# data[].attributes.body
Interactive lessons targeting phonological awareness skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Phonological Awareness | PBS LearningMedia

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Find lessons on Phonological Awareness for all grades. Free interactive resources and activities for the classroom and home.

# data[].attributes.body
Words are read aloud as children listen and then drag the word to the stall labeled with the correct number of syllables.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Syllables

Syllables play an important role in spoken English in that they greatly influence the rhythm of the language, its poetic meter and its stress patterns. Syllables are also important very early on as their mastery dictates a child's success in reading. Kids enjoy learning about syllables using fun online games. These syllable games teach children how to recognize syllables and how to use them properly in reading and writing. Many teachers have even started using online games to assist in their classroom teachings. Online syllable games can be a great tool for the classroom while teaching language arts lessons.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Syllables play an important role in spoken English in that they greatly influence the rhythm of the language, its poetic meter and its stress patterns. Syllables are also important very early on as their mastery dictates a child's success in reading. Kids enjoy learning about syllables using fun online games.

# data[].attributes.body
Children click on the bats’ bellies to hear the words, and then match the words with the same number of syllables.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Alphabats - Syllables is a super fun way for kids to practice phonemic awareness. Click on the bats' bellies to hear the words, then match the words with the same number of syllables. Match 6 words correctly, then help the bats collect fireflies!

# data[].attributes.body
Four games which require students to identify pairs of rhyming words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Learning words that rhyme can be a fun and engaging way to improve your vocabulary, language skills, and phonological awareness. Rhyming words share similar sounds at the end of the word, which can help with pronunciation and creative writing. Here are some examples of words that rhyme:

Remember that these are just a few examples, and there are countless rhyming words in the English language. You can explore rhyming dictionaries or engage in activities like reading poetry, singing songs, or playing word games to expand your repertoire of rhyming words.

In the game Words that Rhyme, young learners are introduced to the concept of rhyming and learn to build sounds and word relationships. Specifically, the children will be looking for end rhymes, with three pairs of rhyming words on each screen. Rhyming is an important skill to master, as it sharpens auditory awareness and heightens a child's ability to play with words and use them with more precision.
Once you click through the OK button to begin playing the game, it takes you through the brief instructions, which encourages you to look for three pairs of rhyming words on each page. Pictures show up on the screen with words at the bottom of each like digital flashcards. If the child does not know the word, they simply press the auditory button on the left of each word and it will be read aloud to them. Locate two rhyming words on the screen, and click once on each to pair them up as a correct rhyme.
Once you click a correct pair, the narrator will announce that A rhymes with B, and whisk the cards away. Incorrect matches get a slightly harsh sound and a "This is incorrect." statement. A timer does continuously tick up as you play, bringing more and more screens of matching rhyming words. The words begin simply, with only three letter simple words being used, but it quickly amps up with each subsequent screen if they are able to handle it. Learning rhyming skills is an essential skill to have and can be practiced here while employing other senses along with it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Rhyming Words | Rhyming Words For Kids | Phonics Games | Turtle Diary

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Partners in Rhyme is an online game for young toddlers about rhyming words. It helps them build sound and word relationships. In this game, kids get a set of words,

# data[].attributes.body
Students blend onsets with rimes and listen to see if the blend is a word.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (1996). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Chard, D., & Dickson, S. (1999). Phonological Awareness: Instructional and Assessment Guidelines.

Ellis, E. (1997). How Now Brown Cow: Phoneme Awareness Activities.

Goswami, U., & Mead, F. (1992). Onset and rime awareness and analogies in reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 2, 153-162.

Wise, B. W., Olson, R. K., & Treiman, R. (1990). Subsyllabic units as aids in beginning readers word learning Onset-rime versus post-vowel segmentation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 4, 1-19.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The "onset" is the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. /c/ in cat) and the term "rime" refers to the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. /a/ /t/ in cat). Not all words have onsets.

# data[].attributes.body
Say a sentence, “The cat is fat”. Tap the first 4 children on the head as you say each word of the sentence. Ask, “How many words?”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
"Phonological awareness," "phonemic awareness," and "phonics," are literacy terms we often hear used simultaneously, and maybe even interchangeably! However, as we work with children, helping them to develop a strong foundation of literacy and language skills, we must realize the important distinction between these terms.

