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Phonemic awareness is the ability to consciously identify and manipulate language at the level of phonemes, the smallest unit of word sounds. I chose to focus my on phonemic awareness for Kindergarten. I chose this age group and lesson of study because it is a great time to lay the foundation for our students to build on to be future readers, or to build on their current reading level.

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Hands on Activities for the Primary Classroom

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Phonemic Awareness Archives - Make Take & Teach

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Phonemic Awareness! The research is very clear regarding the relationship between phonological/ phonemic awareness skills and later reading achievement. Children need to have an appreciation of how sounds can be put together to create words. It is critically important to ... [Read more...]

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PBS Kids

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Fun Dinosaur Letters Section! Kids can spell their name and build words with dinosaur letters. This dinosaur collection encourages the exploration of life science and natural history. Discover, play & read!

All Aboard! The ultimate dinosaur app for your child from the hit PBS KIDS show Dinosaur Train! This essential dinosaur collection helps build reading skills and encourages the exploration of life science and natural history through discovery, play and reading! Now Available for Android.

Dinosaur A to Z includes the following features:

Set of 26 interactive dinosaurs and their corresponding dinosaur letters

Highlighted words throughout the app to build beginning reader skills

Touch, swipe and tilt functionality to help kids learn over 50 dinosaur fun facts

Dinosaur index with classification filters to build science inquiry skills

Narration by Mr. Conductor!

Parents have the option of adding to their preschooler's ultimate dinosaur collection by purchasing the following dinosaur packs of 10, which feature favorites from the Dinosaur Train series:
Big Dinosaurs Pack, featuring a Tyrannosaurs Rex (T. rex) Horned, Armored & Crested Pack, featuring a Triceratops Carnivore Pack, featuring a Stegosaurus *New!* Winged & Feathered Pack, featuring a Pterandon *Coming soon!* In the Water Pack, featuring an Adocus *Coming soon!* Surprise Pack, featuring favorite rodents and birds *Coming Soon!* Less -

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Dinosaur Train A to Z Mobile Downloads | PBS KIDS

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Fun Dinosaur Letters Section! Kids can spell their name and build words with dinosaur letters. This dinosaur collection encourages the exploration of life science and natural history. Discover, play & read! All Aboard! The ultimate dinosaur app for your child from the hit PBS KIDS show Dinosaur Train!

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ABCmouse.com helps kids learn to read through phonics, and teaches lessons in math, social studies, art, music, and much more! For kids ages 2 to 8.

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5 Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Activities

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5 Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Activities

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Learning Without Tears

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"Phonological awareness," "phonemic awareness," and "phonics," are literacy terms we often hear used simultaneously, and maybe even interchangeably! However, as we work with children, helping them to develop a strong foundation of literacy and language skills, we must realize the important distinction between these terms.

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate parts of spoken language. Skills are at a listening/auditory and spoken/verbal, level - NO print - spoken words requiring ears only!

It is a broad term and comprised of a group of skills that progress developmentally, but of course, overlap as children mature. As phonological awareness skills develop, children will begin to attend to, discriminate, remember, and manipulate (segment/blend) words and sounds at these levels or chunks:

Sentence
Understanding that the sentence they hear, "Thecatisfat" is comprised of four separate words "The cat is fat".

Word

Understanding the words "cat" and "fat" rhyme.

Understanding two words become one in a compound word: cat + fish = catfish

Syllable
Understanding the word "cat" as one syllable.

Phonemic Awareness
Understanding and manipulating the three sounds in "cat" = /k/ /a/ /t/

Let's take a closer look at phonemic awareness. It is a specific skill under the broad category of phonological awareness. If we put phonological awareness skills on a continuum, phonemic awareness is the most sophisticated and last to develop.

