Letter 31
DEVELOPING PHONIC KNOWLEDGE
Dear Parents and Care-Givers:
There are essentially two different ways to help your child become aware of phonics. One is through direct instruction and
formal activities and the other is to learn phonics within print materials that have meaning for your child. While there is no
real harm in the direct approach, children seem to respond to phonics instruction more positively when phonics activities are
connected to their reading material. Both kinds of activities are included here:
Phonics Through Direct Instruction
Here, phonics awareness involves phonics activities that are not connected to children’s reading material.
1. I Spy: Play “I Spy” with your child by saying, “I spy something that begins like, ‘Sunday.’” Then ask your child to name
things (sun, snowman, sick). If your child chooses something with the correct sound (celery, city) but the wrong initial
letter, say, “Celery and city do start with the same sound as ‘Sunday.’” It is not necessary to correct them, since the goal
here is to identify beginning sounds.
2. Clap for Sounds: Ask your child to clap their hands when they hear particular sounds for the beginning sounds of words.
Say “Listen for the beginning sound in words that begin like ball.” Then read a number of different words aloud and have
your child clap only for the words that begin with b. The list of words you read may include, come, ball, mom, bat, man,
people. Your youngster will be expected to clap for the words, ‘ball’ and ‘bat.’ Repeat this game with other beginning
sounds such as m, p, s, and t.
3. Drawing Pictures: Have your child draw pictures of things that begin with a particular sound m (marbles, mat, milk,
mom).
4. Naming Words: Invite your child to name things that begin like pot (pail, potato, party).
5. Alphabet Cans: Set out alphabet cans by labeling empty juice cans with letter/sound symbols. Ask your child to collect
objects that begin with that sound and put them into the appropriate can. For example, your child puts a toy car in the can
with the letter C on it and a pen into the can with the label P. Introduce a new letter every few days.
6. Going on a Trip: Play a game with your child by saying, “I’m going on a trip and I’m going to pack my suitcase with
things that begin like apple.” Your child responds with the word animal; then your child names something that begins
like ball and you guess, bun; you name something that begins like car and your child responds with the word cat: the
game continues until all the letters of the alphabet are used.
7. Word Families: Make lists of words that have similar sound/symbol relationships: ‘at’ family (cat, mat, rat, fat, sat); ‘un’
family (run, bun, sun, fun). Have your child think of the words that go with each rhyming family.
8. Final Consonant Sounds: Use these same strategies above for making your child aware of the ending sounds in words.
Developing Phonics Knowledge Through Reading Material
Another way to introduce phonics concepts to your child is to connect phonics activities to literature your child hears and
reads. When phonics activities relate to reading material with which your child is familiar (predictable literature, dictated
stories, and sentence strips), phonics principles simply make more sense to them. Following are specific activities that will
draw your child’s attention to phonics within the context of meaningful literary experiences. Start by focusing on activities
dealing with their names but then introduce easily-recognizable letter/sound symbols (M, P, T, S), then move to other initial
sound symbols (B, D, F), and then to somewhat more difficult sound/symbols (H, L, N, R), and finally to less frequently used
sound symbols (V, W, X, Y, Z). Reserve special minilessons to deal with letters that have more than one sound (C, G, J, K).
Introduce initial sound first, then make your child aware of final consonants before addressing middle consonants. Introduce
vowels (A, E, I, O, U) once your child is familiar with consonants. Consider the following strategies for introducing children
to consonants and vowels:
1. Names: Once your child recognizes letters in their names, draw attention to these sounds in other words in titles of books,
in predictable pattern literature, in dictated sentences and stories, on signs around the home and neighborhood. Then have
your child become aware of the initial sounds in names of their family, pets, and friends. Invite them to choose the name
of a family member and find words with the same beginning sounds in stories and on signs around the house and
neighborhood.
2. Alphabet Books: At first, read alphabet books for enjoyment. But then have your child pay particular attention to certain
letters that have easily distinguishable sounds such as M, P, T, and S. Invite your child to name all the items that begin
with these letter/sounds in the alphabet book. When reading other alphabet books, introduce a new initial letter/sound
each day. With your child read names of items in the books beginning with those particular letter/sounds together
emphasizing particular initial sounds.
3. Pattern Literature: After reading familiar predictable pattern selections a number of times to your child, play “I Spy” by
having your child find words that begin with the same sound as the letter you name (B, D, F).
4. Word Cards: Have your child sort their word cards on their word chains according to initial sound/symbols they know:
find all the words that begin with the letter R as in roll (rake, rabbit, run); find all the words that begin with N as in not
(new, numbers, no, nine). Find words that begin with the letter M as in mat, D as in donut, G as in Grandma and
Grandpa, etc.
5. Dictating Stories and Sentences: Have your child point to letter/sounds they know in words in old familiar sentence strips
and have them name the letter and the sound it makes.
• Spelling: When recording new dictated sentences and stories, ask your child to name letters they know to help with the
spelling of words.
6. Alphabet Posters: Invite your child to make alphabet posters using letters and sound symbols they know (H, N, L, R).
They can draw or cut-out pictures of things that begin with certain letter/sounds they recognize. For example, at the top of
a page make the initial letter H. Then ask your child to draw or find pictures of things beginning with that letter. Once
they have glued their pictures on, help them label each item.
7. I Spy: Play “I Spy” around the house for words and items they see. You start by saying, “I spy something that begins like
the word, telephone.” Then list all these things your child can see onto a chart (table, tack, tape, toys).
8. Poetry: Read poetry selections with rhyme to your child and have them guess the rhyming words at the end of each line.
Children love doing this with poems in the book Alligator Pie (Dennis Lee, 1987); Good Night (Jan Pienkowski, 1999),
Bugs for Lunch, (Margery Facklam, 1999); Who’s Sick Today? (Lynne Cherry, 1988); and The Day the Goose Got Loose
(Reeve Lindbergh, 1990).
9. Word Families: Choose words found in familiar poetry and songs and create word families. For example, in the poem
“Alligator Pie,” make word families for the word pie (die, lie, tie); in “The Day the Goose Got Loose,” make word
families from the word, child (mild, wild).
We hope you and your child have fun with these activities. Please contact me if you have questions.
Sincerely,