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonological Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate parts of spoken language. Skills are at a listening/auditory and spoken/verbal, level - NO print - spoken words requiring ears only!

It is a broad term and comprised of a group of skills that progress developmentally, but of course, overlap as children mature. As phonological awareness skills develop, children will begin to attend to, discriminate, remember, and manipulate (segment/blend) words and sounds at these levels or chunks:

Sentence
Understanding that the sentence they hear, "Thecatisfat" is comprised of four separate words "The cat is fat".

Word

Understanding the words "cat" and "fat" rhyme.

Understanding two words become one in a compound word: cat + fish = catfish

Syllable
Understanding the word "cat" as one syllable.

Phonemic Awareness
Understanding and manipulating the three sounds in "cat" = /k/ /a/ /t/

Let's take a closer look at phonemic awareness. It is a specific skill under the broad category of phonological awareness. If we put phonological awareness skills on a continuum, phonemic awareness is the most sophisticated and last to develop.

The following is a list of specific phonemic awareness skills. Keep in mind, all of these are done at the auditory/spoken level, NO print:

Recognize words in a set begin with the same sound (cat, cake, kite all begin with the /k/ sound)

Isolate and say the first/last/middle sound/s in a word (cat begins with the /k/ sound and ends with the /t/ sound, etc.)

Blend separate sounds (phonemes) into words (/k/- /a/ - /t/ = cat)

Segment words into sounds (cat = /k/- /a/ - /t/)

Delete/manipulate sounds in spoken words (What is "cat" without the /k/? - "at"

Basically, phonemic awareness skills include learning how to break apart (segment) and combine (blend) the sounds in words. Phonemic awareness should begin in Pre-K with the focus on the simpler phonemic awareness skills of isolation and identifying beginning and ending sounds. Because phonemic awareness is a more advanced phonological awareness skill, development continues into kindergarten and early elementary.

Why are phonemic awareness skills so important?

Well, children who cannot hear and manipulate the phonemes of spoken words will have a very challenging time learning how to relate phonemes to letters when they see them in written words, Phonics. Therefore, Phonological Awareness skills are foundational for Phonics.

What is Phonics?

Phonemic awareness, however, is not phonics.

Phonics skill development focuses on helping children understand the relationship between sounds of written letters, letter combinations, and words. Phonics deals with written language, therefore we need to use our ears AND eyes, where as Phonological Awareness (and phonemic awareness) involves NO print, just listening and saying sounds and words. To keep this straight in my mind, I think about phonological awareness activities as those which can be completed with the eyes closed, while phonics activities require us to see the written letters and words, so, eyes need to be open.

Both phonemic awareness and phonics are interrelated, foundational skills and necessary for reading. However, it is important to understand a foundation of all phonological awareness skills should built before intense concentration is given to phonics.

The Benefits of Phonemic & Phonological Awareness

PreK is the time to begin to lay the foundation for strong reading skills, and it is important to begin by concentrating on phonological awareness skill development. In addition, if we do not help children gain the foundational understanding of sounds that phonemic awareness brings, phonics (assigning a letter a sound, spelling, and reading) will make little sense. And research supports this.

In summary, Phonemic Awareness is critical for reading. It primes readers for mapping speech to print, connecting sounds with written symbols, and also gives children a way to approach sounding out, blending sounds to make and read new words.

Phonological Awareness Activities & Strategies

In Pre-K, Phonological Awareness skills most certainly need to be taught explicitly, but fun extra practice can be woven in anytime.
Activity 1: Games to Play While Lined Up
Here are a few ideas for some simple games to play while children wait in line:

1. Sentence game: say a sentence, "The cat is fat". Tap the first 4 children on the head as you say each word of the sentence. Ask, "How many words?", four! Repeat the sentence, or say a different sentence, as you go down the line of children.

2. Rhyme game: Say a few words that rhyme, "cat, fat, bat". Prompt children to join in the game. You may need to prompt by saying some initial sounds: /p/ - at, /s/ - at, etc. Include silly words (/z/ - at) and blends (/th/ - at)!

3. My Turn/Your Turn syllable count game: (My Turn) Model clapping/stomping/tapping the syllables for objects you see in the classroom (Ceil-ing, floor, ta-ble, com-pu-ter). (Your Turn) Prompt children to imitate you. Ask after each word, "How many syllables?"