The following is a list of specific phonemic awareness skills. Keep in mind, all of these are done at the auditory/spoken level, NO print:

Recognize words in a set begin with the same sound (cat, cake, kite all begin with the /k/ sound)

Isolate and say the first/last/middle sound/s in a word (cat begins with the /k/ sound and ends with the /t/ sound, etc.)

Blend separate sounds (phonemes) into words (/k/- /a/ - /t/ = cat)

Segment words into sounds (cat = /k/- /a/ - /t/)

Delete/manipulate sounds in spoken words (What is "cat" without the /k/? - "at"

Basically, phonemic awareness skills include learning how to break apart (segment) and combine (blend) the sounds in words. Phonemic awareness should begin in Pre-K with the focus on the simpler phonemic awareness skills of isolation and identifying beginning and ending sounds. Because phonemic awareness is a more advanced phonological awareness skill, development continues into kindergarten and early elementary.

Why are phonemic awareness skills so important?

Well, children who cannot hear and manipulate the phonemes of spoken words will have a very challenging time learning how to relate phonemes to letters when they see them in written words, Phonics. Therefore, Phonological Awareness skills are foundational for Phonics.

What is Phonics?

Phonemic awareness, however, is not phonics.

Phonics skill development focuses on helping children understand the relationship between sounds of written letters, letter combinations, and words. Phonics deals with written language, therefore we need to use our ears AND eyes, where as Phonological Awareness (and phonemic awareness) involves NO print, just listening and saying sounds and words. To keep this straight in my mind, I think about phonological awareness activities as those which can be completed with the eyes closed, while phonics activities require us to see the written letters and words, so, eyes need to be open.

Both phonemic awareness and phonics are interrelated, foundational skills and necessary for reading. However, it is important to understand a foundation of all phonological awareness skills should built before intense concentration is given to phonics.

The Benefits of Phonemic & Phonological Awareness

PreK is the time to begin to lay the foundation for strong reading skills, and it is important to begin by concentrating on phonological awareness skill development. In addition, if we do not help children gain the foundational understanding of sounds that phonemic awareness brings, phonics (assigning a letter a sound, spelling, and reading) will make little sense. And research supports this.

In summary, Phonemic Awareness is critical for reading. It primes readers for mapping speech to print, connecting sounds with written symbols, and also gives children a way to approach sounding out, blending sounds to make and read new words.

Phonological Awareness Activities & Strategies

In Pre-K, Phonological Awareness skills most certainly need to be taught explicitly, but fun extra practice can be woven in anytime.
Activity 1: Games to Play While Lined Up
Here are a few ideas for some simple games to play while children wait in line:

1. Sentence game: say a sentence, "The cat is fat". Tap the first 4 children on the head as you say each word of the sentence. Ask, "How many words?", four! Repeat the sentence, or say a different sentence, as you go down the line of children.

2. Rhyme game: Say a few words that rhyme, "cat, fat, bat". Prompt children to join in the game. You may need to prompt by saying some initial sounds: /p/ - at, /s/ - at, etc. Include silly words (/z/ - at) and blends (/th/ - at)!

3. My Turn/Your Turn syllable count game: (My Turn) Model clapping/stomping/tapping the syllables for objects you see in the classroom (Ceil-ing, floor, ta-ble, com-pu-ter). (Your Turn) Prompt children to imitate you. Ask after each word, "How many syllables?"

4. Repeat the beginning sound game: /c/ - /c/ - cat, /c/ - /c/ - cake, /c/ - /c/ - car. Prompt children to join in with other words.

The Get Set for School curriculum offers many activities that support early Language and Literacy skill development for children in your Early Childhood classrooms.

Here are some additional sample activities and products to explicitly instruct young learners in some key Phonological Awareness skills.
Activity 2: Discriminate rhymes
Each of the four Mat Man books features the beloved character, Mat Man. Rhyming verses in all the books help children discriminate and learn about rhymes.

Mat Man helps students learn about shapes, professions, rhymes, while expanding their imaginations, exploration, and community awareness.

