Free Elkonin boxes worksheets

Elkonin boxes, also called sound boxes, are a strip of squares with one square for each sound in a word. The child says the word slowly, pushes a counter into a box for each sound, then writes the letters that spell it. The rule most printables get wrong is that a box is a sound and not a letter: ship has four letters and three boxes (sh, i, p), duck has four letters and three boxes (d, u, ck), egg has three letters and two boxes (e, gg). Every word list here is counted that way.

What's in this set

1. Two sounds, 10 words. A worked example of egg, then at, in, up, on, it, am, egg, off, see and go in two-box strips, each box holding a dotted circle to color as the sound is said and room underneath for the letters. Three words have three letters and two sounds. Answer key.
2. Three sounds, 10 CVC words. Cat, dog, pig, sun, bed, mop, hat, net, cup, van, three boxes each and a line to write the whole word. Answer key.
3. Four sounds, words with blends. Stop, flag, clap, trip, hand, jump, best, milk, desk, spin. A blend is two sounds you can hear, so each letter gets a box: this is the sheet that stops children putting st in one square. Answer key.
4. Five sounds, 8 words. Stamp, crisp, blend, print, stand, trust, grand, splat, with a note on the sound children most often drop, which is the second one. Answer key.
5. How many sounds? Twelve words from two sounds to five (oak, owl, bee, hop, rug, kid, lamp, nest, swim, gift, spent, crust). Nobody says how many boxes: the child counts, writes the number, fills that many boxes from the left and crosses out the rest. Answer key.
6. Two letters, one box. Twelve digraph words (ship, chin, bath, duck, ring, wish, much, back, king, moth, shelf, chest) with a column for the letter count and one for the sound count, so the gap is written down rather than just explained. Answer key.
7. Blank sound box strips. Sixteen reusable strips, four each of two, three, four and five boxes, with a line for the word.
8. Sound box check. Twelve words spanning everything above (web, job, sock, chop, frog, plant, bump, shed, last, truck, stomp, brush), a tick column for an adult and a score out of 12. Answer key with each sound count.

Frequently asked questions

What are Elkonin boxes?

A row of squares, one for each sound in a word, named after the Russian psychologist D. B. Elkonin. The child pushes a counter into one box per sound, then writes the grapheme for each sound in its box. They are used in most structured literacy programs.

Is it one box per letter or one box per sound?

One box per sound, always. That is why ship is three boxes and not four, and stamp is five. Counting letters is the commonest error with printed sound boxes, so these sheets state both counts where they differ.

How many boxes does a digraph get?

One. Two letters that make a single sound, like sh, ch, th, ck and ng, share a box. A blend is different: in stop you can hear both the s and the t, so they get a box each.

What age are Elkonin boxes for?

Two and three sound words suit PreK and kindergarten, roughly ages four to six. Blends and five-sound words suit grades 1 and 2. Older readers who guess at words use the same sheets, which is why these are plain rather than babyish.

Do I need counters?

Not strictly, but they help for the first few weeks because moving an object makes the sound countable. Buttons, coins or cut-out circles are fine. Once a child can tap sounds on their fingers, go straight to writing.

Do these worksheets have answer keys?

Seven of the eight. The blank strips page has nothing to mark. Every key shows the correct grapheme in each box, and the mixed and digraph sheets also give the sound counts.

More phonics printables

Sound boxes sit underneath most other phonics work. Once a child can segment a short word, the CVC words worksheets give picture practice on the same words and the digraphs worksheets go deeper into sh, ch, th and wh. For high-frequency words that break the patterns, the heart words worksheets use the same boxes with a heart over the irregular part. Also useful: the word families worksheets and the phonics worksheets.