4. Repeat the beginning sound game: /c/ - /c/ - cat, /c/ - /c/ - cake, /c/ - /c/ - car. Prompt children to join in with other words.

The Get Set for School curriculum offers many activities that support early Language and Literacy skill development for children in your Early Childhood classrooms.

Here are some additional sample activities and products to explicitly instruct young learners in some key Phonological Awareness skills.
Activity 2: Discriminate rhymes
Each of the four Mat Man books features the beloved character, Mat Man. Rhyming verses in all the books help children discriminate and learn about rhymes.

Mat Man helps students learn about shapes, professions, rhymes, while expanding their imaginations, exploration, and community awareness.

Click here to see more sample pages from the Mat Man Book Series.
Activity 3: Discriminate between environmental sounds and speech sounds
Children learn important social, math, literacy & language concepts as they move and sing to upbeat songs on the Sing, Sound, and Count with Me Music Album

For example, the song "Syllable Sound Off" helps to develop children's understanding of syllables as they listen for and move to identify 2, 3 and 4 syllable words... all in one song!

Rhymes are taught in a fun playful way in the song "Rhyming Riddles". In fact, most songs on the music album include verses with rhyming words!
Activity 4: Identify Sounds and their sources
The Sound Around Box is a versatile classroom tool that will help you teach early language and literacy concepts in a fun and hands-on way. It provides the opportunity for many group activities which will help children develop important social skills as they engage in multisensory play with rhymes, syllables, beginning sounds, alphabet knowledge, letters, word parts, and test their memory skills!
Activity 5: Develop early language, literacy, motor, and social skills
Line It Up engages children in fun interactive activities that develop early language, literacy, motor, and social skills. The set includes a mountable magnetic display bar to hold the Story, Letter, and Coloring Cards.

The 26 Coloring Cards each have simple picture. The picture can be colored, but also used to facilitate a "Syllable Chant" activity. For example, on the "A" card: al-li-ga-tor.

The 26 Picture Cards can be used for phonemic awareness activities as children name each picture and identify those that begin with the target sound. For example:

Show picture side of Letter Card A. Name each picture.

Alligator begins with /ă/. Say it with me, /ă/, alligator.

Does violin begin with /ă/? No, violin begins with /v/.

Does astronaut begin with /ă/? Yes, /ă/, astronaut.

Continue with banana and apple.

Let children circle beginning /ă/ pictures.

All of the Get Set for School products support a variety of learning opportunities for your developing children. The products and activities highlighted shown here are just a snapshot of the many skills these products can facilitate.

To learn more about these and other Get Set for School activities and products, visit our website.

A-Z for Mat Man and Me

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
5 Phonological & Phonemic Awareness Activities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
"Phonological awareness," "phonemic awareness," and "phonics," are literacy terms we often hear used simultaneously, and maybe even interchangeably! However, as we work with children, helping them to develop a strong foundation of literacy and language skills, we must realize the important distinction between these terms.

# data[].attributes.body
Three word picture cards—like rake, cake, and king—are placed in a wagon. The child determines which word doesn’t rhyme and tells it to “get out of the wagon.”

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Did you know that rhyming is one of the best predictors of how easily a child will learn to read? That's because good rhymers are better equipped to notice that rhyming words often have shared letter sequences, such as all in , and which in turn gives them a considerable head start in learning to read.

What Is Rhyming?

That may seem like a silly question, but it can be difficult to explain the concept of rhyming to a child who just doesn't "get it." Here's a simple definition. When two words sound the same at the end, like duck and truck, they rhyme.

Most children enjoy hearing and participating in rhyming activities, and when they are exposed to rhyming, they usually pick it up naturally. But if your child isn't good at rhyming yet, don't worry! There are many things you can do to help.

Does Your Child Know How to Rhyme?

Use this simple test to find out whether your child knows how to rhyme. If your child needs help in this critical area, read on to discover how to teach your child to recognize and produce rhyme.

Three Stages of Rhyming Ability

It's helpful to know that children don't just start off rhyming. In fact, they generally go through three stages. In the order of easiest to hardest, those stages are:

Hearing and recognizing rhyme are important skills your child must master before he can produce rhyme, so be sure to focus on these skills first. Modeling can be a great way to help your child hear rhyme.

