Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and distinguish sounds. This includes: Recognizing sounds, alone and in words; adding sounds to words; taking words apart and breaking them into their different sounds; moving sounds.

K-1 Activities

• Play "I Spy" with your child, but instead of giving a color say, "I spy something that starts with /b/," or "I spy something with these wounds, /d/ /o/ /g/." Have your child do the same.

• Play a game in which you say a word and your child has to break apart all the sounds. Ask your child to stretch out a word like 'dog' and he/she can pretend to stretch a word with a rubber band. Your child should say /d/ /o/ /g/.

• Say a sentence aloud and ask your child to determine how many words were in the sentence.

• Explain that rhymes are words that sound the same at the end. Read books over and over again containing rhymes. As you read, have your child complete the rhyming word at the end of each line. 

• Orally provide pairs of words that rhyme and pairs that do not rhyme (Ex. pan/man; pat/boy). Ask, "Do 'pan and 'man' rhyme? Why? Do 'pat' and 'boy' rhyme? Why not?"

• Prompt your child to produce rhymes. Ask, "Can you tell me a word that rhymes with 'cake'?"

• Sing rhyming songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."

• To help your child segment (separate) sounds in words: 1) Give your child 3-5 blocks, beads, bingo chips, or similar items. Say a word and have your child move an object for each sound in the word; 2) Play "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" with sounds. Say a word and have your child touch his/her head for the first sound, shoulders for the second sound, and knees for the third while saying each sound; 3) Jump for sounds! Say a word and have your child jump for each sound in the word while saying the sound.

Grades 2-3 Activities

• Demonstrate clapping a word into its syllables. Ask your child to clap words into syllables.

• Make tally marks for the number of syllables in the names of people in your family, favorite foods, etc.

• Give your child a small car (such as a Matchbox car). Write a 5+ letter word on a piece of paper with the letters spaced apart. Have your child drive the car over each letter saying the letter sound. Have your child begin driving the car slowly over the letters and then drive over them again slightly faster. Continue until the word is said at a good rate. 

• To help your child segment (separate) sounds in words: 1) Give your child 4-7 blocks, beads, bingo chips, or similar items. Say a word and have your child move an object for each sound in the word; 2) Play "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" with sounds. Say a word and have your child touch his/her head for the first sound, shoulders for the second sound, and knees for the third while saying each sound; 3) Jump for sounds! Say a word and have your child jump for each sound in the word while saying the sound.