Click here to see more sample pages from the Mat Man Book Series.
Activity 3: Discriminate between environmental sounds and speech sounds
Children learn important social, math, literacy & language concepts as they move and sing to upbeat songs on the Sing, Sound, and Count with Me Music Album

For example, the song "Syllable Sound Off" helps to develop children's understanding of syllables as they listen for and move to identify 2, 3 and 4 syllable words... all in one song!

Rhymes are taught in a fun playful way in the song "Rhyming Riddles". In fact, most songs on the music album include verses with rhyming words!
Activity 4: Identify Sounds and their sources
The Sound Around Box is a versatile classroom tool that will help you teach early language and literacy concepts in a fun and hands-on way. It provides the opportunity for many group activities which will help children develop important social skills as they engage in multisensory play with rhymes, syllables, beginning sounds, alphabet knowledge, letters, word parts, and test their memory skills!
Activity 5: Develop early language, literacy, motor, and social skills
Line It Up engages children in fun interactive activities that develop early language, literacy, motor, and social skills. The set includes a mountable magnetic display bar to hold the Story, Letter, and Coloring Cards.

The 26 Coloring Cards each have simple picture. The picture can be colored, but also used to facilitate a "Syllable Chant" activity. For example, on the "A" card: al-li-ga-tor.

The 26 Picture Cards can be used for phonemic awareness activities as children name each picture and identify those that begin with the target sound. For example:

Show picture side of Letter Card A. Name each picture.

Alligator begins with /ă/. Say it with me, /ă/, alligator.

Does violin begin with /ă/? No, violin begins with /v/.

Does astronaut begin with /ă/? Yes, /ă/, astronaut.

Continue with banana and apple.

Let children circle beginning /ă/ pictures.

All of the Get Set for School products support a variety of learning opportunities for your developing children. The products and activities highlighted shown here are just a snapshot of the many skills these products can facilitate.

To learn more about these and other Get Set for School activities and products, visit our website.

A-Z for Mat Man and Me

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5 Phonological & Phonemic Awareness Activities

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"Phonological awareness," "phonemic awareness," and "phonics," are literacy terms we often hear used simultaneously, and maybe even interchangeably! However, as we work with children, helping them to develop a strong foundation of literacy and language skills, we must realize the important distinction between these terms.

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Winner of Apple's App Store Best of 2013 award!

Set the stage for reading success with this delightfully interactive educational app. Kids will have a blast learning their ABC's and building vocabulary with the adorable Endless monsters. Each word features an interactive puzzle game with talking letters and a short animation illustrating the definition. Before you know it, your child will be using words like gargantuan and cooperate!
Features:

Over 70 words to learn and play with

Delightful animations teach children the definitions of the words in a fun and engaging way

Word game teaches children letters

Endless Alphabet was designed with your children in mind - there are no high scores, failures, limits or stress. Your children can interact with the app at their own pace.

Have a problem or suggestion?
Email us at support@originatorkids.com.

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Winner of Apple's App Store Best of 2013 award! Set the stage for reading success with this delightfully interactive educational app. Kids will have a blast learning their ABC's and building vocabulary with the adorable Endless monsters. Each word features an interactive puzzle game with talking letters and a short animation illustrating the definition.

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The Importance of Phonemic Awareness Skills

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The Importance of Phonemic Awareness Skills

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Reading Resources

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Fun Reading Activities For School and Home

FREE Reading Games! Jenna Rayburn from SpeechRoomNews.blogspot.com , has a real talent for creating fun reading games and wanted to share them with our readers. Our students really enjoy them so check them out below. Thanks for sharing Jenna!

Cars Puzzles (Basic Code Sentences)
Students pick one Cars character (they love Cars!). Place the appropriate puzzle strips in a pile face down. Students take turns picking one sentence strip. Students read the sentence. If the puzzle piece matches their Cars character they cover their puzzle. If the student has drawn a puzzle piece belonging to another student they must pass it to them!