Here's an example of modeling: "Duck and truck rhyme! They both end with uck! Say it with me: uck-uck, duck, truck!"

But hearing rhyme is just the beginning. The activities below were designed to help you teach your child all three stages of rhyming!

5 Simple Ways to Teach Rhyming

Read rhyming picture books together.

There are hundreds of great rhyming books, and this Rhyming Picture Books Library List is a good place to start. As you read, occasionally point out words that rhyme. ("Oh, and rhyme! They sound the same at the end. .")

Play "Get Out of the Wagon" with your child.

"Get Out of the Wagon" is a popular Stage 2 rhyming game. In this downloadable activity, three word cards-like , and -are placed in a wagon. The child determines which word doesn't rhyme and tells it to "get out of the wagon."

Share nursery rhymes with your child.

Nursery rhymes are conducive to reciting again and again. After your child knows the nursery rhymes, let him fill in the rhyming words to work on Stage 2. On this downloadable library list, you'll find some wonderful nursery rhyme collections to enjoy together.

Play "What's in My Bag?" with your child.

Once your child can successfully recognize rhymes, this activity will help him learn to produce rhymes (a Stage 3 skill). Just fill a bag with several common household items ( here are some ideas) and you're ready to play "What's in My Bag?"

Play "Dinner Time" with the whole family.

For more advanced Stage 3 rhyming, download this fun "Dinner Time" game. But make sure to play "Dinner Time" with the whole family. It's guaranteed to provide lots of giggles for kids and parents alike!

The Bottom Line on Teaching Rhyming to Your Child

It may not happen overnight, but with repeated exposure, your child will learn to rhyme. Most importantly, keep your rhyming practice fun and light-it shouldn't feel like a "lesson" to a young child.

Is there a rhyming activity that your child enjoys? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.

_________________________
Photo credit: Rachel Neumann

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Programs that teach thoroughly, so your child can succeed amazingly

# data[].attributes.body
8 phonemic awareness games that promote cooperation and mastery.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Last updated on August 18, 2020

I am a huge fan of games (as in Game Night is a favorite in our home ??) and love to use them to teach whenever I can. These hands-on phonemic awareness games are perfect for practice at home and in the classroom.

Games are not only engaging for kids, (and adults ?), but they provide a ton of opportunities for practice and repetition of skills. The games on this list promote phonological and phonemic awareness. They also give kids the chance to practice social emotional skills as they cooperate with one another to play. 👏

Before giving them the opportunity to play these phonemic awareness games with one another, I always play with them first. Often times this is around my guided reading table, but it can also be whole group depending on the game.

Phonemic Awareness Games that Encourage Cooperation and Mastery

Once my kids know how to play correctly (and cooperatively 🥳) I love to add these games into learning centers. They earn me cool teacher points and give my students the chance to practice, practice, practice in a really meaningful way.

When these games aren't in a center, they are available on a shelf for free moments in our day. I encourage students to pull them out in these moments to get some extra practice.
This post contains affiliate links. By purchasing through this link, we get a small commission that helps support the blog (at no cost to you). Rest assured - we only share links to products that we know and love!
When we give kids the choice of educational games, they will be benefitting no matter which game they choose!
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!

Phonological Awareness VS Phonemic Awareness

Before we get started, do you know the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness?

I used these terms interchangeably for years, but they're actually quite different.

I've explained it all (and even created a little cheat sheet for you) which you can read about here: The Difference Between Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness.

The Skills

In other phonological and phonemic awareness guides (like the best videos and books to cover each skill), I have made recommendations based on each skill. I will not be doing that this time, and for good reason!

Fortunately, these games lend themselves too many different phonological and phonemic awareness skills to practice just one skill during a game!

In this post, I'm sharing my favorite games and the ways we play them to practice all of these important pre-reading skills.

Of course, I am not giving my students all of these activities at once. I am introducing a single activity (in a guided reading group or whole group) for them to do with these materials.

Later in the year, I'll teach them a different way to use them or a different way to answer the questions (i.e. practice the skills).

