Phonemic Awareness
Welcome to Module 2 Grades K/1
As a reminder, phonemic awareness is a child's ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words.
• Review the resources below.
• Choose 1 activity to complete with your child in phonemic awareness and 1 activity in phonics.
• Fill out the parent survey to share what you did and its impact.
This article shares 9 ways parents can support a child's skill development in this area.
Rhyming
Rhyming is an important phonological awareness skill that is developed in Pre-K through first grade. Playing rhyming games with your child at home can help your child develop this important skill. The activities and resources below will provide you with some ideas to help your child with rhyming.
- This list of books that rhyme can be read with your child. Encourage your child to read along and ask questions about the rhyming words.
- ‘Why not’ games: Help the child recognize the distinguishing differences. Give the student two words and ask why they don’t rhyme. For example, give the student ‘bat’ and ‘bit’ and have child say words into the phone and then tell you why they don’t rhyme. By asking them to figure it out they learn to distinguish the difference. This fun music video also gives children practice in using this skill.
Phoneme Segmentation and Blending
The ability to separate the sounds of a word is called “phoneme segmentation”. It’s a critical skill in both learning to read and write. By six and a half/seven years of age students should be able to tell you the sounds in a word. So, for example, if given the word “cat”, the student should be able to tell you that the sounds in “cat” are /k/ /a/ /t/. Understanding that words are made up of separate speech sounds is an important foundational skill. Phoneme segmentation is considered a “phonemic awareness” skill which falls under the broader category of “phonological” skills. This link will lead you to a simple phoneme segmentation activity you can do with your child.
Elkonin Sound Boxes are a research proven way to support a child's development in both phoneme segmentation and phoneme Blending. Read more about this here and watch the activity in action below.
Developmental Sequence of Phonological Skills
The image below shows how kids typically develop their phonological skills, based on where your child is at developmentally, you can practice asking your children some of the types of questions in the example column on the skill sequence chart below. One great time to do this is when you are riding in the car with your child or taking a walk. You can even use the things you see around you to guide what you ask. For example, while on a walk, you could say: "Look at this pretty flower! How many syllables are in the word flower? Let's clap the word."
Sound Pronunciation
Being intentional about how you pronounce sounds with your child is important. Have you ever heard of the terms "stop sound" or "continuous" sound"? This blog describes the difference between the two and why it is important to pay attention to this when children learn to read. The video below is also useful. Watch as this teacher models how to correctly pronounce consonant sounds.
Web-Based Games
There are several web-based games that can help your child practice phonics and phonological awareness skills. These resources are linked below:
- https://pbskids.org/superwhy/#/games
- https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/
- Though not a app, this article shares even more phonological awareness activities.
Phonics
Decoding
It is important to help children make connections between the letters and their sounds. In this video from understood.org, a reading expert explains how you can help your child develop these skills during everyday activities. And this video shares some effective apps that can help your child develop these skills.
This video from GreatSchools.org shows a 1st grader decoding (reading/sounding out) words in a book.
These activities suggested on greatschools.org are fun games you can play to develop decoding skills:
- Name that Fruit: Here’s a game that will teach your child letter sounds, a key pre-reading skill. Next time you’re at the grocery store, point to a banana and a melon and ask your child which one starts with the “b” sound. Next, have your child pick out different fruits or vegetables, and identify what letter each starts with.Play this game in your kitchen, in the car, or wherever you have a spare moment with your child. When your child is cleaning her room, encourage her to group objects that start with the same letter (sox and shirts, for example). Or when you’re trying a new recipe, ask your child to identify the beginning letter of each ingredient as you add it.
- Cool Letters: While you’re making dinner, have your child play with magnetic letters on the fridge. First, challenge him to arrange them in alphabetical order. Next, ask him to close his eyes, pick out a letter and come up with a word that starts with that letter. If your child has mastered this step, encourage him to spell out simple words starting with the letter he picks. Create words and see if he can change one letter and make a new word. If he spells cookie, can he have one for dessert?
Word Play
This video from GreatSchools.org shows a fun game to help your child master sight words (words that occur frequently in books that may not be easily decodable).
If you are crafty, this video shows you how you can make a phonics manipulative that will help your child learn to spell and decode cvc words.
Using Music
Singing and music is a great way to support your child's learning. Jack Harman (subscribe to his YouTube channel) has a fun series of videos that teach a variety of literacy skills related to phonics and phonological awareness, like this great video on letter names and sounds, that engages children both cognitively and physically as they sign the letters.
Multisensory Techniques
Multisensory instruction is a way of teaching that engages more than one sense at a time. Using sight, hearing, movement, and touch gives kids more than one way to connect with what they are learning. Read this blog to find several ideas for making learning to read a multisensory experience for your child.