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Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. It is a foundational skill for reading, as it helps children understand that words are made up of sounds that can be blended, segmented, and changed to create new words.

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Sound Sorting Game: Provide students with picture cards representing words with specific beginning or ending sounds. Have them sort the pictures into groups based on the phoneme.

Differentiation: Use fewer picture choices for students who need more support, or challenge advanced students with middle or ending sound sorts.

Phoneme Blending with Movement: Say the sounds in a word separately (e.g., /c/ - /a/ - /t/) and have students hop for each sound, then blend them together and say the whole word.

Differentiation: Use visual cues (e.g., letter cards) for students needing extra support or allow advanced students to break apart words into individual phonemes themselves.

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I Spy with Sounds – Instead of colors, parents can play "I Spy" by describing something that starts with a specific sound (e.g., “I spy something that starts with /b/”).

Why It’s Effective: Helps children develop phonemic awareness in a fun, engaging way that connects to their environment.

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Why It’s Helpful: Provides activities, explanations, and videos on phonemic awareness to support early readers at home.

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That's a complicated sounding term, but it's meaning is simple: the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the sounds in spoken language. Phonological awareness is really a group of skills that include a child's ability to:

Identify words that rhyme

Count the number of syllables in a name

Recognize alliteration (words with the same beginning sound)

Segment (break) a sentence into words

Identify the syllables in a word

The most sophisticated phonological awareness skill (and the last to develop) is called phonemic awareness - the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. When playing with the sounds in word, children learn to:

Blend individual sounds to make a word

Stretch out a word into its individual sounds

Swap in a different sound to the beginning, middle, or end of a word to make a new word

Strong phonemic awareness is one of the strongest predictors of later reading success. Children who struggle with reading, including kids with dyslexia, often have trouble with phonemic awareness, but with the right kind of instruction they can be successful. Learn some of the warning signs for dyslexia in this article, Clues to Dyslexia in Early Childhood.

Parents can make a big difference in helping their children become readers by practicing these pre-reading oral skills at home. Try some of the simple rhyming and word sound games described here.

Try these speech sound activities at home

Rhyme time

"I am thinking of an animal that rhymes with big. What's the animal?" Answer: pig. What else rhymes with big? ( dig, fig, wig)

Road trip rhymes

While you're out driving in the car, spot something out the window and ask your child, "what rhymes with tree or car or shop?" Then switch roles and have your child spot something and ask you for a rhyme. This can turn into a game of nonsense rhymes ("What rhymes with tree stump?") but that's great for practicing sounds, too!

Word families

Word families are sets of words that rhyme. Start to build your family by giving your child the first word, for example, cat. Then ask your child to name all the "kids" in the cat family, such as: bat, fat, sat, rat, pat, mat, hat, flat. This will help your child hear patterns in words.

Silly tongue twisters

Sing songs and say silly tongue twisters. These help your child become sensitive to the sounds in words.

Tongue ticklers

Alliteration or "tongue ticklers" - where the sound you're focusing on is repeated over and over again - can be a fun way to provide practice with a speech sound. Try these:

For M: Miss Mouse makes marvelous meatballs!

For S: Silly Sally sings songs about snakes and snails.

For F: Freddy finds fireflies with a flashlight.

Syllable shopping

While at the grocery store, have your child tell you the syllables in different food names. Have them hold up a finger for each word part. Eggplant = egg-plant, two syllables. Pineapple = pine-ap-ple, three syllables. Show your child the sign for each and ask her to say the word.

"I spy" first sounds

Practice beginning sounds with this simple "I spy" game at home, on a walk, or at the grocery store. Choose words with distinctive, easy-to-hear beginning sounds. For example, if you're in the bathroom you can say, "I spy something red that starts with the "s" ssss sound ( soap)."

Sound scavenger hunt

Choose a letter sound, then have your child find things around your house that start with the same sound. "Can you find something in our house that starts with the letter "p" pppppp sound? Picture, pencil, pear "

Which letter sounds do I teach first?

Reading expert Linda Farrell recommends that you begin with teaching the letter names, and then focus on the letter sounds that are closest to their letter names (such as /v/). And here's a great tip for teaching the trickier letter name-letter sound combinations - use arm motions. In this video, Linda demonstrates motions for /x/ and /y/. (From our video series Reading SOS: Expert Answers to Family Questions About Reading.)

Sound games

Practice blending sounds into words. Ask "Can you guess what this word is? m - o - p." Hold each sound longer than normal.

First sounds

When you're reading together with your child, pick a word from the book and say it with emphasis on the first sound. Pick another word and compare them. "Zzz-zookeeper and rrr-rhinoceros. Can you hear what sound zzz-zookeeper starts with? Is it the same as rrr-rhinoceros?

Jump, skip, hop!

