Activities that build phonological/phonemic awareness in young children:
1) Playing with Rhyming and Poetry
1. Read picture books that tell stories using rhymes and poetry.
2. Make up silly rhymes and poems.
3. Use picture cards to teach rhyming words.
4. Play rhyming games. "I am thinking of a word that rhymes with dog. The word is log, dog/log.
5. Say two words and have the child give thumbs up if they rhyme or thumbs down if they do not.
6. Read nursery rhymes.
7. Sing songs that have rhyming words in them.
2) Play Games with Both the Units (onset-rime, syllables) and Individual (phonemes) Sounds in Words
1. Say a word using its initial (onset) sound and then its final sound chunk (rime), and have child put the word back together. Ex. Q: Where is the /d/ /og/? A: The dog is in the bed.
2. Use onset-rime brain breaks. Say an action word using its onset-rime. The child will say the word and perform the action. Ex. action word /j/ /ump/. Child will put the word together and say jump followed by the action (child will jump).
3. Clap out syllables in words and names. Start with words that have one syllable then move to two syllable words and names. Break words apart by syllables and have the child put them back together. Say /ti / /ger/ and the child says tiger. Break apart compound words: air plane and have child blend them back together: airplane.
4. Pick an initial sound and create alliterations using that sound: Ex. Millie Makes Mustard Muffins.
5. Use magnetic letters to make simple words: cat, dog, it etc. Talk about the position of each letter in the word and what sound it represents.
3) Play Games
1. Play a game of initial sound I Spy. Choose different categories of words, like food. Ex. I Spy something in the kitchen that begins with the /p/ sound. Answer: pot? Yes, pot begins with the /p/ sound.
2. Say a word breaking it up by its individual sounds, and then have the child put the word back together Ex. /c/ /a/ /t/.The child should repeat the sounds /c/ /a/ /t/ is cat.
3. During walks or mealtime, pick a word and say it. Talk about or ask the child to identify the initial (first) sound they hear. Ex. The word is tape. What sound do you hear first in the word tape? The first sound in the word tape is /t/. Continue playing this game with simple words.
4) Counting Words
Count words in sentences. When reading a book, choose a sentence or two and count the words in those sentences.
5) Count Sounds in Words
1. Practice counting the individual sounds you hear in words. Say the word: cat, Break the word into its individual sounds: /c/ /a/ /t/, Count the sounds: 1. /c/ 2. /a/ 3. /t/
For more information on phonological and phonemic awareness, check out this video here.
Also download my Early Literacy Handbook here.
Try out a set of these onset-rime brain break cards included free in my Literacy Kit Set 1 here