Now that we have all of the logistics out of the way, here we go! 🤸🏽‍♀️

My FAVORITE Phonemic Awareness Games

These cards are excellent for practicing sound discrimination. The CVC words are displayed in picture form with dots underneath. In their simplest form: students can say the sounds as they point to each dot, identifying beginning, middle and end sounds.

Additionally, the cards can be used for identifying same beginning (or middle or end!) sounds. I have students find a "match" with the same sounds.

There are also cards that are in the same word families. These words rhyme, so students can find the rhyming matches. They can also identify which sound has been changed to create the new word which is practicing phoneme manipulation 🙌

Skills practiced:

sound discrimination

rhyming

phoneme manipulation

This fun game is perfect for practicing beginning sound discrimination. Students make a soup by getting different silly ingredients to add to their bowls.

Both the bowls and the ingredients they are looking for have pictures on them. They match the right ingredient by matching the beginning sound. For example, students match a picture of a van on the bowl and an ingredient with "volcano" on it.

To extend this game further, we practice syllables with these pictures. They don't match in the exact spots but it does work! For example "volcano" and "tomato" both have three syllables, so those would be a match!

Skills practiced:

These sound box boards are a HUGE hit with my students. The cars and boards are magnetic so they can be held up. We match them with the cards above to make an independent game.

One student will flip a card into the middle. Then they add cars to their parking lots and share the sounds they have made. This practices sound discrimination, segmenting and blending. We also use these cards to practice syllables in the same way.

Skills practiced:

These rhyming dominoes are a favorite of mine because they really make my students think. They have to find a rhyme (like cat/hat) to match the dominoes together.

We also use these dominoes to practice sound discrimination by matching the beginning, middle, or ending sounds as well.

Students can take turns picking dominoes to find matches, separate them into groups and put them down one at a time, or work together to find matches for all of them. Each way of playing works well!

Skills practiced:

In this game, students are looking for rhyming matches on their cards and in the house. We mainly use this one for rhyming but it can be used again to practice other skills.

Students can match picture cards to things they see in the house based on the sounds they hear in words. They can also do this with syllables.

Skills practiced:

We can't get enough of Spot It and the many, many ways to play it! If you have never seen this one before, I can't recommend it enough.

There are circular cards in a tin. Each card has pictures on it and is completely unique. Every card has only ONE picture in common with each other card. I honestly can't fathom how this works. It is pure magic ?

Anyway, we use these cards to practice ALL of the phonemic awareness skills! Yes, they are that diverse. 👏

When you find a match, you have to say it, then answer a question based on the skill. For example, say I find the ladybug match:

Sound discrimination: ladybug starts with /l/, like leaf! (You can also do ending sounds!)

Rhyming: ladybug rhymes with coffee mug (this one can be really tricky so we do LOTS of practicing before putting it out with rhyming)

Syllables: ladybug has three syllables - clap it out la-dy-bug

Segmenting: ladybug, /l/ /a/ /d/ /y/ /b/ /u/ /g/

Phoneme deletion: ladybug without the /l/ is "adybug"

Phoneme manipulation: ladybug with a /k/ is "kadybug"

We play this game in so many different ways because it is SO fun. It is typically a game of speed ( Who can find the matches the quickest?), but this really helps slow it down.

Skills practiced: all of them! 🥳

Just like Spot it!, we use these beanbags for all of the skills 🤯

These fun beanbags add the element of a more physical game play. We may toss them into bowls or rings based on the number of syllables or sounds.

Skills practiced: all of them! 🥳

This game is super fun because it slides forward to reveal the little chips with pictures on them. We use them for many of the skills, just like Spot It! and the Phonics Beanbags.

Students are matching the pictures to the pictures in the most basic form of this game. However, it is possible to use them for other phonemic awareness skills as well!

We match pictures that have the same sounds and the same number of sounds. We also play it in the same way we do with Spot It! where they come up with new words based on the skill we are practicing before they can place their match on their board.

Skills practiced: allll of them 🥳

These phonological and phonemic awareness games are such a great opportunity for our new readers to practice these skills independently. All of the repetition really helps them "get it" even when I can't quiz them one-on-one all day. 🤗

How do you like to practice phonological and phonemic awareness with your new readers? Do you have any favorite games to play? I would love to chat about it below! 👇

If you're looking for looking to add more phonemic awareness practice into your day, check out these FREE Phonemic Awareness Worksheets!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Phonemic Awareness Games that Encourage Cooperation and Mastery

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
These 8 engaging games are perfect for practicing phonemic awareness skils with new readers. They get so much repetition and practice while having fun!

