Phonological Awareness: Activities for Instruction Based on PAST Results
1.1 Awareness of Gross Differences

What it means: An awareness of gross differences means that a student can distinguish
between sounds that are the same and different. This is the first step in students’ phonological
awareness because if they cannot distinguish between different sounds, they will not be able to
distinguish between the sounds that make up a word, syllable, onset – rime, or even a phoneme.
An awareness of gross differences will essentially help the student to break up words, know
where to put spaces between words in their writing, and distinguish between simple units of
meaning in their oral language. It will also help students to begin decoding when they realize
that text holds meaning and the text is made up of individual words that hold meaning. Students
that have difficulty with an awareness of gross differences needs experience identifying different
types of sounds from each other and then segmenting sentences into individual words.
Awareness of Gross Differences
Activities
Activity 1 (Site: Beaty) Pack Your Backpack Game
Sit in a circle with a small group and an empty backpack. Say, “I’m packing my backpack for a
trip to Mars, and in it I put a ________.” Make your pretend item something the children will
remember such as a “gorilla” or a “motorcycle”. Keep the game going as long as the children can
keep remembering the items and adding new things.
An additional activity would be giving each child a colored card to represent their “word”. After
the activity, you could call on individual students to model a sentence. Each word of the sentence can
be represented by a card. It could be “He/she puts in a ________.” [into the backpack] The student
could be a part of the sentence and hold up their card to represent their item or word. Punctuation could
be added to the end of the concrete sentence as well.
Activity 2 (Site: Beaty) Follow-the-Leader Word Fishing
Lead the class around the room, one behind the other, pretending you are the captain of a fishing boat.
Use a fish net if you have one. As you walk, say, “Words, words, words, words. I’m going to catch a
word.” As you go by the block center, pick up a toy locomotive (or bulldozer) in your net and say, “I’ve
caught a locomotive, a locomotive, a locomotive (or bulldozer).” Have everyone behind you repeat the
word out loud until you put the locomotive on a table and catch a new word. When the children catch
on, give the next child behind you the net and a chance to catch a word. After everyone has had a turn,
hold up each of the caught items on the table for the children to name.
Activity 3 Counting Words in a Sentence (5-10 minutes)
Materials – 10 counters in a cup for each student, overhead/Promethean Board
Directions:
Introduce playing a counting game with the students. The teacher points to something in the
room and the students and teacher put one counter in front of them for each item pointed at. Practice
with windows until all can do it. Read sentences to the students and have them count the words you read
using their counters. Say the sentence normally then slowly a few times. Some example sentences would
be “My name is Megan. Peter stayed home sick. Melissa is wearing a red shirt.”
Source: http://www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Phonological_Awareness_Activities
Activity 4: Sentence Segmentation: Nursery Rhymes (5-10 minutes)
Materials – nursery rhyme picture cards, unifix cubes
Directions:
The students select a nursery rhyme picture card and say the rhyme aloud. The student repeats
the first sentence and stacks the number of cubes equal to the number of words. They can place the stack
of cubes below the picture card. Students continue with the other rhymes.
Source: http://www.fcrr.org/
Activity 5: Word Differences
Materials – None
Directions
Teacher reads words aloud and students determine if words are the same or different. Some
examples include, pet-hug, tree-tree, sun-net, wag-mess, dog-dog.
Materials: Nothing special
Review the difference between words and non-words.
1. Ask students to put their thumbs up and say, “that’s a word” if what you say is a word and for
them to shake their heads silently if what you say is not a word.
2. Help students who do not understand what a spoken word is.
Materials: Pictures of book covers put on cards with numbers on the back, a flat surface, cubes
(based on p. 1-4 http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/PA_Final_Part2.pdf)
1.
Make sure that students know the titles of favorite classroom books and that they can match the
title to a picture of the cover.
2. Place pictures of favorite book covers in a stack. Place the cubes on a flat surface.
3. A student picks a card and names the title of the book.
4. He or she repeats the title, stacking one cube for each word in the title. (For example, for Eric
Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the student would stack 4 cubes.)
5. He or she turns the card over to see a number which tells how many words were actually in the
title.
Materials: Nametags (cards on a string to go around the neck) with shapes, colors, and writing or
symbols
1. Give a student a blue nametag. Tell the class that he or she stands for the word “blue” -- one
word, “blue.”
2. Give another student a triangle nametag. Tell the class that he or she stands for the word
“triangle.” Together they make two words, “blue triangle.”
3. Give another student either the letter “a” or something to represent it. Together they make three
words, “a blue triangle.”
4. Continue with “painted” and “I.” (4 and 5 words)
5. Swap students out for students with different nametags to change either the shape or the color.
Or, change the sentence to “You painted a blue triangle.” or “You painted a blue triangle?”
depending on what you are studying. Add and subtract words, but keep counting the words.
Activity 6:

Materials: None needed.

Procedure: The teacher will orally present three words to a student. Two of the words are the
same and one is different. The teacher will model finding the different word in the group. For
example, the teacher might say “Bed-bird-bed. Which word is different? Bird is different.” The
teacher will then present various sets of word to the student or students and the student(s) will
determine which word is different. This activity helps students distinguish individual words.
(Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998, pg. 5)
Activity 7:

Materials: None needed.

Procedure: The children stand in a circle as you walk around them reciting a nursery rhyme,
such as “Hickory Dickory Dock”. As you recite each word, tap a different student on the
shoulder. When the student is tapped, he or she must sit down. This will allow the students to
associate each word with the student who sat down. A variety of nursery rhymes can be used.
Because familiar nursery rhymes are used, students can anticipate which word comes next.

(Andreassen & Smith, 2008)
Activity 8:

Materials: Peanuts (or other counter), bag or other container

Procedure: After reading a story to students, the teacher selects a sentence and says it aloud.
The sentence is then slowly repeated and the students are asked to drop a peanut into their bag
every time they hear a word. Students can then be called on to take one peanut out per word as
they repeat the sentence out loud. (Hierarchy of phonological awareness activities)
Activity 9
Taken from: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chhearing.html
o Materials:

Sound effect recording (either a CD, a tape or a record)

Device to play the recording (CD player, tape recorder or record player)
o Activity:

Where can you hear sirens, the wind, musical instruments, the roar of a crowd, a
waterfall, and the ocean all in one place? One place is on a recording. Play a
sound effect and see if everyone can guess what made each sound.
Activity 10
Taken from: http://www.ehow.com/way_5835710_activities-sound-detection-skills-children.html
o Materials:

Any materials around the room that make everyday sounds
o Activity:

Have children face away from the person who will be making the sounds (may be
the teacher or another child). Make everyday sounds and see how well children
can identify them. Examples include clapping, stapling something or turning the
pages of a book.
Activity 11
Taken from: www.collierschools.com/english/.../IG/1-Phonological%20Awareness.doc
o Materials:

A familiar book
o Activity:

Choose sentences to be read orally from a text.

Read sentences on a selected page.

Reread and clap each time you say a word (model).

Invite students to choral read with you, clapping for each word.

Invite a student to come and select the next page to be read.

Repeat this process until at least 3 or 4 pages have been used.
o Instructional Strategies/Activities to support development
o 1. Materials: Counters and lunch bag, story
o Teacher reads a story. Teacher selects sentence from the story and reads it aloud. She
repeats slowly and asks students to drop a counter into their bag every time they hear
a word.
o 2. Materials: rhythm instruments, big book of Brown Bear or other books with chants
o Teacher reads the book, then teaches children chant from the story. Students repeat
several times. Give students rhythm instruments. Model how to count words by
tapping an instrument once for each word. Encourage students to respond by tapping
their instruments for each word. If instruments are not available, you could have them
tap or clap as an alternative.
o 3. Materials: several different colored blocks, sentences of increasing length
o Give each student several blocks. Say a short sentence. Have students repeat the
sentences and move a block forward as they say each word. Have students count the
number of blocks and tell how many words were heard. Gradually increase the length
of the sentences.
Activity 12
Recognition: Counting the words in a sentence
o Needed: Chips for students to move
o Say a sentence such as “My puppy is playful” and move one chip for each word you
say. Ask “How many chips did I move? How many words did I say?” Model this a
couple different times and then have students work in pairs or small groups to
complete the same task. (Adapted from PAST assessment)
Activity 13
Matching: “Which word is longer?”
o Needed: Teacher needs a prepared list of long words and short words; the long words
might be categorized by two or three syllables, while the short words have only one
syllable
o Say two words out loud to students such as caterpillar and snake. Have them decide
which word is longer. Continue with other word pairs. (Paulson 2010)
Activity 14
Production: “Which word comes first/last/middle?”
o Needed: Teacher will need to have prepared sentences.
o Say a sentence to students such as “My favorite food is pancakes.” Ask students what
word you said first in your sentence (my). Ask students what word you said last in
your sentence (pancakes). Students can also play this game in pairs or small groups.
(Adapted from Reading Rockets website)
Activity 15
How Many Words? Segmenting Sentences
Materials :
several plastic counters (buttons, paperclips, etc.) or other small game pieces
Procedure:
1. Give the child a pile of counters. Tell the child that sentences are made up of words, and that you are
going to help him or her count the words in some sentences.
2. Say a simple sentence such as, “I have three books.”
3. Help your child put down a counter for each word in the sentence.
4. Say the sentence again, having your child touch a counter for each word that is heard.
5. Continue with a few different sentences, using longer sentences when the child is ready.
© 2005 by National Center for Learning Disabilities, Inc.
www.getreadytoread.org
Activity 16
Be a Word Segmenting Sentences
Materials:
the first line of a nursery rhyme, poem or song that the child knows very well
a ball or beanbag
Procedure :
1. Sit or stand facing your child.
2. Take turns, each saying a word of the line of the rhyme or poem. As you or your child say each word,
pass the ball or beanbag back and forth until you have said the whole sentence.
Variation :
• For a challenge, write the line from the rhyme or poem on a strip of paper. Cut the strip into words and
hold up or point to the word that is being said.
© 2005 by National Center for Learning Disabilities, Inc.
www.getreadytoread.org
Activity 17
Counting Words
Tell the children, “We are going to count words.” Using blocks or other objects with many pieces, have
the children build a tower according to how many words are in the phrase.
-Tip: When generating phrases, try to use phrases relevant to the children and their environment. For
example, “Jenny’s wearing blue today,” or “Alex likes to play soccer.” These sentences will help keep
their attention on the activity.
Activity 18
Words are Parts
Have three children stand side-by-side in front of the room with the teacher. The teacher will read a
three worded phrase. When the first word is read, the first child will jump and so on for the other two
words. Begin by pointing to each child when it is their turn to jump. When facing the three children,
have the child on the left start first. This will allow the class to see the left to right motions of reading
print.)
Activity 19
Words are Parts II
Read short phrases to the children. When you have finished reading, have the children clap the amount
of words or parts that phrase had.
1.2 Awareness of Rhyme

What it means: An awareness of rhyme is the process of students hearing similar sounds in the
rimes of words such as in /car/ and /bar/. Awareness of rhyme allows students to start listening
to the parts of a word to distinguish if it is similar or different. In order to meet the child’s need
it is important to see which part of rhyming the student is struggling with because there are three
levels of rhyming mastery: identifying if words rhyme, recognizing an odd-man-out, and coming
up with a word that rhymes with a given word. Although rhyme awareness is an important step
in students learning to segment onsets and rimes, there are some students that cannot rhyme, or
have difficulty so you should not hold them back from progressing because they have not
mastered rhyming.
Awareness of Rhyme: Rhyme Recognition
Activity 1
Sing-A-Long (5-10 minutes)
Materials – None
Directions
Using the song “A Hunting We Will Go”, the teacher sings aloud to the class. “A hunting we
will go. A hunting we will go. We’ll catch a fox, And put him in a box. A hunting we will go.” The
teacher can change out the animals and rhyming words. Students need to identify the rhyming words in
the song. Other rhymes can include frog-log, pig-dig, cat-mat, goat-boat, fish-dish, snake-lake, and bearchair.
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Activity 2
Body Part Rhyme Game (5-10 minutes)
Materials – None
Directions
The teacher picks part of the body and says different rhyming and non-rhyming words. The
students need to say if the words rhyme or not. For example, the teacher says “head” then states that a
rhyme is a word that sounds like another word. Examples of words for head include “red, bed, cat, said,
Ted, door”. Other body parts can include toe, hair and ear. Have students think of words that rhyme with
eye, feet, knee and hand. Students can say nonsense words but prompt them to find real words. Students
can look around the room for ideas if they are stuck.
Source: http://www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Phonological_Awareness_Activities
Activity 3
Beanbag Toss (about 10 minutes)
Materials – beanbags, pictures (i.e. fan, bug, dog, cake, pie, etc.)
Directions
The pictures are laid out on the floor. The student throws a beanbag on one of the cards. The
student needs to generate or come up with as many rhyming words (or nonsense words) as they can for
each picture. (Set a minimum of 3 words)
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Awareness of Rhyme: Rhyme Completion
Activity 4
Materials: “Ten Little Bluebirds” poem
Adapted from http://extension.missouri.edu/hes/childcare/promoteliteracy.pdf.
1.
Recite “Ten Little Bluebirds,” stopping before the last word of each couplet.
2. Ask students to produce a rhyme that fits with the pattern of the poem. (The numbers help
scaffold for the students.)
Ten Little Bluebirds
(Mother Goose, Gyo Fujikawa, Illustrator, 1968)
Ten little bluebirds, perched on a pine;
One flew away and then there were nine.
Nine little bluebirds, sitting up late;
One flew away and then there were eight.
Eight little bluebirds, looking up to heaven;
One flew away and then there were seven.
Seven little bluebirds, picking up sticks;
One flew away and then there were six.
Six little bluebirds, glad to be alive;
One flew away and then there were five.
Five little bluebirds, sitting on a door;
One flew away and then there were four.
Four little bluebirds, singing merrily;
One flew away and then there were three.
Three little bluebirds, hidden in a shoe;
One flew away and then there were two.
Two little bluebirds, pecking at a crumb;
One flew away and then there was one.
One little bluebird, chirping in the sun;
It flew away and then there were none.
Activity 5
Awareness of Rhyme: Rhyme Production
Materials: Chairs, optional list of word families (available at
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/rhymes/wordfamilies/)
1. Ask students to stand in a circle.
2. Introduce a word with which many words rhyme.
3. Going around the circle, have each child say a real word that rhymes with the word given.
4. If he or she cannot think of a real word, he or she takes a seat.
5. Once there is only one student (or a few) left standing, invite everyone to stand again and
provides a new word.
6. The game begins again.
Activity 6
(Site: Fox) What's Missing from This Picture? Rhyme Clues for Completing an Unfinished
Picture
Teacher gives rhyming clues to help complete a partially sketched picture on the board.
Directions:
1. Sketch something on the board, omitting several important features. For example, you
might draw a dog without a tail, eyes, and nose or a bicycle without handlebars, pedals,
and just one wheel.
2. Give children rhyming clues to the missing parts. If you draw a dog you might say, “Our
dog needs something that rhymes with sail. What's missing?” Children say “tail” and
you draw the tail. Continue saying “We need to add something to our dog that rhymes
with rose.” “Next comes something that rhymes with tie.”
3. After completing the picture, you may wish to add accessories to the dog like a collar,
leash, sweater, hat or even sunglasses. Call on children who whisper in your ear what
should be drawn next and give their classmates a rhyming clue for drawing.
Additional ideas: Make a reproducible worksheet of your drawing for the rest of the class so they may
participate and draw while one student goes to the board. Felt boards would be effective in this lesson
if objects were all pre-cut, and could then be reusable.
Activity 7
(Site: Fox) Rhyme Chant Develops rhyme awareness.
1. Demonstrate the chant using four rhyming words. When children are familiar with the
chant, invite individuals to think of rhyming words.
Clap-Clap-Pat: man-Clap-Clap-Pat: pan
Clap-Clap-Pat: pan-Clap-Clap-Pat: fan
Clap-Clap-Pat: fan-Clap-Clap-Pat: ran
Clap-Clap-Pat: ran-Clap-Clap-Pat: tan
Activity 8
(Site: CORE Teaching Reading Sourcebook) The Hungry Thing by Jan Slepian and Ann Seidler.
New York: Scholastic.
This activity helps students ability to recognize words that rhyme and helps them generate rhyming
words.
Explain to the students that you are going to tell them a story about a Hungry Thing who comes to town,
but he is unable to pronounce the foods correctly that he would like to eat. The Hungry Thing gives
rhyming words instead of the correct food. Hand out cards to the students with pictures of foods on
them. Select one student to be the Hungry Thing and place a “Feed Me” sign around the student's neck.
Have each student say the name of the food on his or her card and place in front of them face up on the
floor.
Begin your story: I'm going to tell you the story of a Hungry Thing that comes to town. Remember he
will say a rhyming word for the food that he wants to eat. Check to see if your food card rhymes with
what the Hungry Thing is asking for. So if the Hungry Thing asks for “pilk”, he really would like
“milk”. If you are holding the milk card you will come up and place it in the Hungry Thing's envelope.
Then lead the students through the interactive story.
A line up activity chant with rhyming- If your name rhymes with “silly”, please line up Billy!
Activity 9
Rhyme Recognition
Materials: Rhyming Picture Cards
Procedure: Remind student that when words rhyme they have the same sound at the end (vowel
plus consonant: man, tan). Show the student three picture cards (two that rhyme and one that
does not) and tell them what the pictures are. Ask the student to identify which two pictures
rhyme and tell him to remove the card that does not rhyme. Increase up to five or six cards and
have the student remove all the words that do not rhyme (only two cards will remain). (Snow,
Burns, & Griffin, 1998)
Activity 10
Rhyme Recognition
Materials: Rhyming A-LOT-OH! Boards, rhyming picture cards
Procedure: The students match rhyming picture cards to picture boards. Each student gets a
different picture board. Rhyming picture cards will be placed face down on the table. Students
take turns selecting a picture card and then naming it. After looking at his picture board, the
student will determine if the card rhymes with one of his picture board pictures. If there is a
match, the child says the rhyming words and places the picture on top of the picture on the board.
If there is no match he returns the card to the bottom of the pile. The game continues until a
student matches all of the pictures on the page. (The Florida Center for Reading Research, 2005,
K-1 pg. 9)
Activity 11
Rhyme Production
Materials: Covered basket, small items such as a hat, bear, mug, soap, key, etc.
Procedure: The teacher will place the items in a covered basket and tell the students they are
going to guess the mystery objects. The teacher reaches into the basket and says “The mystery
object starts with /h/ and rhymes with “cat”. The children will raise their hands to provide the
rhyming object. This continues until all of the objects are out of the basket. As students become
more experienced with rhyming words, they can be the ones giving the clues to their peers.
(Andreassen & Smith, 2008)
Activity 12
Taken from: http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/lessonplans/rhyming-ball-game
o Materials:

Rhyming book

Pocket chart

Rhyming picture cards
o Activity:

Warm-up

Teach students that rhymes are words that sound the same, but do not start
with the same letter. (Examples of rhyming words are: hat-bat, carjar. Write these examples on the chalkboard for a visual aid.)

Direct Instruction

Provide each student with a rhyming picture card. The rhyming picture
card should include the word so that students can identify the words
ending.

Have students match their rhyming picture card with a picture card that is
displayed on your pocket chart.

Remind students that the two pictures should rhyme.

After each student has placed their picture card in the pocket chart, then
read a rhyming story. Be sure to ask the students what are the rhyming
words on each page.

After the reading and identifying the rhyming words in the book, then go
over the students’ work in the pocket chart.

Identify the correct rhyming pairs and discuss those pairs that are not
correct.
Activity 13
Taken from: http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/lessonplans/rhyming-ball-game
o Materials:

Nerf or stress ball
o Activity:

Play a rhyming ball game. First, ask students to sit in a circle.

Next, explain to students that you are going to tell them a word and each student
will take a turn saying a word that rhymes with the word you said. When the
student says a correct rhyming word then they will be tossed the ball.

Then the student who is holding the ball will need to say a word and another
student will need to say a word that rhymes.
Activity 14
Taken from: www.collierschools.com/english/.../IG/1-Phonological%20Awareness.doc
o Materials:

A book with rhyming patterns

Chart paper

Marker
o Activity:

Have the students listen for rhyming words as you read a page from a text.
Remind the students that rhyming words sound the same at the end.

Ask which words do they think rhyme.

Repeat for the next few pages, stressing the rhyming words.

Write rhyming words on a chart (cat, hat). Ask students to brainstorm other
words that rhyme with words on the chart and add them to the list (sat, fat, mat).

Read all of the words on the chart to the students. Ask students what sound they
hear at the end of each word.
Activity 15
Hopscotch

Materials: Hopscotch board, laminated pictures of rhyming and non-rhyming words, beanbag
Draw a hopscotch board on the floor with masking tape, or with chalk if outdoors. Place pictures
in each square. Have child toss a beanbag on a square, hop to that square and then say what’s in
the picture. Read another word (sometimes a rhyming word, sometimes not) and ask the child if
it rhymes or not. If they answer correctly, they get another turn. Have a group of children take
turns.

2. Materials: Dr. Seuss book with rhyming words, One Fish, Two Fish

Teacher reads the book, and then teaches children repeated phrases from the story. Students
repeat several times. Teacher then reads the story and has children complete the rhyming part of
the phrase. For example: one fish, two fish, red fish, _________ fish.

3. Which One Does Not Belong?

Materials: pictures of cvc words. 2 pictures of words that rhyme and 1 that doesn’t

Show three consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pictures/words (e.g., “cat, log, dog”). Tell the
children, “Two of these words rhyme, one does not rhyme. Can you tell me which one does not
rhyme with the others?”
Activity 16
Recognition: Singing songs

Needed: Any children’s song with rhyming words

Have children listen to the provided song and become familiar with the lyrics before playing this
game. Sing the song as a class and pause after having sung two phrases that end in rhyming
words. Ask students “Which other word did we sing that rhymes with
? (Paulson 2010)
Activity 17
Matching: “Show and Tell”


Needed: small objects or pictures, paper sacks
Have children put some objects or pictures from their homes in paper sacks. You might want to
make some extras for children who forget or do not bring in objects from home. The objects stay
hidden in the sacks so the other children do not see them before “showing and telling.” Prior to
showing and telling, you will have to sneak peeks into each bag in order to make a list on the
board or chart paper of potential words that rhyme with the objects in the sacks. When each
child takes their turn showing their objects, the other students have to find the words written on
the board that rhyme with the object being shown. (Adapted from Fox 2008)
Activity 18
Materials: Rhyming picture cards (can be created from pictures at
http://www.northpole.com/Academy/Activities/RhymingWords/RhymingWords.pdf)
1.
Show each “Memory” picture card to the students and tell them what it is a picture of.
2. Then, place the cards face down randomly.
3. A student turns over two cards. If the names of the items rhyme, they are a match and the
student keeps the cards. If they do not match, the student turns the cards back over and it is
another student’s turn.
Activity 19
Word Detectives-(Beatty p. 35)
Materials: Any rhyming book such as:
B is for Bulldozer
Dinosaur, Dinosaur
“Fire, Fire!” Said Mrs. McGuire
Is Your Mama a Llama?
Dr. Suess Favorites
Procedure:
Students cover their eyes while teacher reads two pages and listen for words that sound alike.
Model and point out first few pair of rhyming words.
Rhyming words are usually the last word in the sentence.
Ex: Rhyming words from B Is for Bulldozer
Sky-by
sound-ground
eyes-supplies
Hole-pole
pace-place
away-day
Roadbed-head
controls-holes
done-fun
Steel-feel
bent-cement
bloom-zoom
Beaty, J.J. (2009). 50 Early Childhood Literacy Strategies. Pearson. Upper Saddle River, NJ
Activity 20
Hopscotch
Materials: - Materials -Ctrl + Click to follow link
Procedure:
Draw a hopscotch board on the floor with masking tape, or with chalk if you’re outdoors. Tape or place
pictures in each square. Have the child toss a beanbag on a square, hop to that square and then say
what’s in the picture. You read another word (sometimes a rhyming word, sometimes not) and ask the
child if it rhymes or not. If they answer correctly, they get another turn. If you have a group of children,
have them take turns.
http://phonologicalawareness.org/4.html
Activity 21
Nursery Rhyme Change-(Paulson p. 56)
Materials: Rhyming poem or nursery rhyme
Procedure:
Once students have learned a verse in a nursery rhyme or poem change one of the rhyming words to see
if the new word fits the rhyme.
Say, “Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the block. Dock, clock, block do these words rhyme?”
Then say, “Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the chair. Dock, clock, chair. Do these words
rhyme?”
Find objects for the words you use
Good words that work for the “Hickory Dickory Dock” nursery rhyme: block, rock, sock, and smock.
Activity 22
Beanbag Toss
Materials: Materials Ctrl + Click to follow link
Procedure:
Lay picture cards out on the floor. Have each child throw a beanbag onto one of the cards. Generate, or
come up with as many rhyming words (or non-sense words) as you can for each picture.
http://phonologicalawareness.org/4.html
Activity 23
Snap and Clap Rhymes
Begin with a simple clap and snap rhythm.
Get more complex as children move along in rhyming.
Clap Clap
Clap Clap
Snap fall
Snap hall
Clap Clap
Clap Clap
Snap ball
Snap small
A variation is the "I say, You say" game:
I say fat.
You say _____.
I say red.
You say _____.
Activity 24
Rhyming Word Sit Down
Children walk around in a big circle taking one step each time a rhyming word is said by the teacher.
When the teacher says a word that doesn't rhyme, the children sit down:
she
tree
flea
Spree
key
bee
sea
Went
Activity 25
Matching Pictures
Find pairs of pictures that rhyme. Place one set of pictures in a container and all of the rhyming pairs in
another container. Have the children draw out two pictures (one from each container) and ask them if the
two words rhyme. If they don’t, continue pulling out pictures from the second container until the child
finds a matching rhyme. Continue with all remaining cards.
(pictures for this game are available at http://phonologicalawareness.org/resources/Matching+Pictures+5-3.pdf
1.3 Segmentation of Words into Syllables

What it means: Segmenting words into syllables is the process of breaking words into smaller
parts. Each syllable has a vowel sound that creates a “beat” in a word. Students that have
difficulty with the segmentation of words into syllables may have difficulty decoding
multisyllabic words in the future. In order for a student to properly decode multisyllabic words
they need to be able to identify the syllables in a word so that they can break a word into its
parts. If a student struggles with segmenting words into syllables, the teacher could use various
kinesthetic instructional strategies to understand the concept such as: clapping or tapping the
beats of words, or having students feel for the lowering of their jaw for each syllable due to its
being identified by its vowel sounds.
Activity 1
Syllable Segmentation (Site: CORE)
Display the following picture cards: cupcake, peanut, popcorn, hotdog, grapefruit, and pancake.
Say: Now we will practice clapping word parts as we say the chant “Yummy, Yummy.” When it
is your turn to name a food that you like to eat, you can choose one of the foods on the picture
cards. I'll show you how. Using the picture card of the popcorn, chant “I like pop*corn” while
clapping out the word parts. Continue so all of the students have a turn to recite.
Class chants: Yummy, yummy, rub your tummy. What's a treat you like to eat?
(Students rub their tummies.)
Student chants and claps out word parts: I like pop*corn!
Class chants: [Student's name] likes pop*corn!
Activity 2
(Site: CORE) Syllable Deletion
Draw a picture of a football on the board. Then say: This is a football. Let's say the
word together: football. Let's clap it out: foot*ball. How many claps? (2) How many word
parts? (2)
Draw two lines under the picture of the football. Put a self stick note on the first line to represent
“foot” and second sticky on the second line to represent “ball”. Point to each part and have
students repeat “foot” and then “ball”. Now watch carefully as I take away one of the word
parts. Take away “foot”. When I take away “foot” the word part that is left is “ball”. Then put
the self stick note back. Try taking away the other word part. Follow up with the word rainbow.
Activity 3
Syllable Segmentation and Blending (Site: Fox) Salad Toss
Attach two brown paper salad bowls to a bulletin board. In one bowl, draw two dots and a
picture of a carrot. In the second bowl draw three dots and a picture of a tomato. Ask the
students what the object is in the first bowl. [carrot] How many word parts in carrot? Let's clap
it out. [2] Now I'm going to say the parts again, one at a time. Listen carefully because I am
going to ask you to put the parts together to make a whole word: car*rot. What is the whole
word? [carrot] How many word parts in car*rot? [2] Now repeat the procedure with the
tomato.
Small Group Activity-Veggie Salad
Have pictures or a model of the following vegetables:
*cucumber
*pepper
*lettuce
*celery
Have students clap out the syllables or word parts of each vegetable and put the vegetable
in the coordinating salad bowl.
After the activity you may want to see if students can pull the correct vegetable back out
of the bowl by giving them just the word parts, and see if they can blend them together to figure
out the whole word. For example, the teacher could say, Could someone pull the cu*cum*ber
out of the bowl? How many word parts does cu*cum*ber have? [3] What is the whole word?
[cucumber]
Activity 4
Blending Syllables Name Game (5-10 minutes)
Materials – hand puppet (not necessary)
Directions
When the puppet says one of the student’s names, stand up. Listen carefully because he’s going
to try to trick you by saying your name in parts and he might say your middle or last name. For example,
Ro…bert; Ma…ri…a (leave a second between each syllable). Call everyone’s name. Students can then
sit down when they hear their name. The teacher can add another word for the student to point to. For
example, Ma…ri…a…black…board. So…phi…a…win…dow.
Source: http://www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Phonological_Awareness_Activities
Activity 5
Line Time (5-10 minutes)
Materials – 4 pieces of construction paper numbered 1-4, tape
Directions
Tape the numbers to the floor in order by the door. As children line up to go somewhere, tell
them they will line up by the number of syllables or parts in their name. As you call each child forward,
have him clap/tap the syllables and say the number. Line up on the number tapes on the floor. All the
students take their turn and line up according to number.
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Activity 6
Silly Words (5-10 minutes)
Materials – List of 4 syllable words, 4 unifix cubes for each student
Directions
Each student gets 4 unifix cubes. The connected pieces represent each syllable in a 4 syllable
word. Take off the first or last cube while saying that syllable of the word. (Kindergarten – Kindergar).
Students can clap instead of saying the syllable to help with the deletion. Some words include alligator,
dandelion, helicopter and elevator.
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Activity 7
Segmentation of Words into Syllables: Syllable Blending
Material(s): Picture cards (ideas at
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/grammar/compoundwords/twopictures/; use rain + bow, air + plane,
light + house, pea + nut, race + car, etc.)
1.
Take a picture of a foot and a ball. Say, “Listen as I say two small words, ‘foot,’ ‘ball.’ When I
put these two words together, I make a longer word, ‘football.’” Show the football picture.
2. Give students picture cards. Have one student stand and name his or her picture aloud.
3. Ask if anyone has a picture card that can go together with him or her to create a longer word.
Have that student come forward.
4. “Blend” the two words together to create a new picture card.
Activity 8
Segmentation of Words into Syllables: Syllable Segmentation
Material(s): Cut out pictures (available at http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/tx-/polysyllablesR.pdf), graph paper (see example below), glue
2
3
4
1. Students will take a picture and say its name aloud. Then, they will repeat its name aloud while
holding their hands under their chins.
2. They will count how many times their jaws drop down.
3. Students will glue the picture onto the graph in the column that matches the number of times
their jaw dropped.
Activity 9
Segmentation of Words into Syllables: Syllable Deletion
Material(s): Pictures of compound words (e.g., eyeball, thumbtack, keychain), marker, stick-it notes
(based on CORE Teaching Reading Sourcebook p.135)
1.
Show students a picture of a compound word, such as “rainbow.”
2. Ask students to name the picture.
3. Name the picture again, this time clapping twice as you say, “rainbow.” Ask the students how
many times you clapped. Ask them how many word parts they hear in the word “rainbow.”
4. Draw two lines beneath the picture. Put a stick-it note on the left line. Point to this note and say,
“The first part in ‘rainbow’ is ‘rain.’ What is this word part?”
5. Repeat for the right stick-it note and “bow.”
6. Say, “Now watch me as I take away one of the word parts. (Take away the left note.) When I
take away the ‘rain’ in ‘rainbow,’ the word part that is left is ‘bow.’ What word part is left?”
7. Model again with students’ help for “catfish.”
8. Help the students do this for “airplane.”
Ask the students to do this on their own for “cupcake.”
Activity 10
Syllable Blending
Materials: No specific materials needed
Procedure: Play an I-Spy game with the students in the classroom. Say “I-Spy with my little
eye a wa-ter-mel-on. What do I see?” Break up the words into syllables and have the students
tell you what you see. This can be done with any multi-syllabic word in the classroom. (Teach
Me Sounds)
Activity 11
Syllable Segmentation
Materials: None needed.
Procedure: Ask students to clap out syllables with you as you say words. First, give an example
“foot” (clap) “ball” (clap). Begin with one syllable words, then slowly move up to two or three
syllable words. You can use names as well. (TEAMS Educational Resources)
Activity 12
Syllable Deletion
Materials: Picture cards that could be part of a compound word.
Procedure: Say, "Let's clap the syllables for snowman. Snow . . . man. How many syllables do
you hear? That's right, snowman has two parts, or syllables. In fact, snowman is made up of two
words. What are they?" Ask, "If I take 'snow' away from snowman, what word is left? If I take
'man' away from snowman, what word is left? Say, "Let's clap out the syllables for football. Foot
. . . ball. How many syllables do you hear? What two words do you hear?" Ask, "If I take 'foot'
away from football, what word is left? If I take 'ball' away from football, what word is left?"
Continue around the table with different multisyllabic words. (Teacher Vision)
Activity 13
Taken from: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/lesson-plan/phonics/48602.html
o Materials:

Magnet board,

basket filled with pictures that have magnets on the back. (Suggested items
include x-ray (2), pie (1), wagon (2), sun (1), apple (2), umbrella (3), duck (1),
violin (3), rabbit (2), igloo (2), queen (1), lamp (1), tiger (2), monkey (2), kite (1),
bird (1), feet (1), zipper (2), egg (1), hat (1), yo-yo (2), nose (1), owl (1), corn (1),
present (2), jelly (2), etc.)
o Activity:

Seat the students around a magnet board. If items are not magnetic, seat students
on the floor or around a table.

Ask a volunteer to take one item out of the basket and place it on the magnet
board.

Ask, "What did you put on the magnet board?" Help students with identification if
necessary (see list above). Students may identify some items with alternate words
– "jam" for "jelly," "gift" for "present." Accept students' answers if they fit the
item, and clap the syllables for that word.

Say the word again and clap for each syllable. Ask, "How many syllables does it
have?" As students respond, congratulate or assist as necessary.

Say, "Now let's all say the word and clap the syllables for it."

Continue the activity around the group until all items have been chosen.

Repeat if time permits. Encourage students to choose different items.
Activity 14
Taken from: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/15863.aspx
o Materials:

Index cards or paper

Pens

Students can do this activity with word lists or their friend's names.
o Activity:

Students count the syllables of two or more words and add them together. For
example, umbrella (3) + orange (2) = 5 syllables all together.

Make sure that the students draw the pictures of the words that they are adding, so
that you can correct their work and check progress.
Activity 15
Taken from: www.collierschools.com/english/.../IG/1-Phonological%20Awareness.doc
o Materials:

Any children’s book
o Activity:

Choose one-syllable words from the story.

Ask students to feel their jaws move for each word.

Repeat with two-syllable words.

Mix one- and two-syllable words and ask students to count with their other hand,
using one finger for each syllable.
1. Name Game
Materials: basket, music, index cards
Write all of the children’s names on index cards and place in a basket. Sit in a circle and pass the basket
from one child to the next when the music begins. When the music stops, whoever is holding the basket
pulls out a card, holds up the card and the teacher reads the child’s name on the card or the child can call
out his/her name if they recognize it. The class repeats the name and claps out the number of syllables or
parts as they say the name (e.g. Mor-gan has 2 claps, Em-i-ly has 3). Continue with the music until all
names have been pulled from the basket.
2. Clap and count syllables in names.
Materials: none
Model activity by using several names of contrasting lengths. Pronounce the first name of one of the
children in the classroom syllable by syllable while clapping it out before inviting the children to say
and clap the name along with you. After each name has been clapped, ask "How many syllables did you
hear?” Once children have caught on, ask each child to clap and count the syllables in his or her own
name. Don't forget last names, too! It is easy to continue clapping other words and to count the syllables
in each. If a name has many syllables, you may need to let children count the syllables as they are
clapping.
Variations:
Ask the children to clap and count the syllables of their first and last names together.
After determining the number of syllables in a name, ask the children to hold two fingers horizontally
under their chins, so they can feel the chin drop for each syllable. To maximize this effect, encourage the
children to elongate or stretch each syllable.
This activity can be done to a rhythmic chant, such as "Bippity, Bippity Bumble Bee": Bippity,
bippity bumble bee, Tell me what your name should be.
Point to a child; that child responds by giving his name. Class repeats name out loud. Continue with
one of the following:
o
"Clap it!" (Children repeat name, enunciating and clapping to each syllable.)
o
"Whisper it!" (Children whisper each syllable while clapping.)
o
"Silent!" (Children repeat name, silently enunciating syllables with mouth movement.)
Activity 16
Recognition: Syllable Markers
Needed: An adequate amount of markers for each pair of students
Have students take turns moving markers to indicate how many syllables are in words that you
provide them with. (Reading Rockets website)
Activity 17
Matching: “Veggie Salads”
Needed: Chart paper, markers, pictures of vegetables
Prior to lesson, draw two salad bowls on chart paper and draw 2 dots in one, and three dots in the
other. Tell students that they are going to fill each salad bowl with vegetables. Show the picture of
a pepper and ask “What vegetable is this?” After students respond, have them clap the word parts or
syllables in the word pepper. Ask “How many word parts are in pepper? (Two).” Say “We’re going
to put the pepper in the bowl with 2 dots because pepper has 2 word parts.” Continue with
remaining vegetables. (Honig 2008)
Activity 18
Production: “Crazy Salads”
Needed: Paper, markers, pictures of objects
This activity is an extension to the previous one called “Veggie Salads.” Students will practice
segmenting syllables by creating their own salads. Like the previous activity, have students draw two
salad bowls on a piece of paper with two dots drawn into one salad bowl and three dots drawn into the
other. Students will either draw or find pictures to glue into the salad bowls depending on how many
syllables are in each word that the picture portrays. A “crazy” ingredient of spiders would go in the
salad bowl with two dots because the word has two syllables. (Honig 2008)
Activity 19
Rolling Along
Materials: Materials
Ctrl + Click to follow link
Procedure:
Have two children sit in rolling office chairs in front of the group. Present the children with a word
containing two syllables. Say each syllable as you touch a child’s head, placing a definite pause
between the syllables. Repeat the word with a smaller pause while pushing the chairs closer together.
Ask the children to identify the word. When the word is identified, push the two chairs together.
http://phonologicalawareness.org/7.html
Activity 20
Syllable Strips
Materials: Long strips of colored butcher paper; small index cards, marker, tape.
Cut a different colored butcher paper into long strips.
Procedure:
Write one dot at the top of one strip; two dots at the top of a second strip; three dots at the top of the
third strip, etc. You may also write 1 syllable, 2 syllables, etc to label the strips.
Give children index cards with words printed on the card.
Discuss how to identify the number of syllables in words.
Children take turns pronouncing words and counting syllables.
Children tape the word cards to the corresponding syllable strips.
Make strips as long as you like. Children may later add to the syllable strips complex words that they
read in storybooks and textbooks.
Fox, B. J. (2008). 100 activities for developing fluent readers. Pearson. Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Activity 21
What Word is Left? Segmenting Compound Words
Materials:
Compound word list: cowboy, baseball, jellyfish, grasshopper, cupcake, doorbell, raincoat, bedroom,
football, starfish, haircut, sailboat
Procedure:
1. Tell your child that some words are made up of two words put together, and you can take away part of
a word and have a new word.
2. Say a word and ask your child to say the word back to you. For instance, say, “Say cowboy,“ and let
him or her repeat the word.
3. Tell your child, “Now say it again, but don’t say ‘boy’.” Model the correct response: “Cow…boy,
without ‘boy’. Cowboy without ‘boy’ is ‘cow’.”
4. Continue with several other words on the list. Ask your child to try to think of other
compound words.
Activity 22
Materials: socks, variety of small objects
Gather several old socks. Have students find objects at home or in classroom that have names with more
than one syllable. Put several objects into each sock. Have small groups or individuals sort the objects
form the socks into piles according to the number of syllables in each word.
© 2005 by National Center for Learning Disabilities, Inc.
www.getreadytoread.org
Activity 23
Syllable Clap
Talk with children about why knowing about syllables can help them when they read.
Ask them to clap with you as you say these words:
sunshine
vacation
delicious
Dinner
Astronaut
alphabet
communication
Calendar
School
wonderful
merry-go-round
Television
Syllable Count
Have children clap for each syllable you say.
Begin with two or three syllable words and build up to longer words with more syllables:
Airplane
Air
Plane
2
2
Table
Ta
Ble
Activity 24
The syllable song
Clap, clap, clap your hands,
Clap your hands together.
Clap, clap, clap your hands,
Clap your hands together
Snap, Snap, Snap your hands,
Snap your hands together.
Snap, Snap, Snap your hands,
Snap your hands together
Say, say, say these parts.
Say these parts together.
Say, say, say these parts,
Say these parts together:
Teacher moun (pause) tain (children respond, “mountain!”)
Teacher love (pause) ly (children respond, “lovely!”)
Teacher un (pause) der (children respond, “under!”)
Teacher tea (pause) cher (children respond, “teacher!”)
Activity 25
Recite “Humpty Dumpty” rhyme
Humpty Dumpty broke & I have some broken words. Let’s help put the words back together
again.
pop – si - cle ba-sket
2.1 Awareness of Initial Consonant Segments

What it means: An awareness of initial consonant segments is a students’ ability to identify the
initial sound of a word. For example: /cat/ = /k/. An awareness of initial consonant segments is
essential for students to be able to split words into phonemes later in their development.
Breaking off the first part of a word is a students’ first experience with manipulating phonemes
and identifying the phonemes in a word. An awareness of initial consonant segments is also an
introduction into students practicing segmenting onsets and rimes as well as understanding and
identifying alliteration, which they won’t be able to do without identifying the first sound or
blend in a word. Students that struggle with an awareness of initial consonant segments should
have repeated exposures to initial consonant sounds and practice in identifying initial sounds
until mastery.
Activity 1
Initial Sound (Site: Fox) Child-Created Beginning Letter-Sound Chants
Children combine beginning-sound awareness with letter-sounds as they make their own chants.
1. Write the same letter across the board, for example, bbb. Ask the children to name the
letter and say its sound. Pronounce /b/-/b/-/b/. This is the first part of the chant.*
*Ensure that you have prepared the students by teaching the letter “b” and the associated
sound /b/. Do not confuse PA with Phonics
2. Ask children to think of a word that begins with the sound. For instance, children might
think of boat. Sketch a boat.
3. Turn this into a chant by saying each /b/ in succession, while pointing to each letter, and
then saying “boat”. Have the group join you in chorus: “bbb boat”.
4. Give each child construction paper and crayons. Help each child make three chants with
sounds and letter associations you have previously taught. Display the chants and at
various times during the day, share the chants with everyone in the class.
Activity 2
Initial or Final Sound Activity (Site: Fox) Sorting Sounds
Students pronounce picture names and sort for shared sounds.
1. Place pictures and small sacks with pictures that represent the same speech sounds in the
beginning, middle, or ending position in a learning center.
2. Pairs work together to sort pictures into groups that share the same beginning, middle, or
ending sounds into sacks placed in a learning learning center.
3. An alternative is to draw connected boxes on sacks to represent the number of sounds in
picture names and ask children to sort pictures according to the number of sounds in the
picture names.
Activity 3
Initial Sounds (Site: Fox) Beginning-Sound Bag Game for Pairs (Great Center!)
1. When children are familiar with objects, place pictures (or objects) that begin with the
same sound in each bag. For instance, pictures of a fan, shell, sun, ball and mop would
got into one bag. Pictures of a fish, shoe, soap, bird and moon would go into another bag.
2. Each child has a bag. One child takes and object or picture out of the bag. The other
child says the object or picture name.
3. The second child looks in his or her bag to find an object that begins with the same
sound. The child takes the object out of the bag.
4. Children take turns until the bags are empty.
Activity 4
Initial and Final Sounds (Site: CORE) The Bridge Game
To play the game students should be familiar with the initial and final sounds in each animal name.
Prepare the game by creating a bridge out of chairs or other props.
Give each student a toy animal or a picture of an animal. Have each student say the name of his or her
animal. Have students in a line on one side of the bridge while you stand on the other side. Tell
students that you are the lion who guards the bridge. Say: To cross the bridge, you need to answer two
questions: What animal are you? What is the first sound in your name? Let's begin. I am the lion who
guards the bridge! Ask the first child in line. What animal are you? (moose) What is the first sound in
your name? (/mmm/) Excellent. You may cross the my bridge. Repeat until all of the animals have
crossed the bridge.
When all animals have crossed the bridge, go to the opposite side and tell the animals is time to return
home. Explain that to return they must tell which animal they are, and tell what the final sound is. Call
on the first student and say: I am the lion who guards the bridge! What animal are you? (goat) What is
the last sound in your name? /t/ Very good! You may cross the bridge and return home. Repeat until all
students have crossed the bridge.
Activity 5
See It, Sound It (5-10 minutes)
Materials – Box (with hole in it), target sound objects
Directions
Place box of objects on a flat surface. Working in pairs, student 1 selects an object from the box
and shows it. Student 2 names the object and says its initial sound. They place the object aside. Continue
until all objects are used.
Source: http://www.fcrr.org/
Activity 6
Move and Tell (5-10 minutes)
Materials – Move and Tell Game Board, number cube, game pieces
Directions
Put the game pieces on Start. Taking turns, students roll the number cube and move game pieces
the number of spaces shown. Name the picture it lands on and say the beginning, medial or final sound.
If correct, leave the piece. If incorrect, move back to the prior space. Continue until a player reaches the
End.
Source: http://www.fcrr.org/
Activity 7
Awareness of Initial Consonant Segments
Material(s): Picture die, picture cards of items that begin with 6 different sounds (use fewer if this is too
challenging)
1.
Create a giant die with a picture on each face, each picture being of an object that begins with a
different consonant.
2. Give each student a picture card.
3. Roll the die. Tell students what the die landed on, and emphasize the initial sound.
4. Ask students to stand if their picture begins with the same sound as the die’s picture does. Ask
students to name their picture and tell the initial sound. Ask the other students if they agree.
Activity 8
Awareness of Final Consonant Segments
Material(s): Construction paper cut into shapes of clothing (pants, sock, skirt, etc), cut out pictures,
clothespins, rope, glue
(based on Barbara Fox’s 100 Activities for Developing Fluent Readers)
1. Hang the rope across the classroom like a clothesline.
2. Explain to the students that on each item of clothing they may only glue a picture that ends with
the same sound as the name of the clothing ends with. Use several examples to show that
pictures ending in the /t/ sound (cat, boat) can be glued on a skirt, pictures of items that end in
the /s/ sound can be glued onto pants (mouse), etc.
3. Give the students construction paper clothes and have them glue on the pictures.
4. Use clothespins to fasten the clothes to the clothesline.
5. Read and reread the words in chorus, stressing final consonant sounds.
Activity 9
Material(s): Internet
1. Show students how to use Clifford the Big Red Dog’s Sound Match Activity available at
http://teacher.scholastic.com/clifford1/flash/phonics/index.htm. (Note: A word list is generated,
but is not necessary in order to be successful at this activity.)
Activity 10
Initial Consonant Segments
Materials: Pictures, scissors
Procedure: Students will do either an open or closed picture sort depending on their level. You
will give students a paper that has various pictures on it and you will name the pictures. Students
will sort the pictures based on the initial sound. For example, half of the pictures may begin with
the sound /b/ and the other half may begin with the sound /k/. After students do the sort, they
should be able to explain why they sorted the pictures the way they did. (Bear, Invernizzi,
Templeton, & Johnston, 2006)
Activity 11
Final Consonant Segments
Materials: Final sound picture cards (Cut out picture wedges to use as target sounds), paper
plates, magazines and catalogs, scissors, glue
Procedure: Provide the student with one target sound picture and paper circle. Place print
resources, scissors, and glue at the center. The student glues the target sound picture on the paper
circle and names the picture and says its final sound (e.g., “dog, /g/”). The student finds and cuts
out pictures from print resources that have the same final sound as the target picture, names the
picture and says its final sound (e.g., “mug, /g/”). The student glues pictures to paper circles,
continuing until at least six pictures are glued on the circles. (The Florida Center for Reading
Research, 2005, K-1 pg. 48)
Activity 12
Taken from: http://www.actionfactor.com/pages/lesson-plans/v0.03-consonants-same-anddifferent.html
o Materials:

Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready-to-Read! CD, Tracks 5 and 6 (Listen to
audio sample)

Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready-to-Read! Mini-Charts (pp. 30-42)

Optional: picture cards and/or objects beginning with any of the following lettersb (ex. book, ball, bell, balloon, belt, bear, bee, bird), c or k (ex. cup, crayon,
carrot, clay, cat, kitten, kangaroo), d (ex. doll, dime, dish, dirt, diaper, duck, dog,
dragon, dinosaur), f (ex. feather, fan, flashlight, fish, flower, fork, fox, fly, fish), g
(ex. glue, glass, glove, grapes, grasshopper, gorilla, goat), h (ex. heart, hammer,
helicopter, helmet, honey, hook, horn, hen, horse, hippo), j (ex. juice, jelly, jam,
jack-o-lantern, jacks, jaguar, jellyfish), l (ex. leaf, lemon, lamp, lace, lid, lettuce,
lion, lamb, ladybug), m (ex. milk, mitten, mask, magnet, marble, mirror, mouse,
monkey), n (ex. nail, napkin, nickel, newspaper, nut, nuthatch, newt), p (ex.
pencil, pen, paper, penny, popcorn, potato, pumpkin, penguin, pig), r (ex. rice,
rope, ring, rock, ruler, rabbit, reindeer, rat, raccoon), s (ex. star, salt, sock, spoon,
scissors, seal, spider, squirrel), t (ex. toothbrush, truck, tape, towel, top, turkey,
tiger, turtle), w (ex. water, watch, whistle, watermelon, wagon, wheel, wire,
worm, whale, woodpecker).
Place four objects or picture cards on the table. Three of these should begin with the same sound and one
should begin with a different sound. Ex. book, ball, bell, toothbrush. Ask students to group the objects
together that have the same beginning sounds. Name each object slowly and clearly. See if any students
can identify the beginning sounds as /b/ and /t/. Repeat this process with other objects listed in the
Materials section above.

Say,“In this song, there are a number of things in each pocket. Most of the things
begin with the same sound but one thing begins with a different sound.” Turn to
Mini-Chart p.30. Say, “Let’s look at the first picture and name what is inside the
pocket.” (book, dog, baby) “Which two begin with the same sound?” (book,
baby) “Which one begins with a different sound?” (dog) “Let’s say just the
beginning of the word book (/b/) and baby (/b/). Now let’s say just the beginning
sound in the word dog. /d/.”

Turn to Mini-Chart p.32. Say, “Let’s look at the first picture and name what is
inside the pocket.” (fish, fly, turtle) “Which two begin with the same sound?”
(fish, fly) “Which one begins with a different sound?” (turtle) “Let’s say just the
beginning of the word fish (/f/) and fly (/f/). Now let’s say just the beginning
sound in the word turtle. /t/.”

Turn to Mini-Chart p.34. Say, “Let’s look at the first picture and name what is
inside the pocket.” (swing, clock, clover) “Which two begin with the same
sound?” (clock, clover) “Which one begins with a different sound?” (swing)
“Let’s say just the beginning of the word clock (/c/) and clover (/c/). Now let’s
say just the beginning sound in the word swing. /s/.”

Turn to Mini-Chart p.36. Say, “Let’s look at the first picture and name what is
inside the pocket.” (doll, dart, dish, spoon) “Which three begin with the same
sound?” (doll, dart, dish) “Which one begins with a different sound?” (spoon)
“Let’s say just the beginning of the word doll (/d/), dart (/d/), and dish (/d/).”
“Now let’s say just the beginning sound in the word spoon. /s/.”

Turn to Mini-Chart p.38. Say, “Let’s look at the first picture and name what is
inside the pocket.” (girl, grass, tree, goat) “Which three begin with the same
sound?” (girl, grass, goat) “Which one begins with a different sound?” (tree)
“Let’s say just the beginning of the word girl (/g/) and grass (/g/), goat (/g/).”
“Now let’s say just the beginning sound in the word tree. /t/.”

Turn to Mini-Chart p.40. Say, “Let’s look at the first picture and name what is
inside the pocket.” (rock, sun, stick, sock) “Which three begin with the same
sound?” (sun, stick, sock) “Which one begins with a different sound?” (rock)
“Let’s say just the beginning of the word sun (/s/), stick, (/s/), and sock (/s/).”
“Now let’s say just the beginning sound in the word rock. /r/.”

Turn to Mini-Chart page 42. Ask students to name the things in each pocket and
identify the one object that begins with a different sound.

Say, “Now let’s listen to the song Words in My Pocket and try to join in. Every
time we find something in the pocket that begins with a different sound, we are
going to clap, stomp, or knock on our tables when we say that word.” “Watch me
and I’ll help you clap, stomp, or knock in the right place.” Play Sing Your Way
Through Phonics: Ready to Read! Track 5. While singing, point to the appropriate
pictures in the Mini-Charts and lead students in physical movements on the oddnumbered pages. You will be clapping, stomping, or knocking once on the last
word of the sentence, “The different word is ___.”

Play CD Track 5 again and ask students to sing along, This time, allow students to
point to the appropriate pictures on the Mini-Charts and have students lead in the
clapping, stomping, or knocking movements as they identify the words with the
different beginning sound.
Activity 13
Taken from: http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/reproducibles/profbooks/p980101a.htm
o Materials:

Magazine pictures

Paste

Index cards
o Activity:

Cut out the pictures from magazines and paste pictures on both halves of the
index card.

Then play dominoes by matching the pictures whose names have the same
beginning sound.
Activity 14
Taken from: www.collierschools.com/english/.../IG/1-Phonological%20Awareness.doc
o Materials:

A book that has some alliteration

Magazines

Scissors

Paste

Paper
o Activity:

Choose all words in a text that begin with a specific sound.

Read the words aloud, stressing the initial sound.

Say the words and have the students listen to the initial sound.

Discuss what their mouth does to make the sound.

Have the students repeat all of the words and feel what their mouth does at the
beginning of each word.

Have the students find and cut out pictures in magazines of things that begin with
that specific sound. Make a collage or book using the pictures the students found.
Activity 15
Materials: Box with hole in end large enough for child’s hand, target sound objects
Students determine and say initial sounds of objects as they are taken out of a box. Place the
objects in the box. Working in pairs, one student selects an object from the box. The second
student names the object and says its initial sound (e.g. car /k/). Continue taking objects out of
the box until all objects and their initial sounds are identified.
Activity 16
Materials: Picture cards of objects that students are likely to recognize such as: sun, bell, fan,
flag, snake, tree, book, cup, clock, plane
Place a small number of picture cards in front of children. Tell them you are going to say a word
using "Snail Talk" a slow way of saying words (e.g., /fffffllllaaaag/). They have to look at the
pictures and guess the word you are saying. It is important to have the children guess the answer
in their head so that everyone gets an opportunity to try it. Alternate between having one child
identify the word and having all children say the word aloud in chorus to keep children engaged.
Next have children identify and segment the initial sound in target words.
Activity 17
Materials: simple sentences with words beginning with the same sound
Have students listen as you read a sentence containing words that begin with the same sound.
Then have the child complete the sentences with a word that begins with the same sounds the
other words. Ask child to isolate the sound.
1. Silly snakes sing _____________. (songs)
2. Bob bounces ___________. (balls)
3. Fred like French _________. (fries)
4. Kathy cooks in the ________. (kitchen)
5. Henry hiked up the __________. (hill)
6. He honked his _________. (horn)
7. The chewy cookies were chocolate ________. (chip)
8. Laura likes to eat lima beans for_________. (lunch)
9. Zack saw zebras at the ____. (zoo)
10. Randy runs in a ________. (race)
Activity 18
Recognition: “Bouncing sounds”


Needed: Nothing!
When having children line up, passing out papers or doing anything where you can use the
children’s names, “bounce” the first letter in each child’s name. For example, when lining
children up for lunch, say “If you’re name begins with a j-j-j like Jenna, please line up!” This
can also be done when identifying objects in the room. Children will learn to recognize initial
sounds in words through this activity. (Paulson 2010)
Activity 19
Matching: “Beginning Sound Bag Game for Pairs”


Needed: Paper bags, several pairs of objects that begin with the same sound
Place pairs of objects that begin with the same sound in each bag. For example, pictures or
objects including a fan, shell, sun, ball and mop would go into one bag. Pictures of objects
including a fish, show, soap, bird and moon would go in the other bag. Children take turns
pulling an object out of one of the bags. The other student says the name of that object before
looking in his/her own bag to find an object that begins with the same sound. Children can
continue to do this until each bag is empty. (Fox 2008)
Activity 20
Production: “Which word doesn’t belong?


Needed: Multiple sets of three or four pictures with 75% of them beginning with the same sound
Provide students with a set of pictures like sun, sop, seven and best. Have them decide which
picture does not belong based on its initial sound. Repeat with other word sets. (National
Reading Panel 2000)
Activity 21
First Sound Sort
Materials:
Segmenting Words
3 bins or baskets
paper bag
several objects that begin with each of three different letter sounds
Procedure:
1. Label the outside of each bin or basket with a picture that begins with one of the three chosen letter
sounds.
2. Show the bins to your child. Review the names and initial sounds.
3. Place all of the objects in a paper bag.
4. Have your child pick one object out of the bag at a time. Help your child name what he or she has
chosen and say the first sound of the object’s name.
5. Tell your child to put the object in the bin or basket that is labeled with a picture that has the same
first sound as the object they selected.
6. Repeat until all of the objects have been sorted into the appropriate bins.
7. Take a few minutes at the end of this activity to go through each bin with your child, naming each
object while emphasizing its first consonant sound.
© 2005 by National Center for Learning Disabilities, Inc.
www.getreadytoread.org
Activity 22
Hot Potato
Materials: Materials Ctrl + Click to follow link
Procedure:
Have the children line up in two lines. Give each child at the beginning of the line a beanbag. Start
playing some favorite music and have the children all face forward and pass the beanbag to the person
behind them alternating between over their heads and between their legs. When the music stops the
clinician names a picture from a basket and the person in each line holding the beanbag tells the class
what the last sound in that word is. The music starts again and the game continues until all have had a
chance to respond.
http://phonologicalawareness.org/7.html
Activity 23
Sound Pairs?
Materials: List of 1 syllable words.
Read each word pair aloud. Ask the child to tell you if the 2 words end with the same sound. This
activity can be used when lining up or waiting for the bus.
1. shop
soap
2. hat
pin
3. web
bib
4. move
love
5. lip
mess
6. fall
hill
7. lake
snow
8. off
leaf
10. mouth
bath
Activity 24
B-I-N-G-O
Materials: Bingo boards and plastic markers (can use Cheerios)
Make a Bingo board with a mixture of pictures of objects that end with the same sound and some that
don’t. Give the children the boards and plastic markers and call out the picture names one at a time. The
children can only place markers on those pictures that have the targeted final sound. As the children
place markers on the pictures, they can call out “Bingo” when they have a horizontal, vertical, or
diagonal line of words that end with the same sound.
Follow the link to create you own Bingo boards:
http://www.dltk-cards.com/bingo/
Activity 25
Sing Along
Sing to: “London Bridge is Falling Down”
(Teacher Verse)
~ What’s the last sound that you hear?
~ That you hear, that you hear?
~ What’s the last sound that you hear?
~ In dog, dog, dog?
(Student Response)
~ /g/ is the sound that I hear,
~ That I hear, that I hear.
~ /g/ is the sound that I hear
~ At the end of dog.
Activity 26
Hungry for K’s
Tell the children, “We are on a special diet – we can only eat things that start with the /k/ sound.” Fill up
a lunch box with objects that begin with /k/ (e.g., carrots, corn, cucumbers, ketchup, etc.). To make it
interesting, add other objects that start with /k/ but you wouldn’t necessarily eat (e.g., cards, cat, cow,
key). “Throw out” any spoiled items (i.e., objects that don’t start with the special /k/ sound). (Need
Large lunch box / Cooler, plastic food items, or non-perishable food items)
Activity 27
Sound Soup
Tell the children, “Today we’ll be making Sound Soup - all the ingredients must begin with the /s/
sound.” Fill the bowl with items such as salt, spaghetti, and strawberries. Add in some non-food items
for fun (e.g., straws, socks, and sleeping bags). For additional fun and practice, have the children stir the
soup
2.2 Alliteration

