Episode 5: Fun Ways to Practice Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic Awareness Five Fun Ways to Incorporate It!
What is it?: Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in words.
Why is it important?: Well, actually, it’s one of the most important skills we can teach our early readers. Studies show that phonemic awareness is an indicator of future reading success.
The Scoop:
In fact, David Kilpatrick, author of numerous reading books and professor of psychology, states that, “The most common source of reading difficulties is poor phonemic awareness.”
To boot, he also mentions that there’s no age limit on phonemic awareness - which stresses its importance.
Phonemic awareness needs to be incorporated daily with lots of modeling. It should be applied to print, but we also want to be sure students can be doing it like it’s second nature.
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#1: Add Movement
Movement is one of the best mediums through which you can teach concepts to young kids. They love to move their bodies and work together. When they do this, we provide really concrete examples for them.
Focus: Segmenting words orally
Materials: Moving bodies!
Play:
Have students stand in a line and step out of the line for each segmented sound in the word.
Teacher: “The word is ‘cat.’”
Student #1 steps out and says “/c/”, student #2 steps out and says “/ă/”, and student #3 steps out and says “/t/.”
All the students step back into the line together and say, “Cat!” to blend the word.
Fun bonus: This can also be done with hula hoops (or even colored pieces of paper) on the floor. Students hop into the hula hoops for each sound they hear, and all hop back out to blend the word. Use
#2: Transition Times
There are countless transitions in a day within a classroom - line up at the door, come to the carpet, and make a lunch choice. In this activity, students are listening to the segmented sounds that are being said so that they can blend the words together.
Focus: Blending
Materials: None!
Play:
Teacher: “If you’re wearing /r/ /ĕ/ /d/, please come to the carpet.”
Teacher: “If you’re wearing /b/ /l/ /ă/ /k/, please line up.”
This can be done with names, table numbers, group names, etc.
Fun bonus: If you’re a reading specialist transitioning a small group of students from one place to another, practice blending on the way to another classroom:
Teacher: “The word is ‘dog.’”
As students walk in a line, the first student in line says, “/d/” and goes to the back of the line.
The second student says “/ŏ/” and goes to the back of the line.
The third student says, “/g/” and moves to the back of the line.
#3: Morning Meeting
These set the stage for the rest of the day. Morning meetings provide structure, routine, and consistency for students before the day starts. You may choose to read a book, talk about the day, discuss anything fun over the weekend, and of course, practice phonemic awareness!
Focus: Blending
Materials: A brown bag and some cards with pictures on them
Play:
Teacher: “I’m going to pull a picture out of my mystery bag. I want you to listen carefully as I say a word slowly. Then, I want you to repeat it back to me fast.” Then, dramatically (kids love this) say, “/B/ /ŭ/ /g/. Raise your hand if you know that word.”
Students: “Bug!”
Teacher: Flip the card around to let them know they got it correctly.
#4 Snowman
This is perfect for just a few minutes before lunch, recess, or any time you have a couple of extra minutes to fill. It’s played exactly like the game hangman, but you get to choose which object to draw based on the time of year. “Snowman” is perfect for the winter, while “flower” or “ice cream sundae” is perfect for summer.
Focus: Blending
Materials: Whiteboard and a dry-erase marker
Play:
Teacher: “I’m going to draw a snowman. He’ll have ten parts to him. You’ll have to guess the word before I’m done drawing his ten parts.” Think of your word, and then draw the number of lines for each sound in the word. Then, write a small bank of sounds for your students to choose from.
Students: Students guess sounds until they get the word filled in. For sounds, they get correct, fill in the sound. For sounds they don’t get, draw a part of the snowman.
Once students get the word, practice blending and segmenting it several times.
#5 Blending Drills
These are the perfect way to practice phonemic awareness and phonics. To boot, they’re quick and easy.
Focus: Blending
Materials: whiteboard and dry-erase marker
Play:
Teacher: Write a letter (“s”, for example) on the whiteboard and show it to your students. Ask, “What sound is this?”
Students: “/s/.”
Teacher: Write the letter “a” and then ask, “What sound is this?”
Students: “/ă/.”
Teacher: “Let’s put these together. /S/ /ă/…now I’m going to add another sound: /t/. What does it say now?”
Students: “Sat!”
Additional Resources & References:
Resources:
Phoneme Segmentation Activities
References:
What Does Phonemic Awareness Mean?
Making the Most of Phonemic Awareness
5 Ways to Incorporate Phonemic Awareness Every Day
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