Cars Uno (Advanced Code)
Two great things come together in this game: Cars and Uno. I mean, who doesn't love Cars and Uno? No one, that's who! The word lists in this game offer an effective way for kids to practice long vowel sound spelling patterns too. A win/win for everyone!

Going to the Movies (Basic Code Sentences)
Get your popcorn ready! This game combines both reading and math skills. Directions included. A very good reading activity for teaching the basic code.

Flower Long Vowel Game (Advanced Code)
This reading activity offers a perfect way to practice high frequency words organized by vowel sound and spelling patterns. Very creative and fun! Directions included in the PDF.

Flip It Down (Advanced Code)
Another great reading activity for practicing reading decoding skills.

Build A Fence Long Vowel Game (Advanced Code)
Directions included. Use the enclosed word lists (organized by vowel sound, of course) to create this game. The popsicle sticks are used much like our reading fluency flash cards. A favorite of our 1st and 2nd grade students.

Hockey Game (Advanced Code)
Students challenge each other by starting at opposite ends of the ice and taking turns reading pucks and drawing game cards. A fun way to practice reading decoding and high frequency words.

Flip It Down (Basic Code)
This game is great for centers. Kids roll dice and read the words that correspond to the numbers. First one to flip down all their words wins! We recommend laminating the game and using Velcro strips to hold the tabs down. Flip It Down provides a fun multisensory way to practice reading basic code words. Perfect for kindergarten, first and struggling second grade readers.

Painting Sentences
Practice reading in a fun way with these decodable sentences. First person to cover all of their paint colors wins!

Pirate Attack
This reading game provides a fun twist to our popular Reading Fluency Flash Cards found on our Download Central page!

Going to the Movies
Our students love this reading game! Popcorn Sentences is a fun way to practice reading decoding and reading fluency. You can also work some math practice in as well!

Falling Leaves (Long Vowel)
This activity provides students the opportunity to practice that all so tricky advanced code! Remember, learning the advanced alphabetic code is a key to reading decoding and reading fluency. To learn more about the advanced code visit our Reading Activities II Page!

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FREE Reading Games! Jenna Rayburn from SpeechRoomNews.blogspot.com , has a real talent for creating fun reading games and wanted to share them with our readers. Our students really enjoy them so check them out below. Thanks for sharing Jenna! Cars Puzzles (Basic Code Sentences) Students pick one Cars character (they love Cars!).

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Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the smallest units of sounds (phonemes) in words. Many students with learning differences like dyslexia struggle with phonemic awareness. Because phonemic awareness is a foundational literacy skill, students who have trouble with this skill often have difficulty with reading.

Elkonin sound boxes can help students develop phonemic awareness by focusing on segmenting and blending the sounds in words. Segmenting is breaking a word apart into its individual sounds. Blending is putting the individual sounds together to say the word. Read on to learn how to use Elkonin sound boxes to teach these important skills.

Scroll down for tips on adapting this strategy for distance learning.

K (Common Core ELA Literacy RF.K.2: Understand spoken words, syllables, and sounds)

1 (Common Core ELA Literacy RF.1.2: Understand spoken words, syllables, and sounds)

Gather materials. Give each student an Elkonin sound boxes printable and five counters, coins, tiles, or other small objects. For students who struggle with fine motor skills, consider using larger objects that are easier to handle.

Words with two sounds and two letters: it, no

Words with three sounds and three letters or with three sounds and four letters ending in a 'silent e': hop, cat, game

Words with three sounds and one or more digraphs (two letters that make one sound): fish, tooth, chime

Words with four phonemes and blends (two or more letters that blend together but that have separate sounds): crab, skip, trade

Words with five phonemes and blends: street, crust, blend

2. Model. Point to the set of boxes that has two squares. Explain that students will move one counter into one square for each sound they hear. Model how you'll do that by lining up two counters above the squares. Say the word it. Pull down one tile into the first square as you say /ĭ/ and the second tile as you say /t/. Then run your finger along the arrow underneath the box to blend the sounds back together: it.