# data[].attributes.body
You say two words and kids have to determine if the initial sound is the same. If it is, then it's a thumbs up. If the initial sounds are not the same, then thumbs down.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

# data[].attributes.body
Read each rhyme to the child.  The child gets to erase the part of the person that completes each rhyme.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
We are kicking into full gear with our early childhood themes that the Early Childhood Education Team will feature this year! This week is All About Me. I'm sharing a playful phonological awareness activity to build rhyming skills.

Just a reminder that phonological awareness activities are oral activities. They are meant to strengthen hearing and speaking of language and phonemes.

Rhyming Activity

Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Why We Chose This Activity

My boys love, love, love to rhyme. The book that really sparked their interest in rhyming was the Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas. It's one of our all time favorite books. We play rhyming games all the time. The following activity came from combining their love of rhyming and drawing.
Materials Needed: dry erase markers, dry erase board or plastic pocket, sponge or cloth
Setting Up

1. We picked up plastic sleeve pockets from the dollar bins at Target. We just slid a blank piece of white paper inside to make our "dry erase board". You can also use a traditional dry erase board or window too.

2. Draw a person on the board.

3. Have a little sponge or cloth ready to be the eraser.

Time to Play
Why is there a bear in a chair sitting in my ________? (hair) I think that bug just might land right in my ________. (hand) Did someone put ants in my _________? (pants) Oh dear oh dear, there is a bee near my ______. (ear) Bye, bye little flies, it's time for me to close my _____. (eyes) Sound the alarm, there is a monkey on my _____. (arm) Get the hose and clean out my _____. (nose) Did you hear the news? I have two brand new _____ .(shoes) Please brush this sand off my ____. (hand) I can't hear you. I think I have something stuck in my ____. (ear) Pigs live on a farm and a duck just landed on my ____. (arm) A breeze just blew in from the south blowing some dust right into my ______(mouth)
Read each rhyme to the child. The child gets to erase the part of the person that completes each rhyme. You can download the free rhyme sheet to use.

You may need to repeat the rhyme more than one time and emphasize the word that your child needs to rhyme.
Related Posts Rhyming Ring Toss Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus Rhyming Activity Have You Heard? More Phonological Awareness Activities
Enjoy rhyming with your child and building phonological skills!

Keep reading. Visit the links below for more great all about me ideas from the #teachECE team!

Spell Your Name Sensory Bin via Mom Inspired Life

All About Me Early Writing Activity via The Educators' Spin On It

All About Me Booklet via Tiny Tots Adventures

Learning Names in Preschool with ALL 5 Senses! via The Preschool Toolbox

Scratch and Sniff Names via Fun-A-Day

Fun Kindergarten Math Activities Using Their Names via Capri + 3

All About Me Math Race via Still Playing School

DIY My Name Puzzle Printable Template via Learning 2 Walk

Name Recognition Snack via Munchkins and Moms

Build my name via Rainy Day Mum

All About Me DIY Puzzles for Preschoolers via Life Over C's

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
We are kicking into full gear with our early childhood themes that the Early Childhood Education Team will feature this year! This week is All About Me. I'm sharing a playful phonological awareness activity to build rhyming skills. Just a reminder that phonological awareness activities are oral activities.

# data[].attributes.body
Fun and interactive app that offers a variety of early literacy skill games.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ABCmouse is amazing!

My children are excited to learn and they don't want to stop. I'm so glad that I made the decision to invest in my children's education by signing up with ABCmouse.com. Thank you! I'm a happy mother!"

-Mother of 3- and 5-year-old girls

See More Testimonials

Award-Winning Curriculum!

Then renews at $9.95/mo. until canceled.

Click Here to Learn More!

Available on
10 Levels. Over 850 Lessons. More than 10,000Individual Learning Activities.

"Love the progressive activities! I don't have to take the time to search for activities for my 3-year-old, and my 5-year-old just follows along when she's playing by herself... So I know everyone's doing the right things for their ages!"-Crystal, mother of 3- and 5-year-old girls
computers, tablets, and smartphones!

