Pillar One: Phonological Awareness

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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

•Rhyming Match Game - Set 1 • Rhyming Match Game - Set 2 • Rhyming Match Game - Set 3•

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

*to receive BINGO cards must subscribe to Growing Book by Book – subscription is free

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}

•Roll-a-Rhyme Packet•

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

•Listening for Rhymes - Clip Cards•