3. Practice and give feedback. Invite students to practice another word with you. Depending on your students' needs, you might use the sound box with three squares and the word hit. Support students as they pull down one tile for /h/, one for /ĭ/, and another for /t/. Then blend the sounds back together to make hit.

Repeat the activity with several words that have two, three, four, or five sounds (as appropriate for your students). Provide feedback as students segment and blend the sounds.

For English language learners (ELLs): Hold up a picture of the word you are asking students to segment. Say the word and have students repeat it. (If the word is a cognate, say the word both in English and in the student's home language.) After students say the word in English, segment the sounds and then blend them together. By doing so, you'll help students build vocabulary by connecting the word with its meaning.

All students - and particularly students who learn and think differently - benefit from explicit instruction in literacy. The visual element of the sound boxes helps students to segment each sound separately. Similarly, moving the tiles and dragging their finger along the word helps to engage students in multisensory learning.

Elkonin sounds boxes are especially useful for ELLs. Learning English can be difficult for some students because there are sounds in English that may not exist in their home language. For instance, English has many more vowel sounds than Spanish. Elkonin sound boxes give students repeated practice with hearing unfamiliar sounds.

Share this resource with families to help them understand the importance of phonemic awareness and other phonological skills.

Partner with your students' families. Find out what resources they have available and what they might need to support learning at home.

Guide an individual student or a small group of students through the steps (including how to draw the sound boxes) in a synchronous online lesson. Use UDL as you're planning the lesson.

Make sure your modeling is easy for students to see. Position your camera to show how you move the counters into the sound boxes. Or create slides that show the sound boxes and use animation to fade in the counters.

Give ideas for manipulatives that students might be able to find at home, like crayons, small game pieces, cotton balls, or coins.

About the Author

About the Author

Kim Greene, MA is a managing editor at Understood. A former elementary teacher and a certified reading specialist, she has a passion for developing resources for educators.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Margie B. Gillis, EdD is the founder and president of Literacy How, which provides professional development for teachers on research-based reading practices in the classroom.

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Elkonin Sound Boxes: An Evidence-Based Literacy Strategy

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Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the smallest units of sounds (phonemes) in words. Many students with learning differences like dyslexia struggle with phonemic awareness. Because phonemic awareness is a foundational literacy skill, students who have trouble with this skill often have difficulty with reading.

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Oral Reading Fluency

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The Oral Reading Fluency Assessments can determine a student's oral reading fluency proficiency, progress, and individual instruction needs, and when used alongside trusted data from i-Ready Diagnostic, can provide a complete picture of a student's overall reading performance.

New for the 2020-2021 School Year

The i-Ready Oral Reading Fluency Assessments measure a series of critical data points that illustrate students' proficiency and progress toward reaching the level of oral reading fluency appropriate for their grade. The assessments provide oral reading fluency passages written to industry standards and scoring guidance to serve the following purposes:

The i-Ready Oral Reading Fluency Benchmark Assessment uses grade-level texts to determine a student's oral reading fluency proficiency compared to nationally recognized norms for the student's grade level up to three times per year. The Benchmark Assessment is available for students enrolled in Grades 1-4.

The i-Ready Oral Reading Fluency Formative Assessment offers passages across adjacent grade levels to determine a student's independent and instructional reading levels, instructional needs, and oral reading fluency progress over time. The Formative Assessment is available for students at developmental reading levels from Grades 1-4. (Students enrolled above and below these grades may still benefit from these formative assessments.)

The i-Ready Oral Reading Fluency Assessments are available at no additional charge to i-Ready Diagnostic for Reading license holders.

