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Phoneme Isolation is defined as identifying the initial sound or letter sound of spoken words (Instructional Routines | Florida Center for Reading Research, n.d). For example, the /S/ in the word sun. Isolating phonemes helps students understand that each letter has its own sound. There are many activities, such as the one above, that allow students to practice isolating letter sounds. Other activities include picture sorting and I Spy. In picture sorting, the teacher can use images with a specific letter in each. Students can shout out the letter.

For example, when shown an image of a dog, students sound out the /d/ sound. The teacher can then select another image, such as a fox, and have students sound out the /f/ sound. A similar activity is called I See and Shout. Students select objects around the room that start with a specific letter sound and shout it out. Students who struggle with letter sounds can use magnetic letters and tap to the sounds as they are called out. The more students practice isolating letter sounds, the better prepared they will be to blend them.

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Blending is the next step in phonemic awareness and involves combining sounds into single-syllable words (Instructional Routines | Florida Center for Reading Research. (n.d.). One way to teach blending is first to pronounce the sounds of each letter in a word, then blend them to form the whole word. For example, /b//a//t/ is blended and pronounced as bat. To reinforce this, students can first clap each sound separately, then clap once for the whole word. Next, another activity is Guess the Word: teachers select a few common small blended words, distribute them to students, and then slowly sound out a word for students to guess.

For example, the teacher sounds out /b//u//g/ as "bbuugg," and students match it to the correct word card (Reading Rockets. Another activity is for families to visit a local playground, give the child a word to blend as they go down a slide, and then have the child say the whole word once they reach the bottom. This sequence helps make blending and phonemic awareness practice fun. Afterwards, this activity can be extended to practicing segmentation skills.

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Phoneme Segmentation is the process of breaking down a word into individual speech sounds. First, the child says the word, then stretches it out by pronouncing each letter sound separately. For example, using a worksheet, the child says the word slowly, stretches the word into its individual sounds, and counts them (Reading Universe, 2024). This can be an effective classroom activity to teach segmentation. Segmentation helps students strengthen their phonological awareness and prepares them for phoneme manipulation.

Other activities include singing songs or chants and breaking words into syllables or sounds. For example, students can segment a word like /m//o//o//n/ by chanting, then clapping twice between each sound, saying the whole word, and clapping again. This repetitive activity keeps students engaged. Another activity involves giving students small words to write on a whiteboard, then breaking them apart into individual sounds and tapping each sound to show letter-sound efficiency. For students who struggle with writing, have them use a tablet to type the segments, then sound them out. Once students learn to segment, they can build skills for phoneme manipulation.

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Phonemic Manipulation is the ability to alter or manipulate sounds in words (An Overview of Phoneme Manipulation, 2024). Through deletion, substitution, and addition of letter sounds, students can learn how to form and read words. For example, when a student deletes a letter sound from a word, such as changing "fit" to "it," they form a new word with new sounds. Next, students can use substitution to replace "fit" with "lit." Similarly, by adding a letter sound, "fit" becomes "fits." All of these demonstrate how letter phonemes and words can be altered. To practice letter-sound manipulation, students can engage in a variety of enjoyable activities.

One example is a manipulation worksheet like the one above, which students complete as a fill-in-the-blank or missing-letter activity. Another activity is the game Hungry Alligator, in which the teacher places a word on the board and, with the class, pretends that a paper alligator has eaten one of the letter sounds (Jump, 2025). The students then read the leftover word, create another word by manipulating it, and say it out loud. Additionally, students can practice at home by creating 10 new words every day with their parents, using substitution, addition, or deletion of phonemes. Once students master phoneme manipulation, they can further practice rhyming and expand their vocabulary.

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Rhyming is an essential tool for helping children learn to read by teaching them to recognize similar sounds at the end of words (Rhyme, 2024). For example, cat, bat, and rat, or dog, bog, and log, all rhyme due to their ending sounds. Many early-reader books emphasize rhyming to build vocabulary and support sound recognition. Rhyming also fosters blending and manipulation because many rhyming words can be easily changed. Activities to teach rhyme include reading Dr. Seuss books, sharing nursery rhymes, completing worksheets, or having students create their own rhymes.

At home, parents can play rhyming games, and children can listen to audiobooks and identify rhyming words. Mastery occurs when students can recognize when word endings sound or are spelled alike. Developing this skill helps students gain confidence in their reading abilities.

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Students who have developed mastery of phonemic awareness skills should feel confident in:

-Isolation

-Blending

-Segmentation

-Manipulation: includes deletion, substitution, and addition of phonemes

-Rhyming

Students who have mastered these skills should be ready for :

Learning to read and listen to small, short stories with peers with illustrations

word recognition and spelling

basic fluency and vocabulary comprehension

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An Overview of Phoneme Manipulation. (2024). Reading Universe. https://readinguniverse.org/skill-explainer/phonemic-awareness/phoneme-manipulation/an-overview-of-phoneme-manipulation

Jump, D. (2025, January 29). Phoneme Manipulation Activities for Small Groups. Mrs. Jump’s Class. https://deannajump.com/phoneme-manipulation-activities/

Instructional Routines | Florida Center for Reading Research. (n.d.). Fcrr.org. https://fcrr.org/reading-success/instructional-routines

Reading Rockets. (2023). Blending and segmenting games. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/classroom/classroom-strategies/blending-and-segmenting-games

Rhyme (2024). The Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/education/glossary/rhyme