PHONOLOGICAL/PHONEMIC AWARENESS

Transcription

1 Phonemic Awareness Preface 33 PHONOLOGICAL/PHONEMIC AWARENESS Phonological/Phonemic Awareness An initial prerequisite to reading is the realization that spoken words have parts. Students must appreciate that the words they hear break apart in smaller pieces of sound. When students can distinguish those individual sounds in a word, they have developed what is referred to as phonemic awareness. Phonemes are representative of the smallest units of sound or speech that correspond to letters of an alphabetic writing system. For example, an individual consonant (/b/), digraph (ch) or vowel sound. A primary step in learning to read is the ability to be aware of individual phonemes to orally hear them, to individually identify them, and to manipulate their individual sounds in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is that ability to notice or be aware of sounds in a spoken word and to orally hear, identify, and manipulate those sounds. Phonemic awareness has a strong relationship to reading. Sally Shaywitz in her book, Overcoming Dyslexia, states that it is phonemic awareness and not intelligence that best predicts ease of learning to read, and the ability to read words accurately and quickly. (Shaywitz, S., M.D., 2003, Overcoming Dyslexia, Alfred A. Knof, New York New York.) Phonemic awareness falls under the umbrella of phonological awareness, which includes all levels of awareness of the sound structure; syllables, rhyming, distringuishing words within a sentence, etc. Phonological awareness differs distinctly from phonics. Phonological awareness involves auditory and oral manipulation of sounds, while phonics is the association of letters and sounds and the different letter/sound combinations used to decode words although they are intimately intertwined. Once students become aware of the segmental nature of spoken language, they have the basic elements - the particles of spoken language, phonemes, and their sounds. From that springboard they can then attach the appropriate written letters called graphemes. Once letters are linked to a sound they are no longer meaningless marks on paper, but are transformed into words! Research shows that an alarming number of students lack the ability to hear individual phonemes. As many as one in five students have a disorder in the language system known as dyslexia. Resulting from a disruption in embryonic brain development, dyslexia specifically affects the phonologic module where the sounds of Notes Systematic phonics teaches in an organized method how letters (graphemes) relate to sound (phonemes), how different patterns of letters represent different sounds, and the rules that allow students to use this knowledge to decipher and read words never before encountered. No other method of teaching reading can make this claim! Phonological awareness is a broader term that includes all levels of awareness of the sound structure of words, syllables, onsets, and rhymes. Dyslexia is a condition in which a person of normal intelligence experiences the inability to identify phonemes and the structure of sounds in words.

2 34 PA: Preface language are combined to form words and to break words down into their basic sounds. Research shows that dyslexic students who receive intervention in explicit, systematic phonics between preschool and third grade can actually be re-wired, or re-taught, to recognize sounds, thus allowing struggling students to become skilled readers!

3 Words in Sentences 35 PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS: Words in Sentences Lesson Objective: Teach students to identify how many words are in a sentence. Notes STEP #1: TEACHER INSTRUCTION Teach: Identifying number of words in a sentence Just as a chef must know the ingredients to a recipe, emerging readers must develop a strong awareness of words in spoken language. This exercise will help students identify words in a sentence. A sentence is a group of words put together to create meaning. Let me give you an example: I have an apple. That is a sentence. There are four words in that sentence. Tap the words as I say them: I have an apple. Good job! Here is another sentence: My name is Mr./Mrs./Ms. How many words are in that sentence? Students respond, Five words. Very good. Let s practice a few more sentences and then we ll play a game. Today is Friday. (3) I like to eat cookies. (5) The pond was full of frogs. (6)

4 36 Words in Sentences STEP #2: LISTENING AND DICTATION, STUDENT PARTICIPATION You ve done such a good job of counting the words in the sentences that I dictated, let s have you say a sentence and the rest of the class guess how many words are in your sentence. Activity: Gently throw a foam ball to a student, who then says a sentence. When the class has determined the number of words in their sentence, allow the student to pass the ball to another classmate. Do this activity 3-4 times. Reinforcement Activity: Play the game How Much Is That Sentence?, found in Sound Essentials, p. 107 (Kindergarten), p. 253 (First Grade and Above). How Much Is That Sentence?: Object: Identify individual words. To play: Some students may have trouble distinguishing individual words. They will often identify a phrase as one word, or each syllable as a separate word. Practice in identifying individual words makes them more aware of words as they read and write, and helps them know when to use a space when writing. The teacher slowly says a simple sentence of three to six words, and then asks the class/group to determine the number of words that were in the sentence. Example: Teacher: Listen to my sentence and count the number of words you hear. I want to have a cookie. Student: Five words. Teacher: Close, listen again. (Say it slower). I want to have a cookie. Student: Six words. Teacher: Very good! Here is another sentence. After students understand the game well, let them take turns saying a sentence.