How It Works

As a Benchmark Assessment Teachers can use information from the Benchmark Oral Reading Fluency Assessment to determine their students' proficiency in reading grade-level texts fluently. Teachers can use this information, combined with i-Ready Diagnostic data, to better understand their students' overall reading performance at their grade level.

As an Ongoing Formative Assessment Using each student's i-Ready Diagnostic placement in Reading as a starting point, teachers save administration time by matching students to passages at their approximate reading levels. This process allows teachers to periodically assess students' current performance, to observe progress toward reading goals, and to form a rich picture of each student as a reader.

What's Included

The i-Ready Oral Reading Fluency Assessments consist of:

Oral reading fluency passages and corresponding scoring sheets for Grades 1-4

Benchmark Assessments: Three assessment forms (two passages per form) to be administered up to three times per year

Formative Assessments: Multiple passages per grade targeting three ranges of difficulty within each grade, to be administered periodically based on teacher discretion

Materials for scoring Words Correct per Minute, Accuracy, Comprehension, and Prosody

The i-Ready Oral Reading Fluency Assessments Manual, which guides educators through:

Assessment administration

Scoring process and interpretation

Recommended instructional strategies

Class record sheet

All components of the Oral Reading Fluency Assessments are available through i-Ready as downloadable, printable PDFs, putting the assessment process where it belongs-in the hands of teachers. Teachers administer and score the assessments and record results offline.

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The Oral Reading Fluency Assessments can determine a student's oral reading fluency proficiency, progress, and individual instruction needs, and when used alongside trusted data from i-Ready Diagnostic, can provide a complete picture of a student's overall reading performance.

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Concept of word refers to the ability of a reader to match spoken words to written words while reading. Students with a concept of word understand that each word is separate, and that words are separated by a space within each sentence. Using strategies to build concept of word in the classroom can…

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This toolkit helps teachers and families understand the difference between phonemic and phonological awareness and how to support a child's development of these important reading skills.

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.

Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

Teacher Resources by Grade

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Home › Classroom Resources › Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan

Grades

K - 2

Lesson Plan Type

Recurring Lesson

Estimated Time

Three 25-minute sessions

Lesson Author

Publisher

From Theory to Practice
OVERVIEW

In this phonemic awareness lesson designed for a first-grade classroom, students engage in games and chants to recognize the same sounds in different words. Students match objects with the same beginning or ending sound, identify whether a given sound occurs at the beginning or ending of a word, and connect phonemes with graphemes.
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FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Yopp, H.K., & Yopp, R.H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 54, 130–143.
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Phonemic awareness, which is the awareness that speech consists of a sequence of sounds, should be a priority in early reading instruction.

Phonemic awareness instruction should provide students with "linguistic stimulation in the form of storytelling, word games, rhymes, and riddles."

Phonemic awareness instruction should move from rhyming words to smaller units of sound, and finally to individual phonemes

Phonemic awareness instruction can be strictly oral or may include some sort of concrete cue.

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Building Phonemic Awareness With Phoneme Isolation - ReadWriteThink

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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We would love your TESTIMONIAL!
Has your child or student benefited from the Reading Bear program?
We would love to hear from you!
As our way of saying "Thank You" for taking the time to send us a testimonial,

we would like to send you our collection of PDF printable exercises linked to each of the 50 Reading Bear modules (two per module).

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Reading Bear is a collection of free, well-made, multimedia phonics presentations. Your child can learn to read with Reading Bear.

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5 Quick, Easy, and Fun Phonemic Awareness Activities

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Learning to read can be quite an overwhelming task for small children. In fact, if you think about it, it's astounding that children are even capable of learning to read in such a short amount of time. However, before they begin to read print, they must have an adequate foundational understanding of how sounds in words work. That is where phonemic awareness comes into play.

What is phonemic awareness?

