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Phonemic Awareness

Focus on the auditory ability to hear, identify, and manipulate sounds in a word and recognizing that words are broken up into sounds. Phonemic awareness includes identifying beginning/middle/ending sounds, breaking words into syllables, rhyming, and putting sounds together to make words (Reading Rockets, 2025).

Classroom Activities:

Rhyming Puzzles- using a puzzle set in which the students finds the pictures of two rhyming pictures, connecting them to make a puzzle made from the two matching puzzles pieces (Hildebrand, 2019).

Differentiation- This activity can be modified by having a teacher use scaffolding, assisting the child when they need help identifying the item name, saying the words, and helping the child connect the pieces (Hildebrand, 2019).

Zoo-Phonics- This is phonics associated with an animals, connecting the animal to the letter sound. Zoo-phonics uses animal motions and letter sounds to help students develop phonemic awareness (Zoo-phonics Inc., 2017).

Example of how zoo-phonics is done: Letter “a” sound will correspond with Allie Alligator. Students will do motions for Allie Alligator (arms out and moving in a chomping motion) while saying the short /a/ sound (Zoo-phonics Inc., 2017).

Differentiation- Teachers can add more visuals such as pictures of the zoo-phonics animals, play the zoo-phonics song, or even do motions in a circle so students can see each other doing the motions (Zoo-phonics Inc., 2017).

At Home Activity

Clapping Syllables- To help your child at home to practice breaking words into syllables, play a game where you say an easy word that has 1-3 syllables, like "today," modeling using your hands to clap out the syllables while saying the word slowly. Have your child practice with you next time. Repeat with more words. (https://katelynslearningstudio.com/strategies-for-phonemic-awareness/)

1. Differentiation- You can choose to use any type of noise or instrument that you have around the house that may create a more sensory experience (Example- stomping feet, squishing a soft ball, tapping on shoulders, etcetera). You can also choose 1-2 syllables words to start, building up to longer words (Hildebrand, 2019).

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Phonics

This is the connection between printed letters and sounds. Students start to work with printed letters and words, recognize letters and the sounds they make, sound out words, recognize sight words, and find phonics patterns in the words they are reading.

They will also start to sound out CVC words, recognize phonics patterns, and build fluency in reading individual words (Reading Rockets, 2025).

Classroom Activities

1. Beginning Sound Cards- Each child will receive a set of cards that show a word and a picture of the word. Each card will have a blank spot for the beginning letter. Students will say the word aloud, stretching out the beginning letter sound, then find the magnet letter that matches the beginning sound, developing phonics skills of sound to letter recognition (A Kinder Teacher Life, 2023).

1. Differentiation- Instead of having a blank space for the word, use cards that have the beginning letter included. The child will do the same thing as above but will point to the beginning letter and find the matching letter to put on top. Teacher will sit with the child, using scaffolding to help if needed (A Kinder Teacher Life, 2023).

2. Onset & Rime- Breaking words into onsets and rimes is a good stepping stone for reading cvc words. For example, in “hop” the sound /h/ is the onset, and /op/ is the rime. When students practice reading onset and rime, they only have to blend two parts of the word together. Students can start with a written word like "hop," than underneath it write a new word using a different letter for the onset. The student will do the same thing for five more rounds, reading the new word aloud as they go (Making English Fun, 2025).

1. Differentiation- For students who are still learning how to write their letters, have students use magnet tile letters switching out the onset letters to make new words.

At Home Activities

1. Word Mapping with poppers- This activities teaches children to visually see how letters are broken into sounds and practice breaking the word up themselves.

(https://katelynslearningstudio.com/word-mapping-activities/)

1. Show a written word to your child and have them touch the first “popped” bubble and say the first sound, then say the letter/s in the word that make that sound. Continue this process until your child gone through the whole word (Hildebrand, 2023).

2. Differentiation-If your child does not know how to separate the letters into sounds, draw lines in between each “sound” in the word for them. You can also model what to do first and start with a small 2 letter word (Hildebrand, 2023).

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Vocabulary

This is the ability of a student to understand, define, and use new words. When students are able to recognize a wide variety of words, they are able to recognize them faster ,read more fluently and understand/comprehend a passage better (Reading Rockets, 2025).

Classroom Activities

1. Odd one Out game- In this game, students will think will use context to figure out which word doesn’t fit with the others. The teacher will write a list of words that fit in a certain category and only one word will be odd. Students will try and guess which word does not belong (Example: Apple, peach, banana, fish (fruits – fish is the odd word) (Mcllroy, 2025).