5 Rhyming Words 37 PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS: Rhyming Words Lesson Objective: Help students identify words that rhyme. Notes As students start to identify the beginning and ending sounds of words, they enjoy playing simple language games that involve rhyming (word play). Most students can accurately identify the difference between similar-sounding words even though they may mispronounce those words in their own speech. STEP #1: TEACHER INSTRUCTION We are going to play a fun word game. I am going to say some words and I want to see if someone can tell me something special about the words. Dictate: bat, cat, rat, mat. Providing cards with pictures of words that rhyme is an excellent way to teach this skill. Have students identify pictures where the words sound alike: boat, coat, goat. Did anyone hear anything special about those words? Students give answers. The words sound the same except for the beginning sound. When words sound alike in a pattern, that is called rhyme. Let me give you another example: rock, sock, block. Let s see if someone can think of a rhyme using these words. Wait for a correct student response.

6 38 Rhyming Words Very good! Do you know what a nonsense word is? It s a word that really doesn t mean anything. It s just a word we make up. It s fun to make words that rhyme with nonsense words! Let me show you: fish, dish, wish, nish. Can you tell which word is a nonsense word? Students respond, nish. That s right. Let s do some more rhyming with words. STEP #2: LISTENING AND DICTATION, STUDENT PARTICIPATION Teach: Developing an awareness of rhyme using real and nonsense words I ll say some words and I d like you to help me think of other words that will rhyme. Remember, rhyme means that the words sound alike at the end. Here we go: wet, jet, met,... Allowing students to use nonsense words is acceptable if you identify which words are nonsense. Wait for correct student response. ( bet, let, fet, ret ) Nice job. Let s try another: clock, sock, zock. How about lap, map, slap, bap,.... Continue this activity until you feel students are familiar with the skill. Reinforcement Activity: Play Rhyme Concentration, p. 115 (Kindergarten), p. 261 (First Grade and Above) found under Games and Activities in Sound Essentials.

7 Syllable Identification 39 PHONOLOGIC AWARENESS: Syllable Identification Lesson Objective: Define syllables and recognize how many syllables are in a word. Notes STEP #1: TEACHER INSTRUCTION An essential skill to phonemic awareness is the ability to understand how many syllables are in a word. A knowledge of syllables will help students separate words into smaller pieces. Syllables are the largest units of sound that make up a word and they are relatively simple for students to identify and manipulate. Using the names of students in your class is an excellent way to introduce syllables. The following dialogue demonstrates the process. A unit of spoken language is called a syllable. It can consist of a vowel sound alone, ( I, a ) or a vowel sound with one or more consonants before and after the vowel. Every syllable must contain a vowel or vowel sound. CAT We are going to talk about syllables. A syllable is a unit of sound used to makes words. Sometimes words are made of just one syllable and sometimes they have more. For example, the name Tom, is a word with only one syllable. Let s clap that syllable sound together. Students respond, Tom and clap once. Let s do that again. Students respond, Tom and clap once, again. Another example of a one syllable word is cake. Let s all clap the word cake. Students respond, cake and clap once.

8 40 Syllable Identification Can anyone else think of a word or name that would be just one syllable? Allow students responses. Very good. Now, today is Monday. The word Mon-day has two syllables. Let s clap the two syllable sounds in the word Mon-day. Students respond, Mon-day and clap twice. Who has a name with two syllables? How about Mason (choose a name from among your students). Let s clap Mason s name. Students respond, Ma-son and clap twice. How many syllables do you think there are in this word. Birth-day. Let s clap and see. Examples words to use for syllable identification: zoo rock king lake pea-nut cup-cake Ju-ly birth-day doll-house cu-cum-ber De-cem-ber chim-pan-zee A-mer-i-ca Cin-der-el-la e-lec-tri-ci-ty Students respond, birth-day and clap twice. Good work! Can you think of other words that have two syllables in them? Allow student responses. I have an idea, let s say the names of everyone in the classroom and for each syllable in the name we will clap our hands. For example, Bren-da we ll clap two times and for A-li-sha, we ll clap three times. Allow each student to say their name. Have all the students repeat the name while clapping the syllables.

