# data[].attributes.body
Provides 20 minute lessons where children can practice specific skills such as phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence and word-level blending. The program implements direct teaching along with class interaction and partner practice. It's use in the classroom can provide direct benefits to students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
FastTrack Phonics is a fun, fast-paced, and systematic phonics program that builds students' skills in phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence and word-level blending and segmenting. It can be used with a range of learners: from beginners with little or no phonetic knowledge to students with more advanced skills. The lessons are appropriate for varied age groups, and they are flexible enough to be customized to the needs of a particular student, class, or group.

During their 20-minute daily lessons, children master the basics of reading with phonemic awareness, letter-sound correspondence, word-level blending and spelling practice. For teachers it provides detailed guides for each interactive session, making lesson planning a breeze. The program integrates direct teaching, using puppets, video and colorful picture cards, with whole-class interaction and partner practice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
FastTrack Phonics - Success for All Foundation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
FASTTRACK PHONICS "I have been an elementary school teacher for nearly 20 years. In all that time, FastTrack Phonics has been my absolute favorite program to use with developing readers. The daily lessons provide my students with easy-to-follow activities that combine both reading and writing in an engaging way.

# data[].attributes.body
These are short songs for kindergarten age students that emphasize repetition of what is heard, syllables and rhyming. This resource is most effective being used when activities end a few minutes early.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Quick, Easy, and Fun Phonemic Awareness Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.body
website provides guidelines and methods for special ed and general ed teachers working together to build phonemic awareness. Beyond that many skill building short activities are provided.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How Now Brown Cow: Phonological Awareness Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Phonemic awareness training is essential for students who are at risk for reading difficulties. This article describes the components of phonemic awareness and provides activities that special educators can use to provide this training to at risk students.

# data[].attributes.body
A clever tool for kindergarten and first grade teachers! Site words, vowels, consonant blends and more are all placed on flashcards attached to a ring.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Last updated on July 13, 2021

These teacher task cards are the perfect phonemic awareness activities, right at your fingertips whenever you need them! There are cards for every skill and they are also differentiated for different levels!
This post contains affiliate links. By purchasing through this link, we get a small commission. Rest assured - we only share links to products that we know and love!
Phonemic awareness activities for kindergarten, first grade, and intervention! These teacher task cards will help you make the most of every classroom moment. Use them during small groups, whole group, one-on-one, in tutoring, or during class transitions to make sure that your students are building phonemic awareness every day!

Phonemic Awareness Teacher Task Cards

WHY PHONEMIC AWARENESS?

I remember my "Teaching Reading" professor in graduate school. She was passionate about phonemic awareness, and there were two things she drilled into our heads.

1. Phonemic awareness can be done in the dark.

2. Phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of learning to read. (This makes it SUPER important!)

I'm also pretty sure she asked us to name these two facts at the beginning, middle, and end of every class session. In fact, she even made us order copies of reports from the National Reading Panel for "pleasure reading." But guess what? It's now seven years later, and I haven't forgotten about the importance of phonemic awareness.

As I teach reading intervention, I hear her voice in my head. (Note: I didn't say that I hear random voices in my head; I just remember her. ;) ) I'm constantly reminded of one thing: I need to give my students ample opportunities to learn and practice phonemic awareness skills on a daily basis. With only 20-30 minutes per session, I have to make the most of every minute. I could remember all of the skills in my head and keep track of who has already learned what, or I could create a program to keep me on track. Thus, Phonemic Awareness Teacher Task Cards were born!

These task cards are for the teacher only. Why? Because phonemic awareness can be done in the dark! Letters are not required in building phonemic awareness skills. (Save the letters for phonics.) Your students build phonemic awareness skills by listening and speaking. So for once, don't even worry about making copies for your students. These cards are just for you!

THE PHONEMIC AWARENESS ACTIVITIES

I took all of the phonemic awareness skills and created activities for them. They range from begining to advanced so that they can be used with kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, and any students struggling to read and write (spell).

Because phonemic awareness instruction should be systematic and explicit, I "scripted" each skill introduction and each set of student directions. That's right. All you have to do is read it aloud to your students! You'll also model a "sample" activity so that your students know just what to do (also scripted).