In easy-to-understand terms, phonemic awareness is the ability to identify, think about, and manipulate sounds in spoken speech. This is NOT the same as phonics. Phonemic awareness is actually a critical skill that is a precursor to reading letters. That's why phonemic awareness instruction should NEVER involve print. If you find yourself working with letters or printed words, then you have skipped a step and crossed the line into phonics. This is a very important point. Research tells us that it's essential to focus on phonemic awareness in the classroom before reading can begin. We want to ensure that children have a solid understanding of the sounds of speech before we start phonics instruction.

Nowadays, we are facing an added difficulty, though. In today's early-childhood classrooms, teachers are feeling an ever-increasing pressure to get their students reading. It is easy to lose sight of the developmental process and try to skip steps in order to get our kids reading books as soon as possible. There is just one problem: skipping steps is not going to work. Children's progress in reading will be limited if they haven't learned to think about the sounds in words.

As early childhood teachers, we need to remember that we can't skip past phonemic awareness skills. We can't just barge ahead in the hope that all of our students have arrived in our classroom complete with the full-blown skills of thinking about and manipulating sounds in their minds. On the other hand, we also can't afford to spend a lot of time doing phonemic-awareness instruction. I am happy to tell you the good news that we don't have to! Phonemic awareness instruction can and should be done in small pockets of time throughout the school day. In fact, oral language and phonemic awareness can often be taught and reinforced in as little as five to ten minutes per day.

Here are five quick, easy, and fun phonemic awareness activities that are perfect for the beginning of the school year in any early childhood classroom. Yes, you heard me correctly - that word was F-U-N. I know fun has become an undesirable notion in many schools today. But I assure you that these activities will be fun and that your students really will learn about our amazing language! I have also included activities that require little or no preparation - things you can do on the fly! Although these activities don't cover the full range of phonemic awareness skills needed to produce great readers, they are still fantastic activities to begin any school year!

Listening

The ability to listen closely is a key ingredient of phonemic awareness. This is the part of instruction that is skipped most often, because teachers assume that young children know how to listen. They may not! Furthermore, if they don't, they're not ignoring you. It's just that they don't understand what "listen closely" means. They have to be taught.

The Listening Game.

One of the first phonemic-awareness activities I do with my students, even as soon as the first day, is to bring their attention to noises. After lunch, we come back to the classroom and all the children lie quietly on the floor. It's not naptime, but it's a great time to unwind, which is important for young children. As we lie there quietly for five to ten minutes, we listen for sounds. We all stay perfectly still and quiet. We become "sound spotters." We don't use our eyes - we use our ears. There are always sounds and weird noises you can hear in a school building. We may hear the air conditioner, doors closing, teachers talking, stomachs growling. The possibilities are endless! Your part is to talk about the sounds you and the children hear. Use a little teacher enthusiasm and exaggeration to get the kids interested in this activity. The key phrase is, "Who can spot a sound with their ears?"

"Moo-Moo," Where Are You?

I love playing this game with my class. The kids have a ball, too. In fact, they simply think we are playing.

How to play: All the children sit in a circle. One child lies down in the middle of the circle and covers his or her eyes. The teacher chooses another child to go somewhere in the room and pretend to be a cow by making a "moo-moo" sound. The child in the middle of the circle - with eyes still covered - points in the direction of the animal sound. This game is great because it gets children to listen closely for sounds and for where the sounds are coming from. It also prepares their ears to listen more closely to sounds in words. When the child in the middle correctly identifies the sound and direction, he or she gets to go next and make a different animal sound.

Rhyming

Rhyming is such a great phonemic awareness activity! Most children easily grasp the concept of rhyme. Some need a little help, though. Using word-play with rhyming helps children notice that sounds in our language have meaning and follow certain patterns. Again, this is a precursor skill to seeing sound patterns reproduced in print - as a phonemic awareness practice, it is purely auditory.

The absolute best way to introduce rhyming to your students is by reading lots of fun rhyming books, poems, and songs. Act silly and have fun! The more fun you have with the rhymes, the more the kids will notice the rhymes and enjoy the activities. Exaggerate the silliness of the rhyme. The poem "Down By the Bay" and the book "Silly Sally" are perfect examples of how rhyme can be super fun!