9 Syllable Identification 41 STEP #2: LISTENING AND DICTATION, STUDENT PARTICIPATION Teach: Identification of syllables in words and manipulation of syllables Now let s try putting words together to make new words. If I put the word pan, with the word cake, what will the word say? Students respond, pancake. Do you know what a pancake is? Of course you do. You eat them for breakfast. How many syllables does the word pancake have? Let s clap that word and see. Students respond with two claps. Let s put the words rain and bow together. What is our word? Students respond, rainbow. That s right. Who can tell me what a rainbow is? (Wait for student response.) How many syllables does the word rainbow have? Students respond, two. Two is correct. Let s try a harder word. How about the word butterfly? Let s clap out the word. Bu-ter-fly. (Students respond.) It has three syllables, doesn t it. Let s see if you can do the name of the month September. Students respond, Sep-tem-ber.

10 42 Syllable Identification Great job! Now let s try the word, cowboy. How many syllables are in the word? Students respond, two. That s right, cow-boy. Let s try something just a bit harder. What would the word say if I took off cow? It would say boy and now we only have one syllable. How about the word, dog-house? How many syllables does it have? Students respond, two. Very good. Let s take off the word dog and what does the word say now? Students respond, house. Practice identifying the number of syllables in a word and manipulating the syllables several times before beginning the skill of identifying the number of phonemes in a word. See examples in the notes column. Reinforcement Activity: Play any or all of the following games found in Sound Essentials: Duck, Duck, Goose, p. 103 (Kindergarten), p. 249 (First Grade and Above) Picture It!, p. 114 (Kindergarten), p. 260 (First Grade and Above) Syllable Name Game, p. 118 (Kindergarten), p. 264 (First Grade and Above) Examples for manipulation: ashtray ash-tray ash-tray = tray cupcake cup-cake cup-cake = cake scarecrow scare-crow scare-crow = scare bubblegum bubble-gum bubble-gum = bubble

11 Phoneme Idenficiation 43 PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS: Phoneme Isolation of Initial and Final Sounds Lesson Objective: Identification of initial, and final, phonemes in CVC (consonant, vowel, consonant) words. Notes CVC refers to the sequence consonantvowel-consonant. STEP #1: TEACHER INSTRUCTION Teach: Initial Consonant Position The following activities are aimed at helping students recognize and identify initial sounds in words. Show several pictures of CVC words ( mop, rat, hat ). Identify, isolate, and model the first sound in each word for students. As soon as they seem to understand what it is you want them to do, allow them to participate. STEP #2: LISTENING AND DICTATION, STUDENT PARTICIPATION Here is a picture of a mop. What is the first sound in the word mop? Students respond, /m/. Continue to show students pictures of things that begin with the sound /m/. Say the word, emphasizing the /m/ at the beginning. Ask students to repeat. Put the pictures in a group, ask students to say the name of each picture emphasizing the beginning sound. Check student s understanding of the phoneme awareness concept. This exercise will help students think about how sounds compare to one another. It is very helpful to have a set of cards with pictures of everyday objects. Cut pictures from magazines and paste them to cardstock to create cards, or use clipart from your computer.

12 44 Phoneme Idenficiation Place a group of pictures in front of the students with one or two of the pictures beginning with a different sound. Have students choose the picture or pictures that have the same beginning sound of /m/. This is a picture of a snake. Snake begins with the sound /s/. Can you say /s/ with me? Students respond, /s/. What else can you think of that begins with the sound, /s/? Have several pictures that begin with sound /s/ for students to identify. Have a group of pictures, all beginning with /s/ but one or two. Ask students to choose the pictures that begin with the sound, /s/. Let them identify the one or two that do not begin with the sound /s/. Repeat the process with other consonants using pictures to associate with the sound. Teach: Final Consonant Position Continue helping students identify initial sounds until they seem proficient. Then ask them to identify the final sound of each picture. Demonstrate the following for identification of ending sounds of words. The final sound is the ending sound. Can you tell me the final sound in the word mop? Students respond, /p/.

13 Phoneme Idenficiation 45 This is a picture of a cat. Cat ends with the sound, /t/. Say /t/. Students respond, /t/. This is a picture of a bat. Do the words bat and cat both end with /t/? Students respond, yes. You re right. These pictures end with the sound /t/. I m going to show you some other pictures and you raise your hand if you think they end with the /t/ sound. Again, show several pictures, some ending with the sound /t/ and some not. Have students choose pictures ending with the desired sound. Reinforcement Activities: Play the following game (found under Games and Acitivities in Sound Essentials): 1, 2, 3, p. 87 (Kindergarten), p. 233 (First Grade and Above)