The Reading Curriculum Includes:

Uppercase and lowercase letter recognition

Phonics

Rhyming words and word families

More than 450 books and beginning readers

Sentence structure

Parts of speech

ABCmouse.com's reading curriculum spans the entire range of early reading, from learning the names of each letter and the sounds they represent to being able to read books, starting with a few words on a page and gradually advancing to paragraphs.

The curriculum for first grade also includes writing and language skills, such as sentence structure and punctuation, parts of speech, and practice with writing genres.

ABCmouse.com's reading curriculum spans the entire range of early reading, from learning the names of each letter and the sounds they represent to being able to read books, starting with a few words on a page and gradually advancing to paragraphs.

The curriculum for first grade also includes writing and language skills, such as sentence structure and punctuation, parts of speech, and practice with writing genres.

The Math Curriculum Includes:

Recognizing and counting numbers 1-120

The base ten system

Place value

Addition and subtraction

Names and attributes of 2D and 3D shapes

Length, time, and money measurement

The Math Curriculum Includes:

Recognizing and counting numbers 1-120

The base ten system

Place value

Addition and subtraction

Names and attributes of 2D and 3D shapes

Length, time, and money measurement

ABCmouse.com teaches numbers, addition and subtraction, shapes, patterns, measurements, and more! Our games and creative activities make math fun while giving young learners the practice they need to build a strong foundation for success.

The Science and Social Studies Curriculum Includes:

The body and health

Plants and animals

Weather, climate, and the seasons

Earth's environments

Maps

Regions of the United States

The Solar System

Matter and its properties

Science and Social Studies

ABCmouse.com's science and social studies curriculum helps children understand the world they live in and inspires curiosity.

Science and Social Studies

ABCmouse.com's science and social studies curriculum helps children understand the world they live in and inspires curiosity.

The Art & Colors Curriculum Includes:

Primary and secondary colors

Shades of colors

Paint-by-number activities

Number and letter dot-to-dots

The Art & Colors Curriculum Includes:

Primary and secondary colors

Shades of colors

Paint-by-number activities

Number and letter dot-to-dots

ABCmouse.com's unique drawing and painting program gives children of all ages the opportunity to use lines, shapes, and colors to create original works of art. Games, books, paint-by-number activities, and puzzles teach children to name and use a variety of colors.

"My daughter loves this site! She has learned so much more than I thought she could learn at her age. ABC's are her favorite things to do, and since I started her on this website she has learned to read words well above her age level." -Morgyn, mother of a 2-year-old girl

ABCmouse.com's curriculum includes hundreds of highly entertaining animated activities, each teaching a specific learning topic. From Prospector Paul discovering new letter combinations to King Grammar explaining proper nouns to his villagers, these animated videos engage children while they learn.

"My child absolutely loves everything about this site, and I see improvement in her counting and color association already. I think this site is fantastic." -Father of a 3-year-old girl

Then renews at $9.95/mo. until canceled.

Click Here to Learn More!

social start nav start

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
ABCmouse is amazing! My children are excited to learn and they don't want to stop. I'm so glad that I made the decision to invest in my children's education by signing up with ABCmouse.com. Thank you! I'm a happy mother!" -Mother of 3- and 5-year-old girls See More Testimonials Then renews at $9.95/mo.

# data[].attributes.body
By simultaneously driving through and sounding out the letters of a word, students will practice early decoding skills.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Blending and segmenting games and activities can help students to develop phonemic awareness — the ability to hear the individual sounds in spoken words. Begin with segmenting and blending syllables, and then move to working with individual sounds (phonemes). Learning to blend and segment sounds is key to learning to read.

# data[].attributes.body
This site offers unique interactive activities that can be used to teach phoneme segmenting and blending.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Phonemic awareness- the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words and the understanding that spoken words are made up of sequences of speech sounds (Yopp, 1992) The best predictor of reading difficulty in kindergarten or first grade is the inability to segment words and syllabes into constituent sound units (Lyon, 1995)
The research is very clear on the important role phonemic awareness plays in the reading process. Children must understand that language is comprised of spoken words and that those words can be broken down into separate sounds. The child's level of phonemic awareness upon entering school is one of the strongest indicators of how well he/she will learn to read. The exciting part is that, as teachers, by assessing our students' phonemic awareness skills early on, we can identify those who may be at risk for reading difficulties and provide intervention right away. Research also indicates that phonemic awareness skills can be developed through instuction and that by doing so, the child's reading and writing development improves.

