🧠 Elkonin Boxes—and Why They Help with Reading and Spelling

✨What Are Elkonin Boxes?

Elkonin boxes are a simple but powerful tool used to help children develop phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and work with the individual sounds (phonemes) in words.

They look like a row of empty squares (or “boxes”), with one box for each sound in a word—not necessarily each letter.

✨ How They Work

Let’s say your child is working with the word “stripe.”You would draw five boxes—one for each sound: /s/ /t/ /r/ /ī/ /p/.

Your child listens to the word slowly, and then:

• First pushes a token (like a penny or chip) into each box as they say each sound, or

·         And then the child writes a letter in each box to represent the sounds

✨Why They Work

Elkonin boxes are effective because they simplify the spelling process. Children learn to break down words sound by sound and place each sound into individual boxes. This tool supports struggling readers and early learners by teaching them to slow down and identify each sound.  

💡 Tip: Focus on sounds—not letters. Some sounds are made with two or more letters (like sh, th, or igh).

🏡 Try It at Home!

You don’t need anything fancy—just draw 2-5 boxes on paper, use coins, LEGO pieces, or buttons, and pick simple words like:

• cat (/c/ /a/ /t/)

• sun (/s/ /u/ /n/)

• ship (/sh/ /i/ /p/)

  
  

Say the word slowly and let your child push one object per sound into each box as they blend or spell it out.

💡 Tip: Focus on sounds—not letters. Some sounds are made with two or more letters (like sh, th, ch)