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15 Placement and Manipulation 47 PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS: Phoneme Segmentation and Manipulation Lesson Notes Objective: Identification and manipulation of phonemes in single syllable words. STEP #1: TEACHER INSTRUCTION Now that students have had experience listening for individual phonemes in a word, practice saying words, one phoneme at a time, asking students to determine what the word will be. Have several cards prepared for the students to choose the correct picture/word association. Move from three to four sounds within a word (suggestions for cards - tie, cat, mop, dog, ship, tree, frog, sled, flag). I m going to put some pictures on the board. When I say the sounds in the word, I will need someone to show me which picture goes with the sounds I say. The word is /t/ /i/. Can you tell me what the word is? Students respond, tie. That s right. I need someone to show me the picture of a tie. Very good. Now let s try the word /c/ /a/ /t/. What is the word? Students respond, cat. You ve got it! Where is the picture of the cat? Practice the skill with several more words progressing from three to four letter words.

16 48 Placement and Manipulation STEP #2: TEACHER INSTRUCTION Begin the more difficult task of having students identify how many phonemes are in a word and the substitution of phonemes to create different words. Demonstrate by placing various colored paper squares on the board. Draw three lines on the board. Once students are successful at matching sounds, they are ready for the more difficult task of pulling words apart, or separating and identifying how many phonemes are in the word. Point to the colored squares. We are going to pretend that each sound I say in a word is a colored square. If I say the word cat, how many sounds do you hear? Students respond, three. So how many squares will I use? Students respond, three. Correct. I hear three sounds, /c/, /a/, /t/. I m going to pull down three squares and put them on these three lines. Where do you hear /c/? Where do you hear /a/? Where do you hear /t/? As you say words, pull down the colored squares to the lines you ve drawn, and identify the placement of each phoneme. Responding to each question students say beginning, middle, and end. Since we are teaching students to identify the number of phonemes in a word, it is not necessary to be concerned with whether the vowel in the word is long or short. It is also appropriate to use digraphs, like the word ship for phoneme identification. You would still have only three colored squares - /sh/, /i/, /p/.

17 Placement and Manipulation 49 Great! Let s do another word and see if you can tell me how many sounds are in the word. The next word is frog. How many sounds did you hear that time? Students respond, four. Draw four lines. Put a colored square on each line as you teach the following: Now that we know this word has four sounds, can you tell me which one was the /f/ sound? Students respond, the first one. Which square said /r/? The second one is right! You are doing a fine job. Which square said /o/? The third one is correct! Good job! Which square said /g/? The fourth one is right! Well done. Walk students through 2-3 more examples to see if they understand the phoneme placement process. Teach: Manipulation of sounds Now let s try the word bug. How many squares will we use? Students respond, three. Change the /b/ to /m/. What is the word now? Students respond, mug.

18 50 Placement and Manipulation What is a mug? Is it the same as bug? No, of course not. We still have three sounds in the words but the words have different meanings. Now let s try dad. We have three sounds in the word, /d/ /a/ /d/. Do you hear any sounds that are the same in this word? Students respond, /d/. Examples: mom pop toot did bob deed Good! Let s use the same colored square for the same sound. We still have three squares, but the beginning and ending squares are the same color because they have the same sound. Again repeat the process using 2-3 examples to see if they understand the phoneme skill. Reinforcement Activity: The game Beginning and Ending. This game is found in Sound Essentials, pp (Kindergarten), pp (First Grade and Aboove). Beginning and Ending Object: To help students hear and determine initial and final consonant sounds. Materials: Paper for each student. Alternately, have students stand at the board or use the Beginning & Ending game cards. To play: Have each student draw three lines on the board, or on their paper, representing the three parts of a one-syllable word ( ). Dictate a three-letter word. For example, when working with the consonant t, dictate some words that begin with t and some that end with t. The student is to listen and write the t either on the line representing the first letter, or on the line representing the ending sound. The following are examples of words that could be dictated using the consonant t. tub rat ten tan top fat bat sat ton Variation: Have students listen for the vowel sound and write the proper vowel on the center line.

19 Placement and Manipulation 51 STEP #2: LISTENING AND DICTATION, STUDENT PARTICIPATION Teach: Phoneme identification and manipulation in two and three phoneme words Hand out six different colored squares of paper to each student (make sure that two of the squares are the same color). Place colored squares on your desk in front of you. Each colored square will represent a sound you hear. As I say a word, (it might be a real or a nonsense word), I want you to pull down a square for each sound in the word I say. Be sure to pick a different color square for each sound I say. The first word is be. How many sounds do you hear in the word, be? Review the meaning of nonsense word. Students respond, two. Very good! Now how many squares did you pull down? Students respond, two. Which square says /b/? (The first.) Which square says, /ee/? (The second.) Very nice! If we change the sound /b/ in the word be, to a /m/, what will the word say? Students respond, me. Great! Change that first colored square for a different color so that we know we changed the sound. One word said be and the other one said me. Which square had the same sound in both

