Phonemic Awareness Activities
Maybe you’ve been looking for phonemic awareness activities on Pinterest and you’ve noticed phonological and phonemic awareness pins popping up? What is that!?
Today, I’m going to demystify and give you the ‘what you need to know version’ about phonemic awareness activities at your kitchen table. Oh, and what does Heggerty have to do with teaching your child to read at home?
As a classroom teacher, I was introduced to Michael Heggerty, or rather, his phonemic awareness coil-bound resources for K/1 classrooms. Commonly referred to as Heggerty. Classroom teachers often refer to Heggerty’s phonemic awareness drills as listening games for students.
When your child can accurately complete these simple phonemic awareness activities of segmenting and blending drills, her ability to fluently and at an appropriate pace, decode words to read and segment words to spell is rock solid.
6 Easy Phonemic Awareness Activities
1. Phoneme isolation is your child being able to identify one sound in a word, typically the beginning, middle or ending sounds of a CVC word. For beginning sound phoneme or sound isolation, It would go something like this. I want you to tell me the first sound in the word. Like this. Mat /m/ Y=Now, it’s your turn.
For isolating the middle phoneme, it would go something like this… I want you to tell me the middle sound in the word. Like this. ‘Mop’, /o/. Now it’s your turn. You can also do this with long vowel sounds. Your child does not need to know how to spell the word, but just needs to listen and isolate just one sound.
For final phoneme or sound isolation, it would go something like this, ‘I want you to tell me the final/last sound in the word. Like this. Cab /b/, Now, it’s your turn. ‘Cut’, and you get the idea.
2. Phoneme Addition – adding a sound to a word. The simplest version of phoneme or sound addition is to add the /s/ sound to make a word plural, like when adding /s/ to the end of the word ‘dog’ to spell ‘dogs’. You would say something like this to your child. I want you to add a sound to the end of a word I say. Like this. The word is ‘pig’. Add /s/ to the end of the word and the word is ‘pigs’. Great, now it’s your turn.
Another level of phoneme addition is to add a sound to the end of a word to make a consonant blend. For example, ‘add’ /t/ to the end of cas, and the word is…’cast’. Add /d/ to the end of the word ‘men’ and the word is ‘mend’.
Another level of phoneme addition is to add a sound to the end of a word to make a consonant blend. For example, ‘add’ /t/ to the end of cas, and the word is…’cast’. Add /d/ to the end of the word ‘men’ and the word is ‘mend’.
I show you each of these phonics skills inside my course, TEACH YOUR CHILD TO READ: Confidently Model Simple Phonics Skills at Home, AND I guide you in HOW to lead your child through each simple phonics skill. You can get the course at phonicsrulesforkids.com/course
3. Phoneme Blending – Blending individual phonemes or sounds spaced apart to say a whole word. BONUS: This is an activity you can do in the car, since it’s a hearing and listening activity. Example: You say 3 sounds spaced apart in CVC word style, like this /c/ /a/ /p/. Okay, kiddo, I want you to quickly say the sounds together to say the word.
You can add a 4th sound to create a blend, like this. /m/ /a/ /s/ /t/. Occasionally, your child might say mats instead of mast, so something to listen for as you’re working through this quick phonemic awareness drill with your child. Phoneme blending is the important pre-cursor for your child decoding words on a page to read them out loud.
4. Phoneme Segmentation, let’s call it segmenting for short. Your child’s ability to hear a word, and segment individual sounds in that word is the precursor for accurate spelling. Example: you say a word out loud. This can be done in the car, waiting in a grocery store line with your child, etc. You say a CVC word, like ‘sat’. I want you to chop it apart into its sound. Like this /s/ /a/ /t/. Now, it’s your turn. You can also do this with CVCC words with blends, such as ‘bent’ /b/ /e/ /n/ /t/.
5. Phoneme Deletion. Example: Say the word ‘bat’. ‘Bat’ without /b/ is ‘at’. Another example, say the word, ‘his’. ‘His’ without /h/ is…’is’. Deleting a sound from a word is great practice with words containing consonant blends, such as the word ‘lend’. ‘Lend without /l/ is ‘end. Say the word ‘moon’. ‘Moon’ without /n/ is ‘moo’.
6. Phoneme Substitution (beginning, middle end)-requires the most working memory. Your child needs to mentally hold onto one part of the word, while changing the other part, and then saying the new word out loud. This skill of substituting sounds requires the greatest concentration. An example is, I want you to change the middle sound in a word, then say the new word. Like this. ‘Cat’ change /a/ to /u/, the word is….’cut’.
For a greater challenge, don’t cue which sound, beginning, middle, end. Just say, I want you to change a sound in a word to make a new word. The word is ‘must’. Change /m/ to /j/, the word is…’just’.
Teach these 6 easy phonemic awareness activities to give your child the best possible start as a reader!
