A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
The alphabet was a showcase moment when we were younger and
able to sing it for the first time. Everyone would gather around and listen as
you stumbled your way through to the end. You look up and smile as you have
completed the task at hand… this is your introduction to the alphabet system
and phonological awareness. What is phonological awareness?
Phonological
awareness is a broad skill that includes identifying and manipulating units
of oral language – parts such as words, syllables, and onsets and rhymes. ...
Phonemic awareness refers to the specific ability to focus on and manipulate
individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
Phonological awareness is a mouthful and the definition is
broad. We’ll break that down and look at what this means for us as educators
and our students. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and work
with the sounds in a spoken language. It is the foundation for learning to read
and some students may have a natural ability while others will need to be
taught. As an educator our students will have a variety of ability levels in phonological
awareness when they enter our classroom, depending on the early childhood
education they received. We can help our students develop phonological
awareness by allowing them to play with sounds, being aware of red flags for
struggling students, and understanding that students develop skills at different
rates.
We have provided additional resources on the subject. Along
with a few of our favorite activities for working with students on
strengthening their phonological awareness.
Resources:
•Why
Phonological Awareness Is Important for Reading & Spelling • Phonological
Awareness: What It Is & How It Works • Phonological
Awareness & Phonemic Awareness• What is
Phonological Awareness?•
Technology
iPad Apps:
• Partners
in Rhyme - Rhyming for Phonemic Awareness • Sound
Literacy• Letter Find• LetterSchool
- Block Letters • Letter
Sounds 1: Phonics Graphemes for Beginners• Word
Builder • Word
Wizard•
PodCasts:
• Phonemic
Awareness Curriculum - Ellie Costa • Kindergarten
Kiosk - 61 - Phonological Awareness• The
Exceptional Educator - Ep. 5• Phonemic
Awareness • SLP's
& Q's - Episode 11 - Phonological Awareness•
Activity #1 – Are
the sounds the same? iPad Sounds Game
- Make different sounds and ask the students if the sounds are the same using xylophones (the same and different notes) and plastic Easter eggs with different objects inside.
- You make two sounds (either the same or different) and the students have to determine whether they were the same or different.
- Kids hold up happy faces for “yes, they are the same!” and sad faces for “no, they are not the same!”
- Extension: once the children understand the concept of the game you can move on to letter sounds.
- Extension: Make a sequence of sounds. Play the sequence for the kids, then play again and omit one sound. The children then guess which sound was omitted.
Activity #2 – Nonsense Phonemic Activities for the Preschool or Elementary Classroom
- Take a familiar story and mix up the words.
- Examples from the website:
Song a sing of sixpence
|
Reverse words
|
Baa baa purple
sheep
|
Substitute words
|
Twinkle, twinkle
little car
|
Substitute words
|
Humpty Dumpty
wall on a sat
|
Swap word order
|
Jack fell down
and crown his broke
|
Swap word order
|
One, two shuckle
my boo
|
Swap word parts
|
I'm a tittle
leapot
|
Swap word parts
|
The eensy weensy
spider went up the spouter wat.
|
Swap word parts
|
One, two, buckle
my shoe
Five, six, pick
up sticks
|
Switch order of events
|
Little Miss
Muffet, eating a tuffet
Sat on her curds
and whey
|
Switch order of events
|
Goldilocks went
inside and knocked on the door.
|
Switch order of events
|
The first little
piggy built himself a house of bricks.
|
Switch order of events
|
Activity #3 – Rhyming Match Game Rhyming Match Games
- Each child receives a rhyming mat.
- Corresponding cards are cut out and put into a bowl.
- Children pull a card out of the bowl and find which picture it rhymes with.
- Answer key can be used as an assessment sheet. When a child gets it a rhyming pair right, you write the child’s name in that square.
- Extension: What doesn’t belong rhyming? Sheets of 4 photos, 3 of which rhyme. Children find the image that doesn’t rhyme
Activity #4 – Rhyming
Bingo Rhyming BINGO
- Each student will receive a mat for Bingo
- Each student will have a Ziploc type bag with the words in
Activity #5 – Roll a Rhyme Roll a Rhyme - Rhyming
Activity
- Roll
and Match Picture to Picture {for beginning rhymers}
- Roll
and Match Picture to Word {for beginning readers}
- Roll
and Match Word to Word {for more advanced readers}
Activity #6 – Listening for Rhymes Listening
for Rhymes
- Each
student will receive clothes pins
- Each
student will receive a bag with the cards in them
- They
will put the clothes pin over the word that doesn’t rhyme with the larger
picture