20 52 Placement and Manipulation words? Students respond, The second square. Good job. Did we change the second colored square for a different one? No, because the sound didn t change. Now put all the squares together again in front of you and I m going to say another word and it will be a nonsense word. Follow the same procedure as above using the nonsense word, op. This time change the vowel sound at the beginning to a different vowel ip, then change the ending consonant to /d/ to make the word, id. Let s try a word with more sounds. The word is, bed. How many sounds did you hear? Here are some examples both real and nonsense words to use for two and three phonemes: 2 is, at, up, toe, *ga, *og, day 3 can, sheep, jet, *mip, *tosh Students respond, three. How many colored squares should we get? Students respond, three. Do we want all the squares to be the same color? Students respond, no. That s right. We need three different squares because we heard three different sounds. Now let s change the word from bed to bad. What square will we change? Students respond, The middle one. Right! Did you change the color? Good, because the sound changed. We changed the word

21 Placement and Manipulation 53 from bed to bad and we changed the middle sound. What if we say /d/ at the beginning instead of /b/? The word will now say dad. Let s change the square at the beginning for the same color that is at the end because both sounds are now the same. Follow the same procedure as above using the nonsense word, gom and changing the beginning consonant to /m/ to make the word mom. Continue making real and nonsense CVC words, each time emphasizing changing the colored square for a sound. Examples of words to use for manipulation of phonemes: day may hay chew new tip top tap net bet beg Reinforcement Activity: Reinforce this skill with the game What Am I?, found in Sound Essentials, p. 121 (Kindergarten) p. 267 (First Grade and Above). What Am I?: Object: Phoneme identification and manipulation in words. Materials: Large colored paper circles. To play: Choose a word with 2-4 phonemes and hand out that amount of colored circles to students in the room. As you hand a paper circle to a student, you whisper in the student s ear the sound/phoneme he/she will be. Then tell those students to come to the front of the room and take turns saying out loud the phoneme sound they have been assigned. The class then determines the order of the phonemes to create a real word. Once the word is created, if two sounds are the same, then the circles color should be the same for those sounds. Example words: rag pop jug hot mix fed glad fish stop wind Variations: Once the word has been determined, you can have the student at the beginning or end of the word sit down and ask the class what the word now says.

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23 Assessment 55 ASSESSMENTS FOR PHONOLOGICAL/PHONEMIC AWARENESS Identification of Words in a Sentence: I m going to say a sentence and I want you to tell me how many words are in the sentence. An example would be, I have an apple. There were four words in the sentence. Rhyme: Your name is. (4) She is cute. (3) I am in first grade. (5) It is hot in here. (5) I am going to say some words and you tell me if they rhyme. If the words sound similar, or rhyme, just say yes. If the words don t sound similar (rhyme), then say no. For example the words met/ jet, rhyme but goat/dog do not rhyme. cat/hat (yes) run/sun (yes) pig/wig (yes) men/sam (no) map/box (no) clock/sock (yes) Syllables: I m going to say some words and I d like you to tell me how many syllables you hear in the word. You may clap the syllables if you like. An example is pencil : pen (clap)-cil (clap), two syllables. zoo (1) peanut (2) map (1) tomato (3) lipstick (2) elephant (3) Oral Segmentation: 1. (initial sound) I m going to say some words and I want you to say the sound you hear at the beginning of each word. sun /s/ dog /d/ yellow /y/ leaf /l/

24 56 Assessment 2. (final sound) I m going to say some words and I want you to say the sound you hear at the end of each word. bat /t/ glass /s/ hop /p/ cliff /f/ 3. (medial) I m going to say some words and I want you to say the sound you hear in the middle of each word. Oral Blending: rat /a/ tub /u/ rain /a/ mop /o/ I m going to say some sounds that make a word. I would like you to say the word as a whole. For example, I say the sounds, /s/ /ee/, and you say the whole word, see. /f/ /i/ /sh/ = fish /t/ /ee/ /th/ = teeth /sh/ /o/ /p/ = shop /c/ /a/ /p/ = cape /k/ /ing/ = king /s/ /a/ /n/ /d/ = sand Phonemic Manipulation: 1. I m going to say a word and I want you to say the word without the first sound. For example, I will say sun and you will say un. hat, /at/ pick, /ick/ leaf, /eaf/ bike, /ike/ top, /op/ hand, /and/ 2. Now let s try the same thing only using words with twosyllables. For instance, if I say rainbow, you say it again without rain leaving bow. Sunshine: now you say it again but don t say, sun - (shine) Meatloaf: now you say again but don t say meat - (loaf) Cupcake: now you say again but don t say cup - (cake)

