There are essential phonological awareness skills that are needed to learn to read and doing easy activities helps develop these skills. In other words, phonological awareness skills are the basis that phonics and sight words are built upon when reading.
Phonological awareness skills and the following easy activities are easy to do because they require no prep. Grab your FREE guide here! Remember phono-has to do with hearing, so phonological happens all through the ears. Once you add letters, it becomes phonics.
Essential phonological awareness activities are done through speaking and hearing. Therefore, beginning readers can do the easy activities without worrying about reading words.
Basically, use letters that the students know but never focus on the print. As a result, students will feel successful.
Here are all the skills from easiest to hardest!
Phonological Awareness Skills and Fun Activities
Rote imitation and enjoyment of rhyme and alliteration
Each person says a rhyming word: bat, hat, cat, zat (nonsense words count)
Practice saying tongue twisters 5 times fast:
“She sells sea shells by the sea shore.”
Rhyme recognition or try this game odd word out
Ask, “Which two words rhyme:
big, pot, fig?”
Recognition of phonemic (sound) changes in words
Call students by different names~Madison…Wadison
Sing and play “Willaby, Walloby, Woo” as you pass an elephant around the circle
Make a class chart of students’ names:
Jade (1 syllable)
Mason (2 syllables)
Distinguishing and remembering separate phonemes in a series
Show sequences of single phonemes with colored counters
Blending onset and rime
Separate onset and rime:
c-at, p-ig, d-og
Using words in a group is easier at the beginning…then randomize
d-og, d-esk, h-op
Say “I’ll say words three word that rhyme, you tell me one more…cat, fat, sat, _______”
More Difficult Skills for Readers
Matching initial sounds; isolating an initial sound
When lining up use this sentence “Say the first sound in Nicholas (/n/)”
Ask “What is baseball without base” (ball)
Syllable deletion
“What is Mason without son.” (Ma)
Most Difficult Skills
Stretch phonemes and have kiddos tell the entire word:
/p/ /i/ (pie)
/j/ /ā/ (Jade)
/b/ /a/ /g/ (bag)
Simple syllables phoneme segmentation of words with two or three phonemes (no blends)
Say the word as you move a chip for each sound in a sound box.
g-o
sh-y
b-a-g
Phoneme segmentation of words that have up to three or four phonemes (include blends)
Tell a words then slowly move a chip for each sound on a sound box .
b-a-ck
ch-ur-ch
c-l-a-p
Substitution of phonemes to build new words that have simple syllables (no blends)
Tell kiddos “Change the /b/ in bag to /l/. Kiddos say (lag)
or make it harder:
Change the /ā/ in cane to /ō/.”
Sound deletion start with initial sounds then move to final positions
“Say meat. Now say it again, without the /m/.”
Then ask “Say safe. Now say it again, without the /f/.”
Deletion of sounds that are in initial position which include blends
“Say prank. Say it again, without the /p/.”
Essential Skills Practice
Most importantly, working with these essential phonological awareness skills and easy activities can happen easily especially when reading titles of books, during wait times, and during transitions. Therefore; Grab this list to help you remember!
However, if students are struggling, always remember:
- Do 1 activity at a time!
- Work in small groups!
- Sub student names from your class!
Teach Magically,
Debora
Thank you for sharing this article! This is really helpful because learning phonetics and tongue twisters might be a real challenge for some students.
It is difficult but so important!