In My Box

This game is great to use after your students have at least some understanding of how rhyming works. That means you have already read lots of rhyming books, poems, and songs and played with those rhyming words.

How to play: Get a small box and place some pictures in it with pairs of familiar words that rhyme (like box/socks, cat/hat, or chair/bear). Use enough pictures so that everyone in your class has a turn. Sit in a circle with your students. Start with a child you know is strong in rhyming. Hold the box and choose a picture. If the picture shows a cat, say "In my box, there's a cat". Call on him or her to come up with a rhyming word. The child might say, "In my box, there's a hat" (or some other rhyming word). After he or she answers with a rhyming word, hand him or her the box. Now he or she gets to choose a card and continue the play.

Syllables

Working with and noticing syllables within words is important, because it makes students aware of how words can be split up into smaller parts, according to their sounds. Our ultimate goal is to work on individual phonemes (vowels or consonants), but children must first learn the concept of "parts of words." It's easier for young children to start with larger parts of words and then work their way down to the smaller, discrete individual sounds of phonemes. We are building a bridge from hearing words to hearing phonemes.

Bippity Boppity Bumble Bee

This is such a fun game. You get the kids clapping out names, first. As they get used to the game, you can start using other words with more syllables.

How to play: Sit in a circle with your students. I have a little stuffed bee that the kids love to hold. You could also use a printable bumble bee. The teacher begins the chant and walks around to a child:

Teacher: "Bippity Boppity Bumble Bee, Will You Say Your Name For Me?"

The child responds, "Jennifer."

Teacher: " Let's all say it." And the class says her name out loud, while clapping once for each syllable.

Teacher: "Let's all whisper it." And the class whispers her name, while quiet-clapping the syllables again, once per syllable.

Teacher and class: "Bippity Boppity Bumble Bee, Thank You For Saying Your Name For Me!"

Repeat with another student and his/her name. As students become familiar with the game, you can allow students to take on the "teacher" role.

Old MacDonald

Here is another great game that you can use to give the students practice in listening to syllables and putting them together into words. It follows the pattern of the song, Old MacDonald. By the time I use this activity with my class, we have read and sung Old MacDonald hundreds of times, so the song is well-known to the students.

How to play: The teacher begins by telling the students they are going to learn a new game - it's a different version of Old MacDonald, and it's kind of a silly version. The teacher begins singing, "Old MacDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O. And on that farm he had a /ti/ /ger/, E-I-E-I-O". Of course, the kids think the introduction of the tiger is wildly funny, but notice what they have actually done: Without being told, they have mentally combined the syllables /ti/ and /ger/ to realize what the animal was! It's huge! Then I show the children a picture of a tiger and they feel proud that they figured out the animal - and they think it's too funny! Again it's lots of fun, and they really think we are just playing a game.

The most important thing to keep in mind as an early childhood teacher is that phonemic awareness can be such a fun time! It shouldn't be long drawn-out lessons. All you need is five-to-ten-minute pockets of time each day. Phonemic awareness activities are also great to use during transition times throughout the day. I often use the ten minutes before lunch, and sometimes during group restroom breaks, to practice and reinforce listening and oral language skills. And the payoff is big! If you give phonemic awareness the attention it deserves, your students will be richly rewarded when it's time for them to start reading!

So now you know some of my secrets - the teaching games I use myself! I've had success with them, so I'm sure that if you make them your own, not only will you have fun with them in your classroom, but your students, too, will have an easier time with reading and go further faster!

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5 Quick, Easy, and Fun Phonemic Awareness Activities

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Learning to read can be quite an overwhelming task for small children. In fact, if you think about it, it's astounding that children are even capable of learning to read in such a short amount of time. However, before they begin to read print, they must have an adequate foundational understanding of how sounds in words work.