Ready for more? Turn the page (or card). You have multiple pages with 5-20 ways to practice that skill!

Skills range from "What's the first sound you hear in ___?" to phoneme deletion and manipulation. Don't worry. It's scaffolded all throughout so that your students will work up to the hard stuff!

SETTING IT UP - ONE AND DONE

Remember how only the teacher needs a set of these task cards? The setup is quick- do it once, and use it for years! If you have a paraprofessional, assistant, or parent volunteers, you can make them each a set too. They can also practice in small groups or one-on-one. I used colored cardstock and binder rings to keep all my task cards together. (Let's be real; it's also to make them pretty. 😉 ). [Note: These are affiliate links for your convenience.] I had many of you ask if I put the colored paper in a specific order, and the answer is no. I just randomly threw it in my printer. Since they print four to a page, the same skills will be the same color.

SKILL LEVELS

Last week, I decided to put all of the skills on one giant binder ring and use sticky tabs to track which groups are on which skills. However, if you want to divide the task cards by level, you can use the table of contents below to do so! [Note: This table of contents is clickable in the PDF, but it won't be here.]

Beginner: Beginning Sound Discrimination through Alliterations

Intermediate: Onset and Rime through Segmenting Phonemes

Advanced: Deleting With Compound Words through Ending Phoneme Substitution

I hope these phonemic awareness teacher task cards make as much of a difference in your classroom has they have in ours! May you hear voices in your head reminding you how important phonemic awareness is to your students. And also always remember that it can be done in the dark. 😉

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Phonemic Awareness Teacher Task Cards: Keep Me On Track

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Last updated on July 13, 2021 These teacher task cards are the perfect phonemic awareness activities, right at your fingertips whenever you need them! There are cards for every skill and they are also differentiated for different levels! This post contains affiliate links. By purchasing through this link, we get a small commission.

# data[].attributes.body
What impressed me about the 8 games in this site were that they were closely intertwined and provided variations which help keep the game fresh after being played several times. Great approach to learning at this age level!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We gathered together an extensive collection of resources about reading, including topical research briefs and reports, descriptions of nonprofit, state and federal literacy organizations, and our free reading guides for parents and educators.

# data[].attributes.body
This site is a valuable tool for teachers in that it provides a ranking of six phonemic awareness skills. The ranking is a progression of easiest to hardest. Five specific lessons are contained in each separate skill.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Phonological Awareness Lessons | Reading A-Z

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Award-winning reading solution with thousands of leveled readers, lesson plans, worksheets and assessments to teach guided reading, reading proficiency and comprehension to K-5 students

# data[].attributes.body
A first grade lesson that is broken into three different parts, each part intended to take 25 minutes. Students engage in games and chants with the purpose of recognizing the same sounds in different words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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

Your students can save their work with Student Interactives.

More

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.
back to top
FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Yopp, H.K., & Yopp, R.H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 54, 130–143.
back to top

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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Building Phonemic Awareness With Phoneme Isolation - ReadWriteThink

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a great collection of board games that build phonemic awareness. My favorite of the collection would have to be phonemic bingo!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Phonemic awareness game- FREEBIE! Just add a die and game markers.  Students roll the die and advance that many spaces.  If they land on a… | teaching! | Pinterest | Phonemic awareness kindergarten, Preschool literacy and Phonemic awareness

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Phonemic awareness game- FREEBIE! Just add a die and game markers.  Students roll the die and advance that many spaces.  If they land on a letter, they say a word that begins (or ends) with that letter.  If they land on a picture, they say the beginning (or ending) sound and letter.

# data[].attributes.body
This resource was unique in terms of providing printables for both classroom walls and student use. The teaching tips, tech implementation and centers ideas were quite useful.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Phonological Awareness Activities for Pre-K and Preschool - PreKinders

# data[].attributes.body
Very creative activities and teaching method that enables older students to practice phonemic awareness. It achieves this by adding a twist to the instruction that challenges how students expect phonological consistency.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Phonemes are the smallest units that make up words in spoken language. The word dog, for example, has three phonemes: /d/ /o/ /g/. Phonemic awareness is the ability for a child learning to speak, read and write to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words. Activities for elementary school children, such as third-grade students, involves auditory-verbal exercises that direct a child's attention to sound and individual letters.

