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Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

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How Now Brown Cow: Phonological Awareness Activities

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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.

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Phonological vs. Phonemic awareness for teachers and parents

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Phonological vs. Phonemic awareness for teachers and parents

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Phonological awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language - parts such as words, syllables, and onsets and rimes. Children who have phonological awareness are able to identify and make oral rhymes, can clap out the number of syllables in a word, and can recognize words with the same initial sounds like 'money' and 'mother.'

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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!
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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. 😉

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Phonemic Awareness Teacher Task Cards: Keep Me On Track

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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.

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lighten the stress on students' working memory by having students take notes or reflect in some way. Repetitiveness and reflection helps transfer information from working memory to long term memory.

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D.A.P and SPED endorsed
Have students echo or repeat each word at a time. This helps students stay tuned in and remember important information

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Students turn around to their partner on the carpet. It is important to model nodding politely and staying quiet to build confidence and willingness to share.

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When working with students on vowel sounds, help students that confuse vowel sounds by giving them a mirror (or ipad camera) so they can watch themselves say a sound. Discuss mouth movements and how they may be different.

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Picture cards are a great work way to have students sort sounds. Make sure to give them pictures/sounds that allow them to FEEL the difference in how the sound is made

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A printable poster of kid-friendly syllable rules and coordinating book mark. Color and black and white versions are included. Help your kids decode tricky words using these tools! Related: Syllable Rules Worksheets ........................................................................................................................... *FREE Reading Skills Poster

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Group students and make them experts on a certain topic.

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Great for review
Put a vocabulary word on the front of a card and the answer/definition on the back. Students find a partner, give their partner a high five, say the answer and then trade cards. After giving another high five, students find another partner.

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Letrs Teaching Resources | Teachers Pay Teachers

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Browse letrs resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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Fluency Strips™ Set 1 - Quick and Easy Practice and Assessment

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Fluency Strips are an engaging and EFFECTIVE way to practice fluency! This packet of Fluency Strips has 480 Simple Sentences to provide a LOT of opportunities to practice decoding simple sentences and sight word recognition.

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When students can read words in isolation but not in text, fluency strips are a great resource to use.

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When reading, stop and ask students "What does that sentence mean?"

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Make sure students receive explicit instruction on a skill before giving them the opportunity to explore on their own. Inquiry before explicit instruction leaves room for misconceptions

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It might be controversial.

Word walls. You know, the big bulletin boards that contain a collection of high-frequency sight words. Words that students encounter frequently in their reading and writing, as well as words they frequently misspell.

If you are a K-2 teacher, I bet you have one.

Yep, me too. I mean, I had a word wall.

You see, last year I ripped mine off the wall.

In theory, word walls sound very effective to me. You introduce a few new words. You practice the new sight words. Then after a week or so you slap those puppies up on the word wall for your student's reference for the remainder of the school year.

Students will work with the word wall. They can play "I spy" or word detective games. They will constantly be exposed to the print and the words will seep into their brains. While independently writing their little brains will become capable of spelling those tricky words (they, said, want...) because they'll remember it is a sight word. They'll know to look at the word wall to check the correct spelling.

For these reasons, I have had a word wall for years and years and years.
Then last year I ripped it off wall.
Instead I decided to put a portable word wall on EVERYTHING!

I had previously made a list of sight words organized in alphabetical order for my students. I mounted a copy on my students' writing folders.

I glued to the back of their homework folders.
But we needed more!
So I mounted them on construction paper, laminated, and taped the mini word
wall onto my students' tables.

I placed multiple copies at my writing center.

Basically, mini word walls were here, mini word walls were there, mini word walls were everywhere!

So did it work? Well, here is what I have noticed:

My students are more frequently looking at their word wall. While they are write, they are more frequently stop to search for the high frequency word they need.

I'm not sure I can definitively say but my guess is that that having the list taped down to their tables is just SO MUCH EASIER for them to look at than looking across the room. They see their little laminated mini word wall on their desk ALL.DAY.LONG and they just get used to accessing it??

Whatever it is, I am thankful they are finally using their word wall to help them spell those tricky words. 🙂

If you like this "mini word wall" you can download it for FREE by clicking the picture!

A word wall isn't simply a classroom decoration or a bulletin board display. It is a tool for students to use to improve their reading, spelling, and vocabulary skills. I felt that by taking my word wall off the wall and placing them throughout the classroom I was providing my students with a more useful tool. I still held them accountable for spelling the words correctly and they didn't miss out on any sight-word instruction. I think they felt more ownership over the list and were more motivated to use them.

Taking down the word wall was what I felt was best for my students and it turns out my instinct on this one was right. So for now, I'll stick with the mini word lists and use the new found wall space for something more useful!

I'd love to hear any comments you have on word walls. Do you have one? Do you have any amazing strategies you have found to help your students learn those darn sight words?

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Why I Tore Down My Word Wall {& a freebie} - Mrs. Winter's Bliss

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It might be controversial. Word walls. You know, the big bulletin boards that contain a collection of high-frequency sight words. Words that students encounter frequently in their reading and writing, as well as words they frequently misspell. If you are a K-2 teacher, I bet you have one. Yep, me too.

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Tood Whittaker

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Ned Herrman

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Rhyming activities

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Elkonin Boxes | Classroom Strategies | Reading Rockets

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Blending and Segmenting Games | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Children who can segment and blend sounds easily are able to use this knowledge when reading and spelling. Segmenting and blending individual sounds can be difficult at the beginning. Our recommendation is to begin with segmenting and blending syllables. Once familiar with that, students will be prepared for instruction and practice with individual sounds.

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This is the file I use for my sound wall and think it is a fantastic resource

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Sound Wall - Vowels, Digraphs, and Diphthongs - for replacing the Word Wall

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For years teachers have used Word Walls to collect words and teach beginning sounds and letter associations. Why not take it a step farther? A Sound Wall can be a powerful tool to help teach all the phonemes (speech sounds) and graphemes (written representations-a letter

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Use regular beads to practice phonological skills. Use letter or grapheme beads to add in the orthographic piece (Cindy has some in her office)

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The bead slide is one of my favorite tools to use when teaching the phonemic awareness skill of phoneme segmentation. They are so simple to make. Check out the video to see how to use and make the bead slide.

Sometimes it's just hard to come up with words right off the top of your head while you are working in your small groups. Here is a little cheat sheet for you.

Click the following link to download this handout. Phoneme Segmentation Words

Did you Know-Segmenting and blending are the two phonemic awareness skills found to have the greatest impact on learning to read.

The Bead Slide is one of 15 hands on activities contained within the Response to Intervention Phonemic Awareness Activity Pack.

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Bead Slide: A Tool for Teaching Phoneme Segmentation - Make Take & Teach

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The bead slide is one of my favorite tools to use when teaching the phonemic awareness skill of phoneme segmentation. They are so simple to make. Check out the video to see how to use and make the bead slide. Sometimes it's just hard to come up with words right off the top ...

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Make more difficult by having students use letter tiles to create new words. Could also do this with syllables

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Assign phonics activities to your students. They work on their Ipad. Simply go to Reading & Writing --> Phonics. Go to Brainpop through classlink to access teacher account

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Free Online Phonics Games | Education.com

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Play these free phonics games online from our fun-filled learning system, Brainzy. Phonics games for kids help build reading skills that will last a lifetime.

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No mobile devices in your classroom? No worries! You can enjoy Nearpod from any web browser :) Create, engage, and assess your students in every lesson!