Phoneme segmentation is one of the later developing skills on the hierarchy of development. By the six years of age 80%-90% of children can segment single syllabes with 2 or 3 sounds without blends ("cat"- /c/ /a/ /t/) and by 6 1/2 are able to segment 3-4+ phoneme words including blends ("black"- /b/ /l/ /a/ /k/). After you assess your students and identify those who need extra help with this skill, try some of the following activities.

1. Doggie Where's My Bone. Although this activity is not technically a segmenting activity, I like to start with Doggie, Where's My Bone so that the students begin to pay attention to individual sounds in words. With this activity, you will give the students a word and then a sound ("bug" /u/). Their job is to put the bone either on the head, body or tail to indicate the position of the sound. So simple, but the kiddos love it!

Download the Doggie, Where's My Bone activity for FREE from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

2. Breaking Up Words. Another early phonemic awareness segmenting activity I like is the Breaking Up Words activity. This activity has a one-to-one correspondence with the dots on the card and the number of sounds in the word. Be sure to provide a lot of modeling and practice during this part of your intervention program. You can gradually decrease the amount of prompting you provide as the students improve.

The Breaking Up Words activity is also available in my TpT store.

Once the students are successful with the one-to-one correspondence activity and are pretty much independent with this, we can then increase the difficulty of the task by not providing the one-to-one correspondence component. Now the fun begins! You can alternate any one of these activities- so mix it up to keep it interesting.

3. Beads. A few months back I wrote a blog post and included a video on how to make and use the beads during intervention. Click HERE and you'll be directed to that post. Here's the gist- say a word and have your students move a bead for each sound in the word.

4. Push lights. Okay, not my original idea, but it's brilliant. I wish I could have tracked down the person who thought of it. These are battery operated push lights originally intended for night lights. Simply push the button and the light turns on. You'll need at least 4 lights. Have the student push the button (turn on the light) for each sound in a word. These lights can be purchased in most large department stores.

5. Balls. This is another quick and easy mix it up activity. Give each student a ball and have him/her toss the ball up in the air for each sound in the word. I just use the small foam balls that you can purchase at any dollar store.

6. Squaring Up. The Squaring Up activity is a really good activity for teaching segmentation. First place a plastic tile (you can use bingo chips if you wish) under each square and have the student say the word and move the a tile for each sound in the word while saying the sounds.

The Squaring Up activity can be found in my online Teachers Pay Teachers store.

7. How Many Sounds? This activity is another favorite of mine. By writing the correct number of sounds on the back of each card, you can turn this into an independent learning activity for a center. You can use library pockets or labeled cups for this activity.

You can find the How Many Sounds? activity in my TpT store.

8. Race Car Blending. You can teach blending and segmenting together. This activity is an all-time favorite with the boys. Students use their cars and drive over the letters slowly while saying the sounds. They eventually speed up so that the word is blended at a normal speed. Just remember that the goal is to teach blending and not so much the letters/sounds. So, you'll likely have to provide the sounds before beginning the activity.

The Race Car Blending activity is available in my TpT store.

Sometimes I just can't come up with 2-, 3- and 4- phoneme words off the top of my head. I created this cheat sheet to help.

Click the following link to download the FREE pdf Phoneme Segmentation Words

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
8 Great Ideas for Teaching Segmenting and Blending - Make Take & Teach

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Phonemic awareness- the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words and the understanding that spoken words are made up of sequences of speech sounds (Yopp, 1992) The best predictor of reading difficulty in kindergarten or first grade is the inability to segment words and syllabes into constituent sound units (Lyon, 1995) [...]

# data[].attributes.body
Students blend sounds in CVC words as word machine deletes final sounds to create new words.

# data[].attributes.body
Ask them to talk like a robot, which means that they pause between syllables or sounds.  Example would be “Say butterfly like a robot.” Their response should be “but/ter/fly,” or an example like “map” and then say it like a robot “/m/ /a/ /p/."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic