PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS IDEAS
*Syllable Breaks
Words to use: cat
apple
banana dog
monkey
elephant
fish
pencil
Kangaroo
horse
spider trike
*Place 3 pictures in chart and clap each picture. Talk about
how many parts there are in each word.
*Phoneme Segmentation: What sounds do you hear in the word
hot?
Phoneme Counting: How many sounds do you hear in the word
kite?
Phoneme deletion: What sound do you hear in seat that is
missing in eat?
*Odd Word Out: Which word starts with a different sound?
bag, nine, beach, bike?
*Sound to word matching: Is there a /k/ in mike?
*Initial Sound Replacement: Sing “Old MacDonald” and sing
me, mi, me, mi, mo. Substitute other beginning sounds. “Nead,
and noulders, nees and noes, nees and noes.” “Pohn Pacob
Pingleheimer Schmidt”, “I've been working on the Railroad”:
“ke-ki-kiddly-ki-o”; “Farmer in the Dell”: Mi-mo the merry-o;
“This Old Man: He played bick-back on his thumb.”
*Broken Word Game: I see a mar-ket.
*Willoughby Wallaby Woo
Willoughby Wallaby Woo, an elephant sat on you.
Willoughby Wallaby Wee, an elephant sat on me!
Willoughby Wallay Weter, an elephant sat on Peter.
Willoughby Wallaby Willy, an elephant sat on Billy.
*I Spy: I spy with my little eye something on the wall that begins
like this: /m/.
*Clapping Syllables: Clap syllables in names and other words.
*Guess Which Object: Hold up two objects. Give clues about
the item you are thinking of. The first sound is /l/. Say all the
individual sounds: l-ea-f. Remove the initial sound. “I'm going
to leave off part of the word /eaf/.
*Dr. Jean cd/books, all kinds of activities, sing-a-long, read-a
long,
*Fishing game with letters on can lids, pole with magnet
*Cups labeled with letters. Hide a pom pom under the cup and
ask them to find the pom pom under the cups with phonemes.
*Letter path: Focus on the letter “N” have a paper with N from
top to bottom and fill the rest of the paper with other letters,
they have to draw the path to the bottom of the paper (I
would laminate and use each letter of the alphabet)
*Mama Bear, Papa Bear: Necklaces with pictures glued onto a
bear/cub, the pictures either match beginning sounds or rhyme,
children need to find their mama-cub match or their papa-cub
match.
*Name game: Teacher asks “who wants to play the name game?”
Students say “we do”, teacher writes a students name on the
board changing the beginning letter. Students try to figure out
who’s name it is and the letter that is wrong.
*Listening lotto: Pictures on a game board, tape with sounds,
they listen to the sounds and find the picture that makes the
sounds, then go back and make the sounds.
*Sound sheets: Use bracelets and put on the objects that start
with that sound, three pictures that start with K and 2 that
don’t.
*Guess the missing letter: A card with a picture of a bat and a
card with _at. Write the missing letter with dry erase marker.
*iPad Apps: Endless ABC, Beginning Phonics
*Mixed up Menu: Write the menu each day changing some
letters, For example, dacaroni and deese, dot dogs, and bilk.
Let the children correct
*Sharing bag-Put an object from home in a sharing bag. Send
home a sheet to parents with directions. Have 3 clues to guess
the object.
1-It begins with the letter ________
2-It sounds like_______________
3.__________________________
*Alphabet puzzle-Match letter with the object
*My father owns a store and he sells something that starts with
the letter “c” (Then put the item in a basket where the kids
can’t see it) then give hints….It is a vegetable……Could be or
use anything.
*Bag with letters and objects that begin with that sound, put in
an object that doesn’t belong and they have to figure it out.
*Choose three different sounding instruments: Ex. Drum, bells,
rattle. Show students what sound each instrument makes, then
have them close their eyes or turn around and ask students to
say which sound was 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
*“Headbands” game: An actual game that’s called that.
Student wears a headband and sticks a picture on under
the headband. The person with the card on your head you ask
the question about what their card is. You could also do it
with beginning sounds, ending sounds, how many parts does it
have, etc..
*I have, Who has
I have “D” who has “P”? This could also be done with letter
sounds, rhyming words, numbers.
*ABC spelling-magic one app on iPad
*Little Speller on iPad
*starfall.com
*Name cards
Students either rhyme or clap the parts in their name as a
large group
*Mr. Forgetful- a card game from Creative Curriculum
*If your name starts with (certain sound) you may dismiss
yourself and go to a center
*The Mitten Activity:
Has characters from story: ex: (hedgehog: clapping out
parts of words) These cards also have pictures on them and
students are able to write on the laminated cards
*Clap parts of students’ names as well as using wooden
sticks/dowels
*You could also use chips or cubes for sounding out regular
words
*Doggie, Where’s my Bone?
www.blog.maketaketeach.com
*Alphabet Tubs from Lakeshore
*Reading Rods
*Giant Roller Ramps from Keystone
*Word/Writing Wizard on iPad $2.99 but can find it for free
every so often
*ABC/Alphabet order on iPad
*Teachers pay Teachers have lots of free things
*The Rainbow Fish- phonemic awareness activity
from teachers pay teachers
*“We Are Going…” game.
**”I am going to the store, and I am going to take…” Each
thing that is brought to the store has to start with the
same beginning sound (i.e. sock, sack, etc.).
*Letter Hop
**They pull a letter out of the box and have to say
something that the letter starts with (i.e. if it’s a sock,
they could say sack)
*“My Little …” letter book
**Do letter sound and action with each letter. They then
read a book that has words with the same letter.
*The Name Game
**Put a child’s name up. Whoever that child is stands up,
says it, cheers it, spells it, and claps it.
*Rhyming cards
**Each rhyming set is a different color (easier to match).
Picture cards to start with (set of 42 rhyming pairs).
*Alphabet Soup
**Has picture with object with word on back (beginning
letter is highlighted) CAN BE BOUGHT
*Letter match
**Using Clorox container, shake out a letter, say sound,
and match to (jumbled) letter sheet
*SMART board syllable sort
**Using picture words, clap parts of words and sort into
correct category.
*Letter Hop-lg. foam letters on floor-pull letter out of feely
box-find the letter on the floor and hop to it-say letter name
and sound
*Pick object from room-bring to carpet-say word-listen/state
sound at beginning and end of word
*Snowy Sounds (Pinterest find!)-pick a snowman card and look
at the picture-decide what the beginning sound is and write
the letter that makes that sound on the snowman sheet
*Magnetic Alphabets-"ice fish" for a letter in water table
(styrofoam peanuts) and say letter and sound-use magnetic
boards to spell words
*Picture Sort-pick a picture and clap sounds (can put gloves on
for different sounds)-sort pictures if they have 1-4 sounds-"who
got the most 2 syllable words?"
*Hula Hoop Sound Sort -Materials Hula-Hoops, Letter/Object
Tubs
Procedure: This teacher did 6 sounds a time. Put Lids from
Tubs in Hula Hoops spread throughout the room, put objects
in a bag, each child picked one, and then quietly without
talking went to the hoop his or her object started with.
Teachers observed and documented as children walked around
who was independent and who needed help. Then used as a
transition: Example “Students who are in the /A/ hoop can line
up.”
*Snowman Sounds-Materials: Dry erase markers,
www.prekinders.com search “Snowman Letter Sounds” (letters
and pictures) in page protectors
Students mark pictures that start with sound written
Snowman Building Beginning sound-Materials Laminated
Snowman-Hat is the Letter, Pictures that start with that letter
are the body). In Word insert circle then add clip art/photos
into circles. Searched “Snowman Face” for Head and then
typed letter into a text box in hat. Or Email:
dawanda_ryder_88@live.com for the template she made.
*Letter Puppets: Introduce Puppet in Large Group-Say Name
of puppet, focus on letter name/what the letter looks like and
sound, connect with student names, connect with other words
that start with that letter, in small group have puppet model
how to write the letter.
*Hot Chocolate Syllables: Materials Styrofoam Cups labeled
with 1,2,3, picture cards related to winter/hot chocolate,
marshmallows/cotton balls/white poof balls
Children take turns picking cards, saying words, clapping parts.
Then put a marshmallow/cotton ball/white poof ball in the
matching cup. Could extend the activity by graphing/tallying
how many words each cup had athe end of the activity.
*Rhyme Around: Children walk around in a circle, teacher
reads from a word list, every time words rhyme students take a
step forward, when you read a word that does not rhyme
children sit down. Could be used with other concepts:
beginning sounds, alliteration, etc. Video Tape for easy
assessment!
Example Word List: bee, C, tree, me, cow
*Deletion and Substitution Transition: When dismissing
students substitute and delete beginning and ending sounds of
their names
*Silly Sally book – Read book and discuss that Silly and Sally
start with “s”. Each student comes up with their own “silly”
name that started with the same letter of his/her name
(example – Crazy Claire, Magical Mike, et.). Also drew their
own picture of self upside down.
*Letter sound material: objects that start with a specific letter
sound and then sort the objects.
*Handwriting slates and the student has to write the first
letter for the sound. Example – cat: writes the letter C.
*Bean-bag letters – Students pick a bean bag and the student
has to go on a hunt to find something that is the same letter
sound.
*A Poem. Students circle or find the word that start with a
specific sound and circle it. Go over all the words when all of
the words have been circled.
*When talking about lunch, weather, regular words in the
classroom. Ask the students what it starts with.