Importance

Phonemic awareness is especially important for third graders, and all elementary school-age children, because understanding phonemes builds the basis for spelling, word recognition and reading skills.

Reading and Writing

According to the WETA "Reading Rockets" program website, phonemic awareness is one of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read during the first two years of school instruction. Third-grade students are typically reading at a more advanced level, developing vocabulary and sounding out difficult words to pronounce. Without a solid foundation in phonemic awareness -- and reinforcement throughout elementary school -- spelling and reading comprehension could suffer as a result.

Example Activity: First Phonemes

This phonemic awareness activity sharpens students awareness of initial phonemes. The 3rd graders compare, contrast, and identify the first "sounds" in a set of words. A teacher will need some picture flashcards for the activity. Lay the picture flashcards of interesting objects on a table. Asks students to find the pictures which start with the initial sound they have been given, such as "th" or "ch."

Ask students to identify the name and initial phoneme of each picture and to sort them into two piles accordingly. Because this activity can be made simpler or more difficult, depending on the age group, for 3rd graders, choose engaging pictures with odd spellings, such as "xylophone" or "knight." You can also incorporate homophone words like rose (flower) and rose (past tense of "rise").

Example Activity: Listening Games

Parents or teachers will need a book of familiar stories or poems for this activity. Ask the third graders to sit in a circle, close their eyes and listen to the story or poem you are about to read. Recite or read aloud a familiar story or poem to them, but every so often replace a familiar word with an unexpected one.

For instance, in Alice in Wonderland, you can say that Alice saw a bottle that said "Me Drink." This is an example of word reversing. Other ways of playing with the wording help focus a child's attention to individual words and their meanings. In Alice's famous line "If it had grown up, it would have made a dreadfully ugly child; but it makes rather a handsome pig, I think," you could recite it instead as "If it had grown up, it would have made a dreadfully ugly pig; but it makes rather a handsome child, I think.

You can substitute words, switch a sentence around, reverse the order or make up a non-sense word. The third graders objective is to detect those changes. If you make the exercise creative and fun, students will be involved and excited.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Are Phonemic Awareness Activities in 3rd Grade? | Synonym

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Phonemes are the smallest units that make up words in spoken language. The word dog, for example, has three phonemes: /d/ /o/ /g/. Phonemic awareness is the ability for a child learning to speak, read and write to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words.

# data[].attributes.headline
Learning Phonemic Awareness Through Modeling

# data[].attributes.subject
Learning Phonemic Awareness Through Modeling

# data[].attributes.body
This site used a video to demonstrate how a kindergarten teachers could emphasis word sounds while showing the word. This instructional method is geared toward both visual and audio learners.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ELA.RF.K.2c

Common core State Standards

ELA: English Language Arts

RF: Reading Standards: Foundational Skills (K-5)

K: Kindergarten

2c:
Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds
(phonemes).

a. Recognize and produce rhyming words.

b. Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

c. Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.

d. Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes)
in three-phoneme (consonent-vowel-consonent, or CVC) words.* (This does
not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)

e. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable
words to make new words.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

Thought starters

1. Notice the progression from whole group, to guided practice and then individual assessment. How does acting out words help with both vocabulary development and engagement?

2. How does this lesson balance between sounding out words and blending?

School Details

Fairmont Private Schools - Anaheim Hills Campus
5300 E La Palma Ave.
Anaheim Hills CA 92807

Data Provided By:

Teachers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kindergarten teacher Heather Lopez works with her students on consonant-vowel-consonant (C-V-C) single-syllable words as they learn to read. Some students need to sound out some of the words while others are already able to blend the onset with the rime.

# data[].attributes.headline
Lesson Plan for Kinder PA & Rhyming Words

# data[].attributes.subject
Lesson Plan for Kinder PA & Rhyming Words

# data[].attributes.body
offers a beginning lesson on phonemic awareness for kindergarten teachers. The lesson was recommended for teachers who are not sure where to begin with the concept. A lesson plan for introduction of rhyming for preschoolers was also available.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Worksheets for Kids & Free Printables | Education.com

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Worksheets and printables that help children practice key skills. Download, print & watch your kids learn today!