different students.
9. Write the words on paper
Have everyone sit down with a pencil and piece of paper. Show the pictures and get everyone to write down the words for the pictures.
When everyone has finished, check their answers and give corrections if necessary.

10. Do a letter clusters printing worksheet
Hold up the worksheet and model tracing and printing each letter. Clearly show the directions of printing each letter and emphasize the importance of staying on the line. Then draw a picture of the first word.
Have your students work on their worksheets. Spend time with each student helping, asking what the letter is, and praising.
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Level 4 lessons (Age 9-12)
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