What it means: Alliteration is when a student can identify when words begin with the same
sounds. Alliteration enhances a students’ understanding of the initial sounds in words and will
help them with identifying onsets and rimes in the future. If a student cannot identify if words
begin with the same sounds, students need repeated exposure to words that share the same
beginning sound and be able to identify if pairs of words begin with the same sound, odd-manout, and come up with words that share the same initial sound.
Activity 1
Initial Sound (Site: CORE)
Hold up a book. Say: I want you to listen carefully for the first sound in book. Say the word
book again emphasizing the initial sound. Say: The first sound in book is /b/. Ask: What is the
first sound in book? (/b/) Say: That's right. The first sound in book is /b/.
Now we are going to listen for words that have the same first sound as book. Display a hat, a
marker, and a ball. Hold up each object stressing it's beginning sound and repeating the initial
sound of book. Ask students if they have the same initial sound. Have students identify that
“ball” and “book” both have the /b/ sound. (If 3 choice items are too difficult, limit it to 2
choices. Also make sure not to use items that have similar initial sounds such as /p/ and /b/.)
Activity 2
Initial Sound (Site: CORE) Eye Spy
Say: We are going to play a game called I Spy. Hold up a book. I spy something in this room
whose name has the same first sound as “book”. Get students feed back. Balloon! Good!
What sound does book and balloon begin with? /b/
Continue with other examples.
Activity 3
Phoneme Categorization (Site: CORE) Odd One Out
Display a picture card set: bus, ball, mouse. Say: The name of one of these pictures deos not
belong with the others. It begins with a different sound. Listen carefully as I say each picture
name and its first sound. “bus” /b/, “ball” /b/. Both “bus” and “ball” start with /b/. “mouse”
/m/ “Mouse” does not belong with “bus” and “ball”. Have students repeat the words and the
sounds as you point to each picture. Ask them which word does not have the same first sound.
“Mouse” Good.
Now repeat with picture cards of cow, cat, hat; fish, foot, tent
Activity 4
Popular Pals (About 10 minutes)
Materials – Popular pal cutout, items for decorating, scissors, glue, crayons
Directions
Each student gets a popular pal cutout, crayon, decorating items, scissors, and glue. The student
produces alliterative phrases that matches his or her name and describes a self characteristic (i.e. Happy
Holly). Decorate the popular pal to illustrate the description.
Source: http://www.fcrr.org/
Activity 5
Silly Sentence Big Book (10 to 15 minutes)
Materials – Construction paper, alphabet picture cards, decorating items, scissors, glue, crayons
Directions
Each student gets a piece of construction paper with initial sound, picture card, crayons, scissors,
and glue. The student names the picture and says the initial sound. The student creates an alternative
sentence for the sound. Illustrate the sentence. For example, “Baker Bob bakes brown bread.”
Source: http://www.fcrr.org/
Activity 6
Tongue Twisters (10 minutes)
Materials – Copy of tongue twisters for teacher
Directions
Teacher reads tongue twisters aloud to the students. Teacher states the letter sound that is being
repeated throughout the twister. Students then get to tell the letter sound they hear. Some examples
include, “Peter piper”, “Tutor who tooted”, “Woodchuck”, and “Skunk on stump.”
Source: http://www.nanascorner.com/2009/06/29/alliteration-examples-alliteration-poems-and-tonguetwisters/
Activity 7
Alliteration
Material(s): Copy of Mother Goose’s “Betty Botter”
1.
Tell students that they will be listening for the /b/ sound. Practice.
2. Read Mother Goose’s “Betty Botter” to students. Have them raise their hands every time they
hear a word that begins with the /b/ sound.
Material(s): Nothing special
1. After memorizing “She sells sea shells down by the sea shore,” pair up students. The student on
the right will say the words beginning with the /sh/ sound and the student on the left will say the
words beginning with the /s/ sound. Both students will say the remaining words in unison.
2. Once the students have mastered their sounds they switch places to practice the other.
Activity 8
Alliteration
Material(s): CD player, Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready-to-Read! CD, Tracks 3 and 4, pictures
(source- http://www.actionfactor.com/pages/lesson-plans/v0.02-beginning-sounds.html)
1. Say, “Let’s think of some words that start with the same sound. I’ll say the first ones and we’ll
see if you can think of a color word that starts with the same sound.” Say, “Pig, penguin,
porcupine...”
2. Have students repeat.
3. Ask, “What sound do these words start with?” (/p/) Then ask, “What is a color word that begins
with the same sound?” (pink, purple)
4. Say, “Let’s listen to this funny song and see if we can hear words that start with the same sound.
You can sing along with the music on the parts of the song that repeat.”
5. Play Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready-to-Read! CD Track 2.
6. Practice saying the first sentence, “Peter Piper picked a peck of prickly pickled peppers.” Have
students echo. Ask, “What sound do most of these words start with?” (/p/)
7. Practice saying, “Betty Botter bought some better buns and bitter butter.” Again, ask students to
echo you and to identify the beginning sounds. (/b/)
8. Say, “Now, can you say this sound - /t-t-t/? Let’s find a person in this book whose name starts
with the sound /t-t-t/. I’m going to read about two people on this page. One is Cathy Casey and
the other is Terry Topper. Which one begins with the sound /t/--Cathy Casey or Terry Topper?
(Terry Topper)
9. Read, “Terry Topper tipped a ton of tangled twisted toffee.” Ask students to echo and ask again
what beginning sounds were used in the tale of Terry. (/t/) Explain that when we say words that
start the same really quickly, we call those words “tongue twisters.”
10. Say, “Now, let’s try the other tongue twister on this page. Cathy Casey cracked a couple of cups
of creamy coffee. What sound do these words start with?” (/k/)
11. Repeat the procedure for Step 4, reading the first or second sentence on pages 22, 24, and 26.
12. Play CD Track 2 again and ask the students to join in as much of the song as they can. Remind
them to look at the pictures to help them remember the words. As you play the CD, tap the
appropriate picture with your finger or pointer as you say each word that begins with the target
sound. For example on page 26, you will tap the pile of marbles on the following words: MandyMonk-made-many-messy-mounds-muddy-marbles. If you are not using the Mini-Charts, use one
picture card to represent the sentence with the repeated sound (e.g., /p/ pepper, /b/ butter, /c/ cup,
/t/ truck, /d/ dog, /w/ well, /s/ spider, /f/ fire, /m/ marbles, /g/ garbage.)
13. Identify the pictures on page 19 and ask which start with the /b/ sound. Repeat for the pictures
on the other pages.
14. Replay and sing CD Track 3 but allow two students to tap the pictures in time with the repeated
sounds.
Activity 9
Materials: None needed
Procedure: Sing the song “Apples and Bananas”. Instead of using vowels to change the words, have
children suggest any sounds. Then sing the song with those sounds. For example, a child says, “I like
to peat!” Then sing, “I like to peat. I like to peat. I like to peat, peat, papples and pananas.”
(Reading-Strategies-help.com, 2008)
Activity 10
Materials: Paper, Crayons/Markers, yarn to hold the book together, scissors
Procedure: The class will create a class book about alliteration using the students’ names. Each
child will create an alliteration based on her name and something she likes to eat or do. The teacher
will write this on a paper, and the student will decorate the paper. After all of the students are
finished the teacher will put it together as a class book. The book will be read multiple times to the
class, emphasizing the alliterations and will then be kept in the classroom library. (ReadingStrategies-help.com, 2008)
Activity 11
Taken from: http://www.actionfactor.com/pages/lesson-plans/v0.02-beginning-sounds.html
o Materials:

Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready-to-Read! CD, Tracks 3 and 4 (Listen to
audio sample)

Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready-to-Read! Mini-Charts (pp. 18-28)

Optional: picture cards and/or objects beginning with the letters p, b, c, t, d, w, s,
f, m, and g.
o Activity:

Say, “Let’s think of some words that start with the same sound. I’ll say the first
ones and we’ll see if you can think of a color word that starts with the same
sound.” Say, “Pig, penguin, porcupine...” Ask students to repeat your words
before supplying another one. Then ask, “What sound do these words start with?”
(/p/) You may have to exaggerate the beginning sounds until the students get the
idea. Then ask, “What is a color word that begins with the same sound?” (pink,
purple)

Say,“Let’s listen to this funny song and see if we can hear words that start with
the same sound. You can sing along with the music on the parts of the song that
repeat.” Play Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready-to-Read! CD Track 2 and
point to the Mini-Charts pages that illustrate the words. Students will be able to
join in at the end of each verse (odd numbered pages on the Mini-Charts), if you
lead them in the singing.

Turn to page 18 of the Mini-Charts and practice saying the first sentence, “Peter
Piper picked a peck of prickly pickled peppers.” Students should echo you. Ask,
“What sound do most of these words start with?” (/p/)

Practice saying the second sentence on Mini-Chart page 18, “Betty Botter
bought some better buns and bitter butter.” Again, ask students to echo you
and to identify the beginning sounds. (/b/)

Say, “Now, can you say this sound - /t-t-t/?” “Let’s find a person in this book
whose names start with the sound /t-t-t/.” Turn to Mini-Chart page 20 and say,
“I’m going to read about two people on this page. One is Cathy Casey and the
other is Terry Topper. Which one begins with the sound /t/--Cathy Casey or
Terry Topper?” (Terry Topper) Read, “Terry Topper tipped a ton of tangled
twisted toffee.” Ask students to echo you and ask again what beginning sounds
were used in the tale of Terry. (/t/) Explain that when we say words that start the
same really quickly, we call those words “tongue twisters.”

Say, “Now, let’s try the other tongue twister on this page. Cathy Casey cracked
a couple of cups of creamy coffee.” Students should echo you. Ask, “What
sound do these words start with?” (/k/) You may need to help students by
repeating very distinctly the first two words, “Cathy Casey.”

Repeat the procedure for Step 4, reading the first or second sentence on pages 22,
24, and 26.

Play CD Track 2 again and ask the students to join in as much of the song as they
can. Remind them to look at the pictures to help them remember the words. As
you play the CD, tap the appropriate picture with your finger or pointer as you say
each word that begins with the target sound. For example on page 26, you will tap
the pile of marbles on the following words: Mandy-Monk-made-many-messymounds-muddy-marbles. If you are not using the Mini-Charts, use one picture
card to represent the sentence with the repeated sound (e.g., /p/ pepper, /b/
butter, /c/ cup, /t/ truck, /d/ dog, /w/ well, /s/ spider, /f/ fire, /m/ marbles, /g/
garbage.)

Turn to Mini-Chart page 19 and identify the four pictures at the top: popcorn,
pencil, bottle, bicycle. Ask the students, “Which pictures start with the /p/
sound?” (popcorn, pencil) “Which pictures start with the /b/ sound?” (bottle,
bicycle)

Repeat the procedure for Step 9 for the pictures on pages 21, 23, 25, and 27. Page
21 pictures are car, trees, turtle, cake. Page 23 pictures are walrus, deer, watch,
ducks. Page 25 pictures are sun, frog, star, fish. Page 27 pictures are mop,
gloves, grasshopper, monkey.

Replay and sing CD Track 3 but allow two students to tap the pictures in time
with the repeated sounds. You may need to guide them by holding their wrist and
helping them tap at the appropriate times.

Using the Pictures on Mini-Chart page 28, see if students can match each picture
with another picture having the same beginning sound. Answers: sun/star,
bottle/bicycle, trees/turtle, cake/car, fish/frog, walrus/watch, monkey/mop,
gloves/grasshopper, ducks/deer, popcorn/pencil.
Activity 12
Taken from: http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/ela/e_literacy/awareness.html
o Materials:

No materials necessary.
o Activity:

Make up a few alliterations with the children's names to use as examples, then
invite children to make up their own, varying your examples to encourage
sensitivity to new vocabulary (for example, "Soggy Sarah" on a rainy day instead
of "silly" or "sad"). Be sure that children understand that the point is to have fun
and not to make fun of each other. These last two activities can be done on
occasions when children have to line up or wait for other children to join a group.
Activity 13
Taken from: http://volweb.utk.edu/Schools/bedford/harrisms/1allitera.htm
o Materials:

No materials necessary
o Activity:

Have word play with the students using some of the following tongue twisters.
Have the students practice saying them and making up some of their own.

Angela Abigail Applewhite ate anchovies and artichokes.

Bertha Bartholomew blew big, blue bubbles.

Clever Clifford Cutter clumisily closed the closet clasps.

Dwayne Dwiddle drew a drawing of dreaded Dracula.

Elmer Elwood eluded elven elderly elephants.

Floyd Flingle flipped flat flapjacks.

Greta Gruber grabbed a group of green grapes.

Hattie Henderson hated happy healthy hippos.

Ida Ivy identified the ivory iris.

Julie Jackson juggled the juicy, jiggly jello.

Karl Kessler kept the ketchup in the kitchen.

Lila Ledbetter lugged a lot of little lemons.

Milton Mallard mailed a mangled mango.

Norris Newton never needed new noodles.

Patsy planter plucked plump, purple, plastic plums.

Quinella Quist quite quickly quelled the quarreling quartet.

Randy Rathbone wrapped a rather rare red rabbit.

Shelly Sherman shivered in a sheer, short, shirt.

Trina Tweety tripped two twittering twins under a twiggy tree.

Uri Udall usually used his unique, unusual unicycle.

Vicky Vinc viewd a very valuable vase.

Walter Whipple warily warned the weary warrior.

Xerxes Xenon expected to xerox extra x-rays.

Yolana Yvonne Yarger yodeled up yonder yesterday.

Zigmund Zane zig-zagged through the zany zoo zone.
Activity 14
Recognition: Read alouds


Needed: Various picture books with alliterative phrases
Read aloud picture books with alliterative phrases such as Silly Sally by Audrey Wood.
Demonstrate how to say the words that begin with the same sounds and have students repeat
these phrases. (Paulson 2010)
Matching: Tongue Twisters


Needed: Various tongue twisters
Recite a tongue twister for students such as “Sally sells seashells by the seashore.” Have
students match the similar sounds to each other. Repeat with other tongue twisters.
Production: Animal Puppets


Needed: Any animal puppet
Introduce an animal puppet to the class. Explain to the students that the puppet only likes to eat
things that begin with the same letter as the kind of animal it is. Have students identify the
animal and take turns naming foods that it might eat. For example, a kangaroo might eat carrots,
custard, cauliflower and cake. (Paulson 2010)
Activity 15
Letter Leader-(Beaty p. 25)
Materials: K is for Kissing a Cool Kangaroo
Procedure:
Teacher reads title of book
Children close eyes and listen to the title
Can they hear words that start with the same sound?
As teacher reads each page, children detect all the words that start with the same letter sound.
B: busy, big, bumblebee
D: dragonfly, daisy, dream
G: garden, grows
H: holiday, holding, hand
M: mischievous, monkey, mist
P: peaceful, piglet, pear
Additional books featuring alliteration:
Bats at the Beach, Cha-Cha-Chimps, Flip Flop Bop, Grumpy Gloria, Mammoths on the Move, Silly
Sally, Snip Snap What’s That?
Beaty, J.J. (2009). 50 Early Childhood Literacy Strategies. Pearson. Upper Saddle River, NJ
PA.012
Activity 16
Silly Sentence Big Book
Objective
The student will produce alliterative phrases.
Materials:
12” by 18” construction paper
Alphabet picture cards (Activity Master PA.012.AM1a - PA.012.AM1d)
Glue each alphabet picture card on separate pieces of construction paper.
Items for decorating (e.g., yarn for hair, wiggle eyes, buttons, etc.)
Binder (e.g., plastic spirals or book rings)
Create a Big Book using 28 pieces of 12” by 18” construction paper–one for the cover, one for the
backing, and one for each letter that the student illustrates.
Scissors
Glue
Crayons or markers
Procedure:
Students say and illustrate an alliterative phrase based on a target sound picture.
1. Provide the student with a piece of construction paper labeled with a target initial sound picture card,
crayons or markers, items for decorating, scissors, and glue.
2. The student names picture and says initial sound (e.g., “banana, /b/”).
3. Creates an alliterative sentence for the sound of the letter on her page.
4. Illustrates the sentence using decorative items. For example, if the student’s target sound picture
begins with /b/ she might make an illustration for the sentence, “Baker Bob bakes brown bread.”
5. Teacher evaluation
“Baker Bob bakes brown bread”
fcrr.org/studentactivities phonological awareness K-1
Activity 17
What’s My Sound?
Materials: Punch holes in a Picture card with hole punched in it, with a string through it to make a
necklace.
Give 1 picture to each child. Select a beginning sound, /b/. Choose children with pictures that begin
with the /b/ sound and have them go to the front of the class. Ask children to guess the “secret”
beginning sound that connects the pictures Start again with a new “secret” beginning sound. Extend this
activity by having a ‘Beginning Sound Hunt’. Students listen to a word spoken by the teacher and find
an object in the classroom that begins with the same sound. “I’m looking for an object in our room that
begins with the sound you hear in the word -_______. ball – book – basket, etc.
Activity 18
Materials: Rhymes and songs that include alliterative phrases.
At greeting, snack, small-group, large-group and rest times, read and tell stories, read and recite rhymes
and sings songs to and with children that include alliterative phrases. The following is a list of possible
rhymes.
Fee, fie, fo fum
Clickity-clack, clickity-clack
Clip clop, clip clop
Wee Willie Winkie
Tic tack toe
Snip, sap snurr
Plink, plank, plunk
Fine feathered freiends
Tom tit tot
Hip-hip-hooray
Peter, Peter pumpkineater
Miss Mary Mack
Pease porridge hot.
Hippit-hop, hippity-hop
Bye baby bunting
Goodness gracious!
Meenie miney moe
Trip trap, trip trap
King Cole
Topsy-turvy
Sample Storybooks That Include Alliteration
Alligators All Around: An Alphabet by Maurice Sendak
Alligators Arrived With Apples: A Potluck Alphabet Feast by Crescent Dragonwagon
The Baby Beebee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie
Busy Buzzing Bumblebees and Other Tongue Twisters by Alvin Schwartz
The Duchess Bakes a Cake by Virginia Kahl
Jack and the Beanstalk by Steven Kellogg
Jack and the Beanstalk by Richard Walker
Mother Goose, any collection that includes “Bye Baby
Bunting,” “Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling,” “Dickory, Dickory, Dare,” “Goosey, Goosey, Gander,” “Peter,
Peter, Pumpkin Eater,” “Simple Simon,” “Sing a Song of Six Pence,” “Wee Willie Winkie”
Miss Mary Mack by Mary Ann Hoberman
Penguin Pup for Pinkerton by Steven Kellogg
Sheep on a Ship by Nancy Shaw, Margot Apple
Silly Sally by Audrey Wood
The Three Billy Goats Gruff by Mary Finch
Activity 19
3. Materials: Notice alliterative phrases in everyday conversation.
As you talk with children, use alliterative phrases from time to time. For example, you might say:
“Dylan’s drawing dinosaurs!”
“I’m crunching crispy crackers and soft cheese.”
“Goodness, gracious, golly! I’ve never seen such a long tunnel!”
Keep track of the alliterative phrases your children hear, say, and sing so you
can use these familiar phrases in the activities that follow.
Activity 20
Alliteration All Around
Materials: Pamela Duncan Edwards' alliterative picture books (see Alliteration Booklist)
Procedure:
1. Share one or more of Pamela Duncan Edwards’ alliterative picture books.
2. After you have read several pages aloud, Tell the student what the word alliteration means and give
an example from the book. (They will soon understand that alliteration is the repetition of words
with the same beginning sound.)
3. Show a page spread that the students have not yet seen, making sure to cover the text. Ask
students to provide an alliterative sentence to go along with the picture.
Activity 21
Read- Kellog, S. Aster Aardvark’s Alphabet Adventures. (1992) New York, NY. :Harper Collins
Sort objects from around the room into a bag or basket according to initial sound. Teacher models
creating alliterative sentences as s/he pulls items from the basket. (Following the I do/ We do/ you
do model until students work in small groups to create their own alliterative sentences.)
Activity 22
Tongue Twisters
Give each child an egg carton and several dried beans. Instruct them to place a bean in an egg carton
compartment each time they hear a certain sound at the beginning of a word. Make up several
sentences which contain the same first sound (e.g. “My mother married a mad movie star” would
call for 5 beans). Use several different sounds and different lengths of sentences. Repeat sentences
as needed so all children are successful. Sample tongue twisters:
Mommy makes meatloaf for Marty on Monday.
Peter Paulson borrows peanuts from Paco Peterson
Does Daisy do dishes?
Ginger the Giraffe jumps over jelly.
Activity 23
Silly Sentence Big Book
Objective
The student will produce alliterative phrases.
Materials
12” by 18” construction paper
Alphabet picture cards (Activity Master PA.012.AM1a - PA.012.AM1d)
Glue each alphabet picture card on separate pieces of construction paper.
Items for decorating (e.g., yarn for hair, wiggle eyes, buttons, etc.)
Binder (e.g., plastic spirals or book rings)
Create a Big Book using 28 pieces of 12” by 18” construction paper–one for the cover, one for
the backing, and one for each letter that the student illustrates.
Scissors
Glue
Crayons or markers
Activity
Students say and illustrate an alliterative phrase based on a target sound picture.
1. Provide the student with a piece of construction paper labeled with a target initial sound
picture card, crayons or markers, items for decorating, scissors, and glue.
2. The student names picture and says initial sound (e.g., “banana, /b/”).
3. Creates an alliterative sentence for the sound of the letter on her page.
4. Illustrates the sentence using decorative items. For example, if the student’s target sound
picture begins with /b/ she might make an illustration for the sentence, “Baker Bob
bakes brown bread.”
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/alliteration-around849.html?tab=4#tabs
2.3 Awareness/Segmentation of Onset and Rime