1. Differentiation- The teacher can use pictures or objects in addition to the word, creating a visual connection for the student.

2. Word Wall- Creating a word wall with pictures and the written word, is a great way to encourage students to find ways to incorporate new words in their writing or using them to identify the meaning in a story (Mcllroy, 2025).

1. Differentiation- You can provide a child who may be seeing-impaired or a reading disability their own word bank with pictures that they can keep at their desk as a quick reference when needed.

At Home Activity

1. "What am I?"

1. Have your child close their eyes as you find an object in the room. Hide the object behind your back and describe the it while your child tries to guess what it is. You can give as many clues as needed until the object is guessed. Once the child guesses the object, it is their turn to describe an object. This game is great at helping children expand their vocabulary using verbs and adjectives.

https://empoweredparents.co/vocabulary-games-for-kids/

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Fluency

This when a student is able to read with speed, accuracy, and correct expression. This is also when students are starting to read through sentences smoothly and without having to labor through sounding out each word (Reading Rockets, 2025).

Classroom Activities

1. Sentences Pyramid- To build up confidence in a student, teachers should start with sentences before jumping into whole passages. When a student can read a sentence, they have the tools to read a passage (Gillio, 2025).

1. Differentiation- Using a Sentence Pyramid is a great way to scaffold reading sentences. Having the student read a short sentence by starting with the first word, then reading the first and second word, then reading the first, second, and third word, and so on, till they are saying all the words in the sentence (Gillio, 2025).

2. Line tracking (pointer, paper) Students can track the words as they read using their finger, a dollar store pointer (can be something fun like a straw), or a fun finger gadget (Hildebrand, 2019).

1. Differentiation- For students who need more support, print reading passage on a bright colored paper, which helps creates extra contrast between the words and the paper. You can also use a notecard to place under each line as they read. This covers up the other text so they don’t get overwhelmed, and helps them focus on where they are reading (Hildebrand, 2019).

At Home Activities

1. Modeling Fluency - One of the first ways we can teach reading with fluency is to model it ourselves. Pick one of your child's favorite books and read out loud, using correct expression, showing them how your voice goes up and down, and it sounds like you’re talking. Show them the difference between using expression and reading slowly and without expression like a robot. Then show your child how fluent reading sounds.

(https://katelynslearningstudio.com/reading-with-fluency/)

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Comprehension

This is when a student understands what they listened to and read. There are two parts of Comprehension:

1. Listening Comprehension- this is understanding short sentences, following directions, and analyzing stories that are read out loud (Reading Rockets, 2025).

2. Reading Comprehension-  This is when students are are able to interact with the stories they read independently, using skills such as predicting, analyzing, summarizing, or inferring (Reading Rockets, 2025).

Classroom Activities

1. Finger Re-tell- This is a reading comprehension strategy to use with students after any story. Split students into groups of two-three. Have students rotate reading a pre-chosen book (Hildebrand, 2020). After they have finished reading, have students will hold up one finger for each of the following retelling points as they share with their group the following:

"Thumb–Somebody: Who is the story about?; Pointer Finger–Wanted: What do they want?; Middle Finger–But: What problem do they run into?;Ring Finger–So: What do they do to solve the problem?; Pinky–Finally: How did the story end?" (Hildebrand, 2020)

1. Differentiation- Teacher will read out loud to the student, stopping to talk about the above elements of the story. For those who need more visuals, teachers can use finger pictures for each of the "re-tell fingers (Hildebrand, 2020).

2. Chunking-

When students have a hard time with reading comprehension, try breaking up the text into small chunks and have students read one paragraph. Cover up the paragraph and have the student say one sentence describing what the paragraph was about (Hildebrand, 2020). This activity focuses on understanding what the student has read and it gives students practice summarizing without having to read a long passage and remember the beginning, middle, and end all at one time(Hildebrand, 2020).

1. Differentiation- Giving students an additional resource such as two different colored highlighters, to use to highlight important aspects of the chunked paragraph, can also help students remember what they read and summarize each section (Hildebrand, 2020).

At Home Activity

1. Think Out loud Modeling-

This is a great way to demonstrate reading with comprehension. When you are reading aloud any text to your students (story, article, directions, etc.), model what goes on in your head as you think about what you read (Hildebrand, 2020). Literally, “think out loud.” Read, then stop and wonder out loud about a question, make a note about an interesting point, or make a prediction. Point out things that you didn’t understand, and go back to the text to clarify, talking about it as you do. This gives a solid example for students of how they should read when they are reading for comprehension.

https://katelynslearningstudio.com/strategies-for-reading-comprehension/)