Help your first grade and 2nd graders who are learning
words that end in tion with this fun, hands-on
phonics activity. Learn
tion words phonics as your kids spin and build
tion phonics words with this free printable language arts activity. Simply print
tion phonics pdf file and you are ready to play and learn!

tion Words Phonics
As our reading journey continues with my little girl, we have jumped into a new and quite difficult sound. This week, we began working on “tion”. It is quite a fun one. Not only is it hard to say, especially if your young reader struggles to make certain sounds, but they also can’t sound it out. This
tion words phonics game is a great way to practice spelling
words that end in tion while having fun continuing to work on phonics skills to improve reading and spelling! Knowing that grade 1 and grade 2 students need some extra work with this fun sound, I created an activity that would get her spelling and reading “tion” words.
Phonics activities for first grade
Start by scrolling to the bottom of the post, under the terms of use, and click on the text link that says >>_____<<. The
1st grade phonics pdf file will open in a new window for you to save your freebie.
tion Phonics Words
There are actually three ways to spell the /shun/ sound. There is “cian” which is used in words like musician. You can also find the sound in “sion” as in mission.
But today we are going to focus on the “tion” found in words like nation, election and fraction. The rule for using this ending is very simple. We use “tion” when the root word ends in t or te or ct.
- Invent – invention
- Correction – correction
- associate-association
- abduct – abduction
- product – production
You can also find it after a long vowel sound.
- Na/tion
- ed/u/ca/tion
- pop/u/la/tion
The last rule is the “tion follows a short i open exception.
- pos/i/tion
- con/di/tion

tion phonics
In just a few minutes, you will be ready for this activity.
- First, print off a page with the spinner and the bubble page that matches the spinner.
- Then, Place the spinner page in a page protector.
- Finally, gather up a dry erase marker, pencil and paper clip for the spinner, and Do-A Dot markers.
Words that end in tion
Now it is time for some spelling and reading of “tion” words.
First, have your little one use the paper clip and pencil to create a spinner. Flick the paper clip and then have your child read the syllable or syllables they landed on.
(It may help to review open and closed door syllables. If the syllable ends in a vowel, the vowel will make a long sound. If the vowel is closed in, then it will make a short sound. For example, O/va/tion has two long vowels, while frac/tion is a short vowel.)
tion sound phonics
Once they read the syllables, they then get to write those letters in the boxes above the spinner.
Next, have them read the syllables with the “tion”.
Finally, have your little one find that word on the bubble sheet and dot it with a D0-A-Dot marker. Have them read the word one more time.
That is it. This activity is just a simple but fun way to practice spelling and reading “tion” words.

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