What it means: An awareness of onset and rime is that a child can segment or blend the onset,
which is the initial consonant or blend in a word, and rime, which is the vowel and any
remaining consonants on a one syllable word. If a student struggles with segmenting or blending
onsets and rimes they may struggle to decode or sound out patterns in words. These students
need to be exposed to experiences when they must segment or blend onsets and rimes so that
they can properly segment or blend phonemes in the future.
Activities
Activity 1
Quick Pick (5 – 10 minutes)
Materials – Onset and rime picture cards
Directions
Place cards face down on the floor. Taking turns, one student selects and places three cards face
up on the table. The student says the onset for one picture (i.e. /b/). The first student to find the picture
for that onset and say the rime (i.e. /ed/) gets the card. All students say the name (bed). The two
remaining cards get placed on the bottom of the deck. Continue until all cards are played.
Source: http://www.fcrr.org/
Activity 2
Rime House (5 – 10 minutes)
Materials – Rime house board, rime picture header cards, onset and rime picture cards
Directions
Place six rime house work boards and the onset and rime picture cards face down in a stack.
Taking turns, students name each picture header card and segment the onset and rime (i.e. /k/ /at/).
Repeat the rime, select the top card, look at the target rime pictures, and place the pictures on the
matching rime house. Continue with all cards.
Source: http://www.fcrr.org/
Activity 3
Word Family Sliders (5 – 10 mintues)
Materials – Word family sliders (bought or homemade)
Directions
Students use sliders to segment and blend onset and rime of words. Increase difficulty by
incorporating consonant blends and digraphs into onset slider.
Source: www.readingrockets.org
Activity 4
Awareness of Segmentation of Onset and Rime
Material(s): Pencil, X’s and O’s worksheet (available on p. 5 of
http://www.wordway.us.com/FamilySets/atSet.pdf)
1. Students will study sounds of the “at” word family.
2. After working with the sounds of many words in the family, give students the X’s and O’s
worksheet.
3. Tell students to circle each picture that ends with the “-at”sound (rime). Tell them to mark an X
on each that does not.
Activity 5
Material(s): Lists with common rimes (available at
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/rhymes/wordfamilies/)
1. Pretend that Granny (the senior classroom volunteer) gets a call from her daughter, but she
cannot understand all of the words she is saying. Granny is hard of hearing. Help her figure out
what words her daughter is saying.
2. Have Granny’s daughter call. Granny gets confused and asks her daughter to hold on. Granny
repeats what she heard her daughter say. Ask the students what they think her daughter said.
3. It was a pain to take the train. I got all wet in the –ain. What word might her daughter have
said?
4. Jake found a snake when he went fishing at the –ake. What word might her daughter have said?
5. When I was driving, I got tar on my c-. What word might her daughter have said?
6. I saw that the boy got a gash from his bicycle cr-. What word might her daughter have said?
Activity 6
Material(s): Critter Sitter puppet, toy animals, cage
(based on CORE Teaching Reading Sourcebook p. 140)
1.
Introduce students to the Critter Sitter puppet who takes care of animals at the zoo. Tell them
that “critter” is another name for “animal.”
2. Tell them that Critter Sitter talks in a funny way; it does not say a whole word at one time.
“Listen carefully. When Critter Sitter says /k/… /at/, it means “cat.”
3. Have Critter Sitter say, “/k/ /at/.” Ask students what word Critter Sitter is trying to say.
4. Tell students to listen as Critter Sitter says, “/f/… /ox/” and tell them the word is “fox.”
5. Repeat the onset and rime for fox and ask students what Critter Sitter is trying to say.
6. Give each student a toy animal.
7. Show students the cage (makeshift pen). Tell students that Critter Sitter has a big problem
because some of the animals, or critters, have escaped. “To get them back into their cages,
Critter Sitter needs to call the critters by name. Since Critter Sitter talks in a funny way, it needs
your help to catch the critters.”
8. Hold up the Critter Sitter puppet and tell students that it is going to say the name of the critter
that it needs to catch. Hold up a toy bat. Critter Sitter says, “I need to catch the /b/… /at/.” Ask
students what animal it needs to catch. Say, “that’s right, the bat.” (If incorrect, “My turn.
Critter Sitter wants to catch the /b/… /at/. The word is ‘bat.’ Your turn. What animal does
Critter Sitter want to catch?) Put the bat in the cage.
9. Have Critter Sitter call out names for other animals following the same model (e.g., /sn/… /ake/).
Have the students who have the animal come up and put the animals in the cage.
Continue until Critter Sitter captures all the critters.
Activity 7
Materials: Tog the Dog (Hawkins & Hawkins, 1986), chart paper, markers
Procedure: Read the Tog the Dog (Hawkins & Hawkins, 1986), which is constructed so that as each
page is turned, a different letter lines up with the rime "og." For example, when Tog takes a jog, the
letter "j" lines up with the "og." Tell the children they are going to make a word family chart, using
the rime “og” (if not previously taught, teach what onset and rime are; otherwise review). Then,
read the story again and have the children dictate to the teacher words to be placed on a word family
chart. This activity can be completed with other books that highlight word families. (LD Online,
2010) Take care not to focus on written words!
Activity 8
Materials: None Needed
Procedure: Say “Sometimes when we take one sound away from a word, we end up with a new
word. Listen to this word-- lll-ate.” Make sure to elongate and exaggerate the initial phoneme and
ask the students to repeat the word. Students repeat, elongating the initial phoneme. Say “Great!
Now listen to this word-- ate. Can you repeat the word I just said?” Students repeat the word. “Do
you know which sound I took away? Think about it.” Students should say that the lll sound has been
taken away. Say “Great! I took away the lll sound in lll-ate. My new word is ate. Repeat after me
lll-ate, ate. Now let’s try another one.” Continue to model examples. Good examples of words to
use are: seat-eat, sand-and, knit-it, nice-ice, farm-arm, hair-air, rash-ash, cold-old, bat-at, bye-eye,
cart-art, pat-at, gold-old, pitch-itch. (Free Reading, 2008)
Activity 9
Materials: Detective hat or detective hat pattern (Activity Master PA.023.AM1), two
magnifying glasses, Rime picture boards (Activity Master PA.023.AM2a - PA.023.AM2b), Rime
picture cards (Activity Master PA.023.AM3a - PA.023.AM3b)
Procedure: Students work in pairs. Place rime picture cards face down in a stack. Place rime
picture boards on a flat surface. Students put on detective hats and hold magnifying glasses.
Taking turns, the first student selects the top card and silently names the picture (e.g., cat) then,
orally segments the word into onset and rime (i.e., “/k/ /at/"). The other student says the word by
blending the sounds (i.e., "cat") and uses a magnifying glass to search on the rime picture board
for the picture with the matching rime. The student names the matching rime board picture,
orally segments the word into onset and rime (i.e., “hat, /h/ /at/”), places card on the picture, and
says, “Mystery solved!” Reverse roles and continue until all cards are placed on rime board.
(The Florida Center for Reading Research, 2005, K-1 pg. 46)
Activity 10
Taken from: http://www.actionfactor.com/pages/lesson-plans/v0.04-sounding-out-words.html
o Materials:

Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready-to-Read! CD, Tracks 7 and 8 (Listen to
audio sample)

Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready-to-Read! Mini-Charts (pp. 44-61)

Optional: picture cards for practice in segmenting and blending onset and rime.
Any pictures of single objects will work. Ex: b-all ball, br-ush brush, t-able
table, h-orse horse, fr-og frog, st-ar star.
o Activity:

Say, “Let’s see if you can guess what I am hiding under my hand. I will say parts
of the word and if you put these parts together, you will be able to guess what is
under my hand.” Holding up the stack of cards, cover the top picture with your
hand and pronounce the onset and rime separately. Ex: c-at If the students are
able to blend the parts and come up with the word, show them the picture and
repeat the process with the next card. Ex: b-at. If the students are not able to
blend onset and rime, model the process for them. Ex: c-at cat, b-at bat. Repeat
this practice with several cards until students begin to get proficient in blending
parts into whole words.

Open the Sing Your Way Through Phonics Ready to Read! Mini-Charts. to pages
44. (Hide page 45 for the time being.) Cover the cat and say, “Each time I cover a
picture with my hand, I’ll tell you the parts of the word. See if you can put the
parts together to guess what I am hiding.” Cover the cat and say, “C-at” Repeat
the process with the pictures on the subsequent Mini-Chart pages: p. 45 (b-at), p.
46 (h-en), p. 47 (p-en), p. 50 (r-ing), p. 51 (k-ing), p. 52 (d-og), p. 53 (fr-og) p.
54 (th-umb), and p. 55 (dr-um).

Once students can blend onset and rime for all the pictures in the song, say,“Now
let’s listen to a song that puts word pieces together to make whole words. I will
cover up each picture and sing, Guess What I Am Hiding. See if you can sing the
parts that tell what is under my hand.” Play track 7 and 8 of Sing You Way
Through Phonics Ready to Read CD. Cover each picture during the phrase,
“Guess what I am hiding” and “Hiding right beside it.” Then uncover the picture
and point to the left, to the right, and under the picture as you sing onset, rime,
and whole word.

Turn to Mini-Chart page 48-49. Say, “These pages tell what we did to guess the
pictures. We call this sound-and-blend. We say the first sound, next we add the
rest of the word, and finally we put the two parts together into a whole word.”
Say, “Let’s see if you can sound and blend the words on these pages.” Cover the
picture of eyes and read, “To sound and blend, we s-ee...” (Students should say,
“see.”) “You must listen very carefully.” “Start with the first sound you h-ear...”
(Students should say, “hear.”) “Then add and blend what follows so your words
are clear.”

Say, “Now let’s add some hand movements. When we sing ‘s-ee see’ curl your
hand around your left eye, then curl your hand around your right eye, then curl
your hand around both eyes.” Demonstrate this by making a “telescope” of your
hands and curling around each eye successively, then around both eyes. Say,
“When we sing ‘h-ear hear’ place your had behind your left ear, then place your
hand behind your right ear, then place your hands behind both ears.” Demonstrate
this by placing each hand with open palm behind the ears, as if trying to amplify
the sound. Practice saying the words on Mini-Charts pages with all the hand
movements led by the teacher and then with all the hand movements without the
teacher leading.

Say, “Now, let’s try singing the song again with the CD. Every time we get to the
part about seeing and hearing, let’s see if you can do the hand movements for
your eyes and ears the way we just practiced it.” Play CD Track 7 again, covering
each picture during the phrase, “Guess what I am hiding” and “Hiding right
beside it...”

Turn to Mini-Chart p. 44-45 and say, “Can anyone say the two parts of the word
cat?” (c-at) Continue, “Can anyone say the two parts of the word bat?” (b-at)
Repeat this process with all of the subsequent pages up to Mini-Chart page 61.

Say, “Now, let’s practice this song again, and we’ll give some of you a chance to
cover and uncover the pictures.” Choose two students to stand to the left and right
sides of the Mini-Charts. Each student covers the picture on his/her side of the
charts. Each student uncovers the picture after the phrase, “Guess what I am
hiding” or “Hiding right beside it” is sung. Play CD Track 7 again and assist the
picture coverers, if necessary, by guiding their hands and reminding them to turn
pages as the song continues.

Pick a picture at random from the Mini-Charts for the song. Say,“Who can tell me
what picture I’m looking at. I’m just going to say the parts of the word. You will
have to put the word together to know which picture I’m looking at.”

The student who names the picture correctly may come up and choose another
picture to quiz the group. S/he must say the onset and rime of the word. Then the
others have a chance to guess the picture and become the new leader.

Repeat Step 10 until all the pictures in the song have been named.
Activity 11
Taken from: http://www.fldoe.org/earlylearning/pdf/RimeTrainLP.pdf
o Materials:

Butcher or bulletin board paper

Index cards

Glue

Scissors

Markers

Pictures of familiar one‐syllable words (e.g., cat, hat, bat)

Velcro
o Activity:

Create Rime Train Cars by drawing train cars (boxcars) onto butcher paper or you
may print out train cars from clip art.

Create Blank Train Cars out of butcher paper. These train cars should not have
pictures glued on them (these will be used during the small group activity). Place
several pieces of Velcro (loop side) on each train car.

Create Onset and Rime Picture cards by gluing various pictures to index cards.
The pictures should represent simple illustrations of words that have an onset and
rime that is familiar to the children (e.g., hat, bat, cat; or dog, log, hog). Place a
piece of Velcro (hook side) on the back of each Onset and Rime Picture card. For
this activity, place one picture card in each train car. Also, choose two or three
target picture cards to place inside the train engines.

Choose one rime to focus on for your lesson. Post familiar, one‐syllable pictures
inside the rime train cars and assign each child a rime train car (e.g., hat, bat, cat;
or dog, log, hog).

As the children hold their train cars for all the other children to see, introduce the
picture and emphasize the rime.

Ask the children to name the object pictured.

Ask the children to say the sound with which the object’s name begins.

Ask the children to say the rime with which the object’s name ends.

Prompt all children to say the name of the object pictured.