25 Additional Activities 57 ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES FOR PHONEMIC AND PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS A to Z Animals: Object: Phoneme/grapheme identification. Materials: Chalk/dry erase marker and board. Preparation: Write the letters of the alphabet (uppercase or lowercase) on the board. To play: After writing the letters of the alphabet on the board, quickly review the sounds of each letter with the class. Then, pointing to a letter, ask a student to name an animal whose name begins with that letter sound (example: z, /z/, zebra; c, /c/, cat; a, /a/, alligator). Continue going around the room, giving each student a turn to name an animal corresponding with the letter identified. Using pictures to associate would be helpful, especially with ESL students. Variations: Clap and count the syllables of each of the animals named. Make up nonsense words that rhyme with the name of the animal (example: horse, snorse). Alphabet Hunt: Object: Phoneme/grapheme identification. Materials: Large paper cutouts of upper- or lowercase alphabet letters, magazines (appropriate for age), scissors, and glue sticks. Preparation: Cut from paper (large construction or paper rolls) enough letters of the alphabet for each student or for small group activity at a table. Have enough magazines or pages torn from the magazines at the table for each student to look through. To play: Divide the class into small groups and seat them at separate tables. Place a cutout of a large alphabet letter at each table or give one to each student. Discuss with students things that begin with the letter or letters that have been placed on their table. Have students search through a magazine (or look at provided magazine pages) for pictures that begin with the sound of the letter they have. You may also have them look for the letter in print. They should cut out and paste the pictures onto the large letter you have provided. Alphabet Plates: Object: Matching uppercase letters to lowercase letters of the alphabet; grapheme identification. Materials: paper plates, any size (not Styrofoam), for all uppercase and lowercase alphabet letters; marking pen.

26 58 Additional Activities Preparation: Write one alphabet letter, on each plate to create a set of uppercase letter plates and a set of lowercase letter plates. To play: Use only one set of plates for the game when it is first introduced. Hand the plates out randomly to students in the room, or have them pick from a pile. Instruct students to sit in a circle or stand in a line in order to form the alphabet from a to z. When the class has successfully accomplished this task several times using both sets of plates individually, try mixing the upper- and lowercase plates and have the students put them in order from a to z. Variations: Pass out both uppercase and lowercase alphabet plates and have students match the uppercase letter to the lowercase letter. Alphabet Rainbow: Object: Phoneme/grapheme identification. Materials: 12 x 18 construction paper (one for each student); enough cutouts of uppercase alphabet letters for each student (make all consonants one color and all vowels a different color); set of small cards with the lowercase letters (colors corresponding with uppercase letters, enough for each student); glue. Preparation: Make alphabet arc by aligning and gluing the uppercase alphabet cutouts in a semi-circle, lengthwise across the construction paper. Optional: laminate each paper when completed. F D E G H I J K L MNOPQ R S T U VW X Y Z B C A To play: As a word is spoken slowly by the teacher (/b/ /e/ /g/), students place their letter cards on the corresponding uppercase letter and identify the number of phonemes in the word. Be sure to use CVC or VC (consonant-vowel-consonant or vowel-consonant) words when first playing the game. If a word repeats the same letter ( dad or mom ), extra letter cards will be required. Variation: Hand out the papers with the alphabet rainbows to all students. Discuss the difference between consonants and vowels (the vowel letters are a, e, o, u, i, and must be used to make a word or a syllable in a word). Distribute the small lowercase letter cards to students. Play a matching game with uppercase and lowercase letters. Use this game for spelling practice in whole or small group situations. Again, make sure you have extra letter cards for letters that are repeated in a word.