Create simple picture cards that you draw or cut out of magazines. Have your child, identify what's in the picture, and then break that word into its individual sounds. For example dog is d-o-g, three sounds (phonemes). Three sounds? You and your child do three jumping jacks, skips, or hops (followed by a high-five). You can also do this game outdoors without the cards, just call out simple words for your child.

Snail talk

Tell your child you're going to communicate in "snail talk" and they need to figure out what you're saying. Take a simple word and stretch it out very slowly (e.g., /fffffllllaaaag/), then ask your child to tell you the word. Switch roles and have your child stretch out a word for you.

"I spy" blending

Here's an easy phoneme blending game you can play while talking a walk. For blending, you can say, "I see a sign that says s-t-o-p" Then your child has to blend the sounds to guess your word - stop. (Remember to say only the sounds in the word - not the letters.) Keep the words short, moving from two to three to four sounds depending on your child's skill level.

Sound counting

Using LEGO bricks, beads, or pennies, say a word and have your child show you how many sounds the word makes. For example, top = t-o-p = three sounds, so your child would place three objects in a row. Then have them tap each object as they say the sound. Remember, your child is just showing you the sounds they hear. So the word bike would be = b-i-k (silent e) = only three sounds.

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your Kindergartener

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Phonological and phonemic awareness are important pre-reading skills, related to the ability to hear, identify, and play with the sounds in spoken language - including rhymes, syllables, and the smallest units of sound (phonemes). Children with strong phonological awareness skills are ready to become readers.

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Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds, teaching children how to decode words by recognizing letter-sound patterns. It is essential for reading fluency and word recognition.

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Magnetic Letter Word Building: Have students use magnetic letters to build words after hearing them orally.

Differentiation: Provide picture support for emerging readers or challenge advanced students with digraphs and blends.

Phonics Hopscotch: Create a hopscotch grid with word families (-at, -op, -in). Students hop to a square, read a word, and say another word in the same family.

Differentiation: Use color-coded grids for different ability levels, or allow students to generate their own words.

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Letter-Sound Treasure Hunt – Parents hide letters or objects representing beginning sounds (e.g., a toy cat for "C") and children must find and say the sound.

Why It’s Effective: Engages children in active learning while reinforcing letter-sound associations.

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Why It’s Helpful: Offers interactive phonics games and digital books for beginning readers.

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Starfall Education: Kids Games, Movies, Books & Music for K-5 and above

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At Starfall, children have fun while they learn - specializing in reading, phonics & math - educational games, movies, books, songs, and more for children K-5 and above.

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Vocabulary refers to the words children must understand to communicate effectively. It is crucial for reading comprehension and language development.

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Storybook Word Detectives: Read a book aloud and have students identify and discuss new words, using picture clues and context.

Differentiation: Provide visuals or use real objects for students needing extra support, or have advanced students create sentences using the words.

Vocabulary Charades: Students act out words from a story or thematic unit while others guess the word.

Differentiation: Use simpler words or provide picture prompts for students who need additional support.

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Word of the Day Jar – Families select a new word each day from a jar and use it in conversation.

Why It’s Effective: Expands vocabulary through real-world application and daily repetition.

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Why It’s Helpful: Offers vocabulary-building activities and book recommendations for families.

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Science of Reading | Scholastic Education

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Explore variety of instructional solutions based on the Science of Reading to support your students in becoming skillful readers.

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Fluency is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Fluent readers can focus on comprehension rather than decoding.

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Echo Reading: The teacher reads a sentence with expression, and students repeat it.

Differentiation: Provide sentence strips for students to follow along visually, or pair fluent readers with emerging readers for peer support.

Reader’s Theater: Students perform a short script by reading their parts aloud.

Differentiation: Provide highlighted scripts for students needing support, or challenge advanced readers with varied character voices.

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Family Read-Aloud Night – Parents and children take turns reading a favorite book, focusing on expression and pacing.

Why It’s Effective: Reinforces fluency through modeling and practice in a low-pressure setting.

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Why It’s Helpful: Provides free, leveled fluency passages for home reading practice.

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ReadWorks | Award-Winning, EdTech Nonprofit Organization

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ReadWorks is an edtech nonprofit organization that is committed to helping to solve America’s reading comprehension crisis.

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Reading comprehension is the ability to understand and interpret text. It involves making connections, asking questions, and drawing conclusions.

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Think-Pair-Share: Students listen to a story, discuss key details with a partner, and share their thoughts with the class.

Differentiation: Use picture prompts or sentence stems for students needing support, or have advanced students make predictions about the story.

Story Sequencing: Provide students with picture cards representing key events in a story. They arrange the cards in order and retell the story.

Differentiation: Provide fewer sequencing steps for students needing extra guidance, or encourage advanced learners to write a summary.

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Retell with Props – After reading a story, children use household objects to retell the plot.

Why It’s Effective: Encourages engagement and recall through hands-on interaction.

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Why It’s Helpful: Offers strategies for building comprehension skills at home.

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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.