After each child has had a chance to share the picture on their train engine, the
children can “choo‐choo” around the room to celebrate.
Activity 12
Taken from: www.collierschools.com/english/.../IG/1-Phonological%20Awareness.doc
o Materials:

Any age appropriate book
o Activity:

Using one-syllable words from a text, show students how to separate the initial
sound (onset) from the rest of the word (rime).
Ex:
f-at
c-at
s-at
h-at

Choose one rime pattern and brainstorm other words that rhyme

Break each of the words into its onset and rime (orally).
Activity 13
Instructional Strategies/Activities to support development

Materials: If You Give a Pig A Pancake by Laura Numeroff., magazines, glue, scissors, paper.

Read the story to students. Focus on the word ‘pig’. Work with students to pull the word apart
into rime and onset. Make a list of words that rhyme with pig for yourself. Work with students to
segment rhyming words into rime and onset.
Activity 14

Materials: Puppet, list of word families

Explain to student that the puppet sometimes needs help finishing words because he’s not sure
how to put them together. Teacher says the first sound in a word, the puppet will say the rest of
the word, and student needs to put it all together and tell teacher what the whole word is.





Example:
Teacher: /b/
Puppet: /oat/
Teacher: “What’s the word?”
Child: “boat!”
Activity 15

Materials – The Name Game Song, also known as The Banana Song
This song changes with different names. Teach children the song with one name, then teach them
how to change the song for different names, for their own name.





For the name ‘Tim’
Tim Tim bo Bim!
Banana fanna fo fim!
Fe Fi mo Mim!
Tim!





For the name ‘Jason’
Jason, Jason bo Bason!
Banana fanna fo Fason!
Fe Fi mo Mason!
Jason!
Activity 16
Recognition: The Name Game
Needed: Nothing!
Line students up for lunch, etc. by pronouncing their names in onsets and rimes. For example,
line Sam up by saying, “/S/ /am/, please line up! (Blevins 1998) Students will need to recognize their
name broken into onset and rime in order to know that it is their turn to line up.
Activity 17
Matching: “Read the Room”
Needed: Just your classroom
Have students read the room by identifying objects in it that match the onset or rime that the
students are learning. For example, if learning about the rime –and, students may identify their own
hand, sand from the sandbox or the land outside of the classroom window. (Reading Rockets website)
Activity 18
Production: “Construct-a-Word: /ig/ in pig”
Needed: If you Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff
Read aloud If you Give a Pig a Pancake. While reading, have students think of and identify the
spoken words that have the same rime /ig/. Other literature may need to be incorporated into this
activity and it can also be adapted to practice other onsets and rimes. (Adapted from Reading Rockets
website)
Activity 19
Picture Rimes
Have the children sort picture cards that are from the same word family from those that are not. Ask the
children to verbalize why a picture card does not belong. (Suggested pictures & words: hat, cat, mat,
dog)
Activity 19
Say it now
The student will blend onsets and rimes to make words.
Materials
Set of rime cards (Activity Master P.048.AM1)
Set of onset cards (Activity Master P.048.AM2)
Tray
Place onset cards face up on tray.
Dry-erase marker boards, chalkboards, or paper
Dry-erase markers, chalk, or markers
Activity
Students play a blending onsets and rimes game to make words.
1. Place the tray of onset cards, marker boards, and the stack of rime cards on the table.
2. Working in pairs, student one chooses a rime card from the stack.
3. Student two chooses an onset card and places it to the left of the rime, looks
at his partner and says, "Say it now."
4. Student one segments and blends the onset and rime and says the word
(e.g., /k/ /at/, "cat").
5. Each student writes the word on his marker board.
6. Students reverse roles and continue the activity
Activity 20
Separating sound blocks activity
Materials:
1
inch blocks/ cubes black, red, yellow, orange
Show the child a green and black cube and say this says “pin”. Ask, “What word do these cubes
make?” The student will answer “pin.” Show the student how to separate the cubes and break the
word into onset and rime, /p/ and /in/. This activity can be repeated with different onsets and rimes.
Also, nonsense words can be used if desired.
3.1 Phonemic Segmentation

What it means: Phonemic segmentation means that a child can hear a word and take apart the
sounds in the word. For example: /cat/ = /k/ /a/ /t/. Segmenting words into individual sounds is
essential for students learning to spell once they learn the alphabetic principle. If a child cannot
segment a word into individual sounds they will have difficulty associating letters with those
sounds and finding patterns to spell correctly. These students need practice in separating words
into their individual sounds in order for them to be successful in writing.
Activities
Activity 1
Puzzles (about 10 minutes)
Materials – Enlarged pictures, scissors
Directions
The teacher cuts the pictures into a number of sound parts (i.e. saw = 2). Give each child their
own set of puzzles. Start with two sound words as students put pieces together and say sounds. Once
two sounds are mastered, they can move on to three or four sounds. Picture examples include pig, duck,
bee, shoe, fish, cat, saw, pie, and bike.
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Activity 2
First Drop Off (5 – 10 mintues)
Materials – Picture cards (i.e. fox, van, dog, leaf, hat, pear, bus)
Directions
Place pictures in basket. Students pull out pictures and name them. The student says the word,
and then says what it sounds like when the first sound is removed (cat – at). Students take turns and can
call on other students for help.
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Activity 3
Sound Quest (About 10 minutes)
Materials – Double Picture Cards, Student Sheet, scissors, glue
Directions
The student cuts out the double picture card, names both pictures and determines if the pictures
share initial, medial or final sounds. Glue the card under the correct heading. Continue until all the
pictures are used.
Source: http://www.fcrr.org/
Activity 4
Activity 4
(Site: Fox) What Am I?
Children play a guessing game by changing one beginning sound for another in order to figure out the
identity of hidden objects or picture. Use What Am I? With children who have some ability to blend
and who are learning to manipulate sounds in words.
1. Hide something behind your back such as a pen.
2. Say, “I have a /shen/. Take away the /sh/ and add a /p/. What is it?
3. When children say /pen/ show them the pen. Ask individuals to whisper in the your ear for
something to hide.
Activity 5
Segmentation and Blending (Site: CORE) Elkonin Boxes
Elkonin (1963), a Russian psychologist, was one of the the earliest researchers to link phonemic
awareness to reading. He developed a method that involves the use of Elkonin boxes-a card with a
picture and boxes that represent the number of phonemes in the picture name.
Draw a sun in the the picture frame of the box. Place a self stick note below each box in the grid to
represent each phoneme. Ask, What is this? (sun). /s/ /u/ /n/. Place a stick note on each line under the
picture of the sun to represent each phoneme. Repeat procedure with the word moon.
Activity 6
Phonemic Segmentation
Material(s): Ninja puppet
(http://www.sdcoe.net/score/Phonics_Link/lessons/segmentation.html)
1.
Choose a short word and say, “I wonder how many sounds are in your name, John. I guess
we’ll have to chop it up. Hi Yah!” Make a chopping motion to break apart the word. “/J/ /o/
/n/.”
2. Ask the students to join in the chopping of the name. “Let’s say it together. First we’ll give the
Hi Ya! Signal, then chop the word. Ready?”
3. Students respond in unison, “Hi Ya! /j/ /o/ /n/.”
4. Ask how many sounds we chopped it into.
5. Repeat with other names or words.
Activity 7
Phonemic Segmentation: Deletion of Initial Sounds
Material(s): Large picture of the number eight, an ark, and an eye; smaller pictures (available at
http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/tx-/icd.pdf Note: some pictures may not be suitable for this
activity)
1. Post a picture of the number eight, an ark, and an eye. Review their sounds.
2. Take a picture of a gate. Tell students that if you take away the first sound in “gate” you are left
with the sound of “eight.” Put the picture of the gate underneath the eight.
3. Continue with “bark” and “pie.”
4. Help students to do picture sorts to match pictures of items with their initial sounds deleted to the
three key pictures.
Activity 8
Phonemic Segmentation: Deletion of Final Sounds
Material(s): Puppet, word ideas available at http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/tx-/fcd.pdf
1.
Tell students that this magical puppet is very, very hungry and always eats the last sound of a
word.
2. Hide the puppet. Tell students that every time you say a word around the hungry puppet, he eats
your last sound.
3. Demonstrate by saying “beet” but when the puppet’s out you can only say “bee.” Repeat with
“pipe/pie, road/row, couch/cow” until students get the hang of it.
Let students take turns eating and having their final sound eaten.
Activity 9
Materials: Several chips or counters and a paper with Elkonin boxes
Procedure: Give student an Elkonin box and chips. Give three or four chips.
Example: Say: (“Let’s segment the word “at” into its phonemes”). Ask the student to repeat the
word while pulling down one chip per phoneme /a/-/t/. Then have the student touch each chip
while segmenting the word. Review three to five words per session until the task becomes
automatic for the student. Move from two phoneme to three and four phoneme words once the
student becomes proficient. (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998)
Activity 10
Materials: Push Stick-On Closet Lights (5 or 6)
Procedure: Line up the lights and say a word. Have the child say the sounds in the word as she
turns the lights on. Repeat this process with the same word, but have the child say the sounds
while she turns off the night lights. Have the child work from left to right to reinforce reading
directionality. (ReadingResource.net, 2000)
Activity 11
Deletion of Initial or Final Sounds
Materials: Different colored chips or squares
Procedure: Say a word to the student, such as “cat”. Say “I am going to use the chips to
represent each sound in cat. I will use a different color for each sound.” Move three chips down.
Then say “Now, if I take away the first chip that says /k/, what do I have left? I have /a/ /t/.”
Use the two remaining chips to represent their sounds. Repeat this with the student. You tell
them a word, and they bring down the chips for the word. Then ask them to take away the first
sound, and ask what they have left. This activity can and should also be completed with the final
sound in the word. (Virginia Department of Education, 1998)
Activity 12
Taken from: http://teachingtoday.glencoe.com/lessonplans/phonemic-segmentation
o Materials:

Pipe cleaners
o Activity:

Explain to students that they are going to hear words and they need to take apart
the word into individual sounds. Then they will need to put the sounds back
together.

Examples:

cat = ccc aaa ttt = cat

Eric = E rr ii cc = Eric

Allow students to use pipe cleaners to help them experience word sounds
through tactile means.

Have students hold the pipe cleaners with their fingers at the center of the pipe
cleaner. Then ask them to slide their fingers out toward the ends as they slowly
say each sound of the word. If pipe cleaners are not available, you can have
students pretend that they are stretching play dough with their fingers.

Demonstrate the proper way to use the pipe cleaners before asking the class to try.
Activity 13
Taken from: www.collierschools.com/english/.../IG/1-Phonological%20Awareness.doc
o Materials:

Any age appropriate book

Pictures of objects from the book

Scissors

Pocket chart
o Activity:

Choose words from a text that can be shown through a drawing or picture.

Ex. cat: /c/ /a/ /t/

Using picture of the words chosen, show the students how to cut a piece of picture
red: /r/ /e/ /d/
for each sound.

Place the cut pictures in a pocket chart.

Repeat the above steps until all words have been cut.
Activity 14
Segmentation Cheer
Materials: Segmentation Cheer, can be written on chart paper.
Teach the Segmentation Cheer to children. Each time you say the cheer, change the words in the
third line. Have children segment the word sound by sound. Begin with words that have three
phonemes, such as ten, rat, cat, dog, soap, read, and fish.
Segmentation Cheer

Listen to my cheer.
Then shout the sounds you hear.
Sun! Sun! Sun!
Let's take apart the word sun.
Give me the beginning sound. (Children respond with /s/.)
Give me the middle sound. (Children respond with /u/.)
Give me the ending sound. (Children respond with /n/.)
That's right!
/s/ /u/ /n/-Sun! Sun! Sun!
Activity 15
Materials: Teacher’s Word List for initial phoneme deletion
gold
silver red
pink
bed
yellow tall
shack take
bed
seal
door
rug
book
wall
lock
table
desk
sofa
shelf
Ask students to say a word. Then ask then to repeat the word without one sound.
Example:
Teacher: “Say cat.”
Students: “Cat.”
T: “Now say it again, but don’t say /k/.”
S: “at”
For younger children you can use pictures. When children can delete initial consonants, you can
have them segment and delete words with blends in the initial position.
Activity 16
Materials: Teacher’s Word List for final phoneme deletion
late
make type
date
jet
tooth check foot
hair
like
boil
crime stop
hum
cute
road
Ask students to say a word. Then ask then to repeat the word without one sound.
pool
nose
Example:
Teacher: “Say cat.”
Students: “Cat.”
T: “Now say it again, but don’t say /t/.”
S: “ca”
o For younger children you can use pictures. When children can delete final consonants,
you can have them segment and delete final sounds with blends in the final position.
Activity 17
“If you Think you Know this Word…”
Needed: Nothing!
Sing this song to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.”
 “If you can separate these sounds, shout them out!
 If you can separate these sounds, shout them out!
 If you can separate these sounds,
 And you know what they are,
 If you can separate these sounds, shout them out!”
Finish by giving the students a word to segment. Repeat with multiple words. (Adapted from
Reading Rockets website)
Activity 18
Elkonin Boxes
Needed: Paper with words accompanied by square boxes for each letter in the word, chips for
students to move
Say each word on the paper and have students put the number of chips in the drawn boxes that
represent the sounds in the word. For example, if saying the word “duck,” the student would put
one chip in each of three boxes because “duck” has three sounds, /d/,/u/, /k/. (Morrow 2005)
Activity 19
Objects for Sounds
Materials: blocks
Procedure:
With the children seated at tables, give each child five objects such as markers, blocks or Legos. Have
each child line up their objects in front of them. While reading a book to the children, occasionally stop
and call attention to a word containing one to five sounds. Repeat the word and ask the children to push
forward an object to represent each sound in the word (e.g., d-o-g=3 objects).
Activity 20
Bean Bag Sound Toss Ctrl + Click to follow link
Materials: follow link above
Procedure:
Using the above template, write words with 1-5 sounds in the left-hand column. Have students count
how many sounds they hear in each word and write that number in the middle column. Give your child 5
bean bags and place a basket in front of them (distance depends on their ability to throw). Children
throw a bean bag for each sound they hear in a given word. A point is received for each bean bag that
makes it into the basket. (Make sure your child is saying the sounds they hear as they throw the bean
bag). When they are finished throwing, have them count up their points to determine the grand total.
http://www.readingresource.net/phonemicawarenessactivities.html
Activity 21
Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Word Ctrl + Click to follow link
Materials: follow link above
Procedure:
Tell your child you are going to teach them a song that will help them discover new words by taking off
parts (sounds) of the word. Teach this song and let them fill in the last word. After a few verses using
new words, invite the children to sing along. Other possible words to use include:
Beginning Sounds: boat (oat), farm (arm), meat (eat), bus (us), sled (lead), hand (and), & sit (it).
Ending Sounds: hammer (ham), soap (so), little (lit), meat (me), & boat (bow).
http://www.readingresource.net/phonemicawarenessactivities.html
Activity 22
First and Last Drop Off
Materials- Materials Ctrl + Click to follow link
Procedure:
Using the materials provided here or your own, give each child a picture of an object. Ask each child to
first name the object, say it again without its first sound, and then say it again without its last sound
(e.g., pin/in/pi). If one of their deleted sound words is a real word they can turn in their card for another
one and earn one point (e.g., in). Continue until all of the children have at least five points.
http://phonologicalawareness.org/8.html
Activity 23
Rubber Band Stretch
Teacher models with a large rubber band how to stretch out a word as the word is said.
/mmmmmmmm-/aaaaaaaaaaaa-/nnnnnnnnn/
Teacher models with stretched out band how to bring rubber band back to original length and says
the word fast: /man/.
Children pretend to stretch rubber bands as they say the sounds in different words.
Activity 24
Stretchy Names
Children and teacher clap and say a verse for each child in class:
CHRISTOPHER, CHRISTOPHER, HOW DO YOU DO? WHO'S THAT FRIEND RIGHT NEXT
TO YOU?
Children and teacher say the next child's name very slowly, stretching palms far apart as the word is
stretched; RRRR-eeeee-bbbb-eee-ckckckck-aaa.
Clap once quickly and say name fast: "Rebecca."
Activity 25
Sound Boxes
After children can do "rubber band stretch," teacher shows students how to make sound boxes on
their papers or lap boards.
They learn to say a word, stretching it out, and then slide a marker into each box as they hear each
sound or phoneme.
Activity 26
A Song to Teach Phonemic Segmentation
Listen, listen to my word,
Then tell me all the sound you heard: race
/r/ is one sound
/a/ is two,
/s/ is last in race it's true.
Thanks for listening to my word
And telling all the sounds you heard!
3.2 Phonemic Synthesis (Blending)

What it means: Phonemic synthesis or blending means that a child can hear individual sounds,
or phonemes, and blend them together to make a word. Phonemic blending is important because
it is the skill that a child will use to decode print once they learn the alphabetic principle. If the
child cannot blend the sounds together, they will have difficulty in the future decoding text.
Activities
Activity 1
Bumper Blocks (5 – 10 minutes)
Materials – Three blocks for each student
Directions
Students will be building words with the blocks. Say a three-sound word (i.e. f-u-n) with a
definite break between the sounds. The teacher should point to each block as they say the sound.
Repeat sounds moving the blocks closer together. The last time push the blocks completely together.
Students should practice with their words.
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Activity 2
I S-P-Y (5 – 10 minutes)
Materials – None
Directions
Play the familiar “I Spy” game with a twist. For example, use the names of objects in the room,
tell the students “I spy a p-e-n” and see if they can guess what it is. If students can segment words, have
them take turns choosing things to “spy”.
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Activity 3
Blending Slide (5 – 10 minutes)
Materials – Picture of slide, small construction paper mouse for each student
Directions
Put a picture of a slide on the board. Explain that sliding sounds together is blending. Write
letters of a word from top to bottom on the slide. Put your finger on the top for /f/, middle /a/, and
bottom /t/. Slide from top to bottom saying the sounds. Give each student a slide and mouse, and repeat
the activity with them using other CVC words to start.
Source: Fox, B. (2008). 100 activities for developing fluent readers. New Jersey: Pearson.
Activity 4
Simon Says (use a puppet to be Simon)
Simon says touch your /n//o//z/. (nose)
Simon says touch your /n//e/. (knee)
Simon says touch your /l//e//g/. (leg)
Continue the game using other one-syllable body parts names.
Activity 5
Grab Bag Blending (Site: Fox)
Children guess a hidden object or picture by blending sounds into words.
1. Put small objects or pictures in a bag; keep the objects or pictures hidden.
2. Grab an object or picture; pronounce each sound. For instance, you might say, “This is a
/c/ /ow/ or this is a /c/ /a/ /t/. What is it?”
3. Children guess the object or picture by listening to the sounds and blending them into a
word.
Activity 6
Arm Blending (Site: Fox)
Children use their arms to anchor sounds in memory and to guide blending.
1. Show children how to “place” a beginning-sound, such as the /m/ in /mat/ by touching
their shoulder.
2. Place the middle sound the /a/, on the elbow and the /t/ on the wrist. Place the imaginary
sounds on the arm that is opposite of the child's preferred hand.
3. Children blend by saying sounds as they move their hand from shoulder to wrist. The
fluid sweeping motion from shoulder to wrist encourages children to blend the sounds
together in a natural flow.
Activity 7
Phonemic Synthesis (Blending)
Materials: Corduroy by Don Freeman, bed sheet
(based on Kindergarten Phonological Awareness Lesson Planner from
http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/site/default.asp)
1. Read Corduroy by Don Freeman.
2. Have two children stand and each hold an end of a bed sheet.
3. Explain to the class that children called to stand behind the sheet will pretend they are Corduroy
hiding under the covers in the store. They will peek their heads over the sheet to say a sound
aloud.
4. Model this.
5. Call three children to stand behind the sheet. Whisper a sound into each of their ears (ex: /b/ /e/
/d/.) Have them poke their heads over the sheet and say the sound clearly to see if the class can
guess the word.
6. Continue with other children. Repeat the sounds for the class if necessary. (Possible words from
Corduroy: big, him, home, shop, sad, live, thick, pick, like, pop, doll, room, hug)
7. As a challenge, four phoneme words may be added (crash, stop, chest, smile, last, shelf, dolls,
fuzzy, must).
Activity 8
Materials: nothing special
(from http://www.righttrackreading.com/blending.html)
1. Say “mmmmmmmmmmmooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmm” and ask the student to
repeat the word slowly.
2. Say “mom” and ask the student to say it at regular speed.
3. Repeat with “ssssssuuuuuuunnnnnn” and “sun.”
4. Continue with you saying a word stretched out, the student repeating it stretched out, and the
student saying it regular. Use words such as “me, am, if, we, in, is, see, same, sun, fan, fun, run,
rim, ram, this, mom, his, math, slam, at, not, nut, seed, road, that, seat, team, meat, lap, flip, top,
bus, flag, vest, wish, mast, last, and was.”
Activity 9
Materials: A slide (Playskool slide for toddlers or playground slide and a Barbie slide)
(based on http://www.auburn.edu/~murraba/blending.html)
1. Use a Barbie slide to demonstrate this activity.
2. Using the slide, have the vowel (short e) climb to the top of the slide where it calls for help. “/e/,
/e/.” Bring up r (make the sound and walk with fingers up the ladder or if letters are appropriate,
they may be used).
3. Slide down together making “re (pronounced as in “red”)” on the way down the slide until
bumping into /d/ at the bottom of the slide. (Stretch the vowel until it hits the “d” to make “red.”
4. Practice with more words. Once familiar with the activity and the skill, this may be played on
the playground, with designated sounds assigned to parts of playground slides. Students will
blend the sounds as they slide down.
Activity 10
Taken from: http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/instructor/playsounds.htm
o Materials:

No materials necessary
o Activity:

Guess It In this activity you orally segment words and have the class try to guess
what they are. For example, you might tell children that you are thinking of the
names of farm animals. Teacher: "I'm thinking of an animal. It's a /p/... ig. What
am I thinking of?" Children: "A pig!" Continue with other categories such as zoo
animals, classroom objects, numbers, colors, or household items.
Activity 11
Taken from: http://www.ldonline.org/article/6254
o Materials:

Picture cards of objects that students are likely to recognize such as: sun, bell, fan,
flag, snake, tree, book, cup, clock, plane
o Activity:

Place a small number of picture cards in front of children.

Tell them you are going to say a word using "Snail Talk" a slow way of saying
words (e.g., /fffffllllaaaag/).

They have to look at the pictures and guess the word you are saying. It is
important to have the children guess the answer in their head so that everyone gets
an opportunity to try it.

Alternate between having one child identify the word and having all children say
the word aloud in chorus to keep children engaged.
Activity 12
Taken from: www.collierschools.com/english/.../IG/1-Phonological%20Awareness.doc
o Materials:

Any age appropriate book
o Activity:

Using a one-syllable word from a text read, brainstorm words that rhyme (orally).

Segment the words into sounds.

Connect the corresponding number of unifix cubes as the students say the word
parts and then the whole word.

Repeat with the other brainstormed rhyming words.
Activity 13
Instructional Strategies/Activities to support development

Materials: Picture cards of objects that students are likely to recognize such as: sun, bell, fan,
flag, snake, tree, book, cup, clock, plane

Place a small number of picture cards in front of children. Tell them you are going to say a word
using "Snail Talk" a slow way of saying words (e.g., /fffffllllaaaag/). They have to look at the
pictures and guess the word you are saying. It is important to have the children guess the answer
in their head so that everyone gets an opportunity to try it. Alternate between having one child
identify the word and having all children say the word aloud in chorus to keep children engaged.
Students will be able to blend and identify a word that is stretched out into its component sounds.
Activity 14

Materials: Pictures of words with 3 or 4 phonemes

The Secret Code, is a guessing game. The teacher turns a picture face down and names it in
phonemes, e.g., /h/a/t/. When the student blends the phonemes and guesses the word, the teacher
shows the picture. This game also works well with riddles, which don't require pictures. For
example, the teacher could say, "I'm thinking of the animal Bo Peep. It lost. it's a /sh/ /ee/ /p/."
Secret Code is good blending practice because it works on blending alone without the
complications of remembering correspondences.
Activity 15
The following activity (see Yopp, M., 1992) is to the tune of "If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap
Your Hands."


If you think you know this word, shout it out!
If you think you know this word, shout it out!
If you think you know this word,
Then tell me what you've heard,
If you think you know this word, shout it out!
After singing, the teacher says a segmented word such as /k/ /a/ /t/ and students provide the
blended word "cat."
Activity 16
“Grab Bag:
Needed: Paper sacks, objects or pictures to put in the sacks
Put small objects/pictures in the paper sacks to keep them hidden. If you pull out a hair clip, ask
students “Is this a /h/ /ai/ /r/ /k/ /l/ /i/ /p/…hair clip? (Fox 2008) Students will have to recognize
whether or not you are correctly blending the different sounds within the name of each object.
Activity 17
“Guess-the-Word Blending”
Needed: Pictures of objects children are likely to recognize
Tell students you are going to pronounce names of objects in “snail talk.” For example, if you
are holding a picture of a flag, you would say “fffflllag.” Students have to guess the name of the object
by your pronunciation. (Reading Rockets website)
Activity 18
"I Say It Slowly, You Say It Fast" Game
Materials: various words to blend depending on level of students
Teacher explains that she will say the sounds in a word slowly.
Children take turns saying it fast.
Example: Teacher says, "/k/-/a/-/t/
child says, "cat."
Example: Teacher says, "cow - boy"
child says, "cowboy."
http://teams.lacoe.edu/DOCUMENTATION/classrooms/patti/k-1/activities/isolation.html
Activity 19
Chant for Blending
Materials: words to blend depending on level of students
Procedure:
Teacher: Give me an /f/
Children: /f/
Teacher: Give me an /a/
Children: /a/
Teacher: Give me an /n/
Children: /n/
Teacher: What does it say?
Children: /fan/
Begin with two-sound chants, such as /be/ or /no/, and then progress to three-sound chants: /run/, /nap/
etc.
Fox, B. J. (2008). 100 activities for developing fluent readers. Pearson. Upper Saddle River, NJ
Activity 20
Blend Baseball
Materials: various words for students to blend depending upon level of students
Procedure:
Divide class into two teams. Say aloud a word in parts (phoneme by phoneme) For example, say /s/ /a/
/t/. If the child that is up at bat can blend the word, he/she advances to first base. The next batter comes
up and the game continues just like baseball.
Scholastic Red (2002)
Activity 21
Select the word ‘bat’. You will first auditorialy segment the word into onset
and rime (that is, the vowel and any of the following consonants of a syllable, as
‘at’ in ‘bat’), /b/ - /at/. This is the first stage for phonemic segmentation.
Instructionally, this prepares students to recognize rhyming words and begin to
work with word families. By changing the initial phoneme of a word, students will
learn to create a list of rhyming words (word families) which they can then use in
their word study activities. Here’s an example:
! “If I say /b/ - /at/, you say bat.”
! “If I say /f/ - /at/, you say fat.”
! “If I say /c/ - /at/, you say ______.” (cat)
! “If I say /h/ - /at/, you say ______.” (hat)
! “If I say /m/ - /at/, you say ______.” (mat)
! “If I say /p/ - /at/, you say ______.” (pat)
! “If I say /s/ - /at/, you say ______.” (sat)
! “If I say /r/ - /at/, you say ______.” (rat)
! “If I say /th/ - /at/, you say ______.” (that)
Activity 22
Robot Talk
Say this little rhyme (talk like a robot) and have the students respond.
Encourage them to say the rhyme in ‘robot talk” and then blend the final word
to answer the robot’s question.
I am a robot
Can you help me?
Can you tell me
Who (what) I see?
I see /j/ /a/ /n/ (Jan)
(it might be fun to have a robot toy for this activity)
Activity 23
The student will segment and blend phonemes in words.
Materials
Two-to-four phoneme picture cards (Activity Master PA.047.AM1a - PA.047.AM1c)
Student sheet (Activity Master PA.047.SS)
Box
Decorate as a treasure chest.
Pennies
Crayons or markers
Activity
Students segment words into phonemes to use as clues and blend together to play a treasure
chest game.
1. Place phoneme picture cards face down in a stack. Place treasure chest, pennies, and
crayons on a flat surface. Provide each student with a student sheet.
2. Taking turns, student one selects a picture card and silently names the picture (e.g., “tree”).
Orally segments the word into phonemes (e.g., “/t/ /r/ /ē/”) and turns the card face down.
3. Student two blends the phonemes together and says the word (i.e., “tree”).
4. If correct, puts one penny for each phoneme in the treasure chest. If not correct, places
card at the bottom of the stack.
5. Both students find the corresponding picture on their student sheet and record the
number of phonemes.
6. Continue until all picture cards are used
Picture cards available at http://www.fcrr.org/Curriculum/pdf/GK-1/PA_Final_Part5.pdf
3.3 Phonemic Manipulation

What it means: Phonemic manipulation is the most complex skill in phonological and phonemic
awareness. Phonemic manipulation means that a child can change the auditory characteristics of
a word by manipulating individual sounds. It requires a child to utilize segmenting and blending
words to create new words. If a child cannot successfully manipulate the sounds in a word, they
could use more foundational practice in segmenting and blending words so that they can do it
fluently and more easily decode and encode words in the future.
Activities
Activity 1
Drop and Say (5 – 10 minutes)
Materials – Drop and say triangles, drop and say picture cards, answer key, game pieces
Directions
Place the drop and say picture cards face down in a stack. Each student gets a game piece and a
different drop and say triangle. Taking turns, students get to pick the top card and say the picture (i.e.
deer). The student deletes the initial phoneme and says the resulting word (deer – ear). If found, place a
game piece on the picture on their card. Continue until all pictures are covered.
Source: http://www.fcrr.org/
Activity 2
Name Play (5 – 10 minutes)
Materials – None
Directions
Have students choose a special letter for the song. Sing to the tune of “If you’re happy and you
know it…”. Continue until all students names are used. For example, “If you change the /k/ in Kerri to
a /b/, <repeat> then Kerri turns into Berri, <repeat> if you change the /k/ in Kerri to a /b/.”
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Activity 3
Letter Play (5 – 10 minutes)
Materials – Either paper or cardstock pieces
Directions
Assign each child to represent a letter. It may be helpful to provide them with a piece of paper to
symbolize their letter. Choose children to stand in front of the group to spell out a word (i.e. cat). After
the group has identified the word, have the child representing the letter “s” replace the child with the
letter “c”. The new word becomes “sat”.
Source: http://phonologicalawareness.org/
Activity 4
Phoneme Riddles of Onsets (Site: Morrow)
I'm thinking of a word that sounds like “head” but begins with the /b/ sound. “bed”. Go on to
make more riddles using blends as well. I'm thinking of a word that sounds like “bread”, but switch the
/r/ to /l/ to describe what might happen if you skin your knee.
Activity 5
Segmenting (Site: Fox) What Am I?
Children play a guessing game by changing one beginning sound for another in order to figure out the
identity of hidden objects or picture. Use What Am I? With children who have some ability to blend
and who are learning to manipulate sounds in words.
1. Hide something behind your back such as a pen.
2. Say, “I have a /shen/. Take away the /sh/ and add a /p/. What is it?
3. When children say /pen/ show them the pen. Ask individuals to whisper in the your ear for
something to hide.
Activity 6
Phoneme substitution (Site: Morrow) This Old Man
This old man sings N songs
He sings N songs all day long
With a Nick, Nack, Nakie Nack
He sings his silly song
He wants you to sing along
This old man sings B songs
He sings B songs all day long
With a Bick, Back, Bakie Back
He sings his silly song
He wants you to sing along
Activity 7
Phonemic Manipulation: Deletion of Initial Sound in Consonant Blend
Materials: A sign to represent “at”
1.
Give a student a sign that says “@, or at, or a color to represent at.”
2. Have a volunteer be the sound /b/.
3. Say “at” then add /b/ in front of “at.” Ask what word that makes.
4. Take away “at.” Ask students what is left.
5. Continue with /k/, /f/, /h/, /m/, /p/, /r/, /s/, and /v/.
6. Have partners hold hands for /br/ and repeat the above procedure.
7. Then, unlink their hands and take away the first sound (student). Ask students what is left (rat).
8. Tell them that now when a sound is taken away it does not make a real word.
9. Repeat with /fl/ and /st/.