27 Additional Activities 59 Can You Hear It?: Object: Aurally identify beginning letter sounds to their corresponding grapheme. Materials: Alphabet cards, tape, a recorded cassette tape of sounds, individual letter sounds, or familiar words (example a cow mooing-cow, doorbell ring-bell, hands clapping-hand, frog croaking-frog; or the words cow, frog, bell, hand; or /s/, /b/, /h/, /c/, etc.), and a cassette player. Preparation: Tape alphabet cards around the room. Have the cassette ready to play. To play: Place the alphabet cards around the room where students can see them. Play the tape or say a sound and have students identify the sound played or the beginning letter of the word played and go stand by the corresponding letter. Clap the Words: Dominoes: Object: Determine the number of words in a sentence; phonemic awareness. Materials: Chalk or word strips, pictures from magazines. Preparation: If you choose to use word strips, write sentences on the word strips; cut pictures from magazines for students to use in making up sentences. To play: Tell students they are to determine how many words are in a sentence by counting the words as you say the sentences. They should listen first as you read a short sentence (make sure each word is only one syllable) and demonstrate by clapping for each word. Ask how many words were in the sentence. Write the sentence on the board or hang up the word strip and count the words as you read the sentence. Variation: You can change the game by putting a picture on the board and having students make up a sentence to describe the picture. Repeat the activity above with the sentence they make up. Object: Identification of beginning letter phoneme to beginning grapheme. Materials: Cardstock or construction paper cut into 2 x 4 cards, scissors, glue, and marking pen, small object pictures that will fit a 2 x 2 space. Preparation: Make several cards that resemble dominoes: one half with a letter and the other half a picture (see example below). To play: Place the cards face down on the table in a deck. Students take turns picking a card and turning it over. If the letter on one half matches the beginning sound of a picture on another card, the student will begin the domino match. Students play until all the cards are turned over and assembled in a domino fashion.

28 60 Additional Activities M P Duck, Duck, Goose (Syllabication skill): Froggy: Object: Identify number of syllables in a word. Preparation: A list of words containing 1-6 syllables. A space large enough for a whole class circle. To play: Assemble the students in a circle on the floor (or outside on the grass, weather permitting). One student is chosen to be it. Whisper a word (from your list) to that students. Ask the student to say the word in syllables. When they can repeat the number of syllables in the word, they walk around the circle and tap a student for each syllable in the word (example: for addition, tap 3 students). On the last syllable, the seated student jumps up and tries to catch the first student as they both run around the circle tyring to get to the empty space first. Repeat until all students have had a chance to say a word. Variation: The teachers says a sentence. A student is chosen to walk around the circle and tap a student for each word in the setence. Object: To determine the number of words in a sentence; phonemic awareness. Materials: Green construction paper, tape. Preparation: Using the green construction paper, cut out lily pad shapes. Tape them in a circle on the floor in the classroom. To play: Tell students they are to pretend to be frogs and there are lily pads on the pond (floor). As you read a sentence, and they are to hop from one lily pad to another for each word in the sentence. When you have read the sentence, be sure to have students repeat the sentence, counting how many words are in it. Instruct them when to begin to hop on each lily pad for each word in the sentence. Variations: Read a word and have students hop from one lily pad to another for the amount of phonemes heard in the word. Say a word and have students hop from one lily pad to another for the amount of syllables in the word.

29 Additional Activities 61 How Much Is It?: Object: Identifying the number of individual phoneme sounds in a word; phoneme awareness. Materials: 2-6 pennies per student and a list of one-syllable words. To play: Say a word then repeat it slowly. Students are to count the number of sounds (phonemes) they hear. Tell them that as they count the phonemes (sounds), each sound will be worth one penny. Demonstrate on the board: say the word, bat then slowly repeat the word, emphasizing each sound (/b/, /a/, /t/) and place a penny on the board for each sound. Ask students how many sounds they heard (3), and how many pennies are on the board (3). Then tell them the word is worth three cents. Distribute pennies to students (2-6 pennies per student) and ask them to place the pennies at the top of their desks. As you say a word, remind them to pull down in front of them, a penny for each sound they hear in the word. Be sure to say the sounds slowly. Ask them each time how much the word is worth. Variation: Play the game using different colored discs or squares. Tell students to choose a different colored disc for each sound they hear. If they hear the same sound repeated in a word (example /d/, /a/, /d/) they use the same color disc for both /d/ sounds. Picture It! (syllabication skill): Object: Syllabication skill: students will use visual and auditory skills to determine the number of syllables in pictures or words. Materials: Pictures from magazines or coloring books, scissors, tape, and crayons (optional). Preparation: Cut pictures from magazines or coloring books. To play: Use pictures as a source of words for students to practice identifying syllables. Tape a picture on the board at the front of the room. Verbally identify the picture and have students repeat the word as they clap the syllables. If you use pictures from coloring books, hand the picture to the students to color after they identify the syllables in the word. Variation: Teach grammar skills by using pictures showing action verbs and pictures of nouns (person, place, thing). After students have identified the number of syllables in each word (picture), have them categorize the pictures into nouns and verbs. Rhyme Concentration: Object: Use rhyming skill with picture association. Materials: Cardstock or construction paper cut into 3 x 5 cards, scissors, glue, marking pen, and pictures of things that rhyme (examples: house, mouse; pear, bear; boat, goat).

30 62 Additional Activities Preparation: Paste a picture on one side of the card and write a number on the opposite side (number the cards 1-16 for small group and 1-24 for whole class. You will need to have 8 sets of pictures that rhyme for small group and 12 sets of pictures for whole class). To play: Place the cards with the picture down on a table (for small group) or tape them to the board at the front of the room (for whole class). Have students choose 2 numbers (cards) and turn them over. If the two cards have pictures that rhyme with each other (goat, boat), they have a match and can keep the cards. If the picture cards do not rhyme, turn them over for the next student to find a match. Whoever has the most cards at the end of the game wins. Short Vowel Sound Match: Object: Sound (phoneme) to picture identification. Materials: Cards with printed vowels, one vowel for each card; a variety of object pictures (from magazines or purchased sets) that contain short vowel sounds (the words need to be one-syllable). Example words: hat, hen, rat, man, dog, cat, mat, rug, etc. You will need enough sets of vowel cards and picture cards for small group work. To play: This activity should be done in small groups at a table or in separate spaces in a classroom. Divide the class into several small groups (depending on size of class) and give each group a set of vowel cards and picture cards. Tell students to sort through the cards and find the vowel cards, then place the vowel cards in a line in front of their group. Ask students to choose picture with the vowel sound you say and place that picture card under the corresponding vowel card (example: /a/-picture of a bat; /i/-picture of an igloo). Do this until all cards have been matched. Be sure to check students work to make sure there has not been a mistake. Variation: Repeat the activity above using long vowel sound cards and picture cards. After students have been introduced to diacritical markings, prepare letter cards with the diacritical markings on them, combine the pictures and ask students to match the picture with the correct long and short vowel card. Preparation: Set of vowel letters for long and short vowels, marked with diacritical markings. Pictures of objects, animals, etc., that have both long and short vowel sounds. Example words: plate, nail, bike, tie, dime, nine, pail, rake, paint, lake. Stories (Rhyming skill): Object: Recognize and identify words that rhyme from written text; phonemic awareness. Materials: Picture books or stories that contain rhyming text (Dr. Seuss books are a good example). To play: There are many stories available that rhyme. Use them regularly with your class. The following are variations of the skill you can use to reinforce rhyming with students.

31 Additional Activities 63 Variations: Read stories or poems in a whisper and say aloud the rhyming word. If you are reading a familiar rhyming story, stop after the rhyming words and ask students to recall the words that rhymed. When reading a story, stop before the second rhyming word and have students predict what the rhyming word will be before you continue with the story. Syllable Name Game: Object: Identify number of syllables in a word; phonemic awareness. Preparation: Students should have been taught the definition of a syllable (a syllable is the smallest part of the word containing a vowel or vowel sound). To play: Use the students names as a basis for practicing the skill of syllabication. As the class says a student s name, clap the syllables in the name. Determine whose name/names have the most syllables and whose have the least. Repeat and add the student s last name, clapping the syllables. Discuss changes in the amount of syllables in the name after adding the last name. Variation: To make this more visual, instead of clapping, use blocks or squares of paper to identify the number of syllables. The Name Game (Initial Phoneme Identification skill): Object: Letter/sound association; phonemic awareness. Materials: Alphabet game cards. To play: A single alphabet card is given to each player as they sit in a circle on the floor. Using the sound of the letter given them, the players fill in the blanks of the following pattern: My name is. I like and. For example, if the first player had the letter L, she might say: My name is Linda. I like letters and lollypops. Play moves to the left from one player to the next around the circle. The names used can be real or pretend. After going around the entire circle, players should switch letters with another player and play again.

32 64 Additional Activities Phonological/Phonemic Awareness The following are activities that can be used to develop focus questions and practice exercises. Phoneme Elimination What would be left if /s/ were taken away from sat? Word to word match Blending Do rat and run begin with the same sound? What word would we have if you put these sounds together /b/ /a/ /g/? Sound isolation What is the first sound in vet? What is the last sound in cap? Phoneme Sequence What sounds do you hear in pig? (/p/ /i/ /g/) What sounds do you hear in girl? (/g/ /ir/ /l/) Phoneme count How many sounds are in jump? Deleting phoneme What sound do you hear in seat but NOT in eat? Deleting a syllable The word is cowboy. Take off the word cow. Now what is the word? ( boy ) Odd word out Which word starts/ends with a different sound - dog, dig, sit, done? Sound to word match Is there a /n/ sound in sun? In never? In sent? In jump? (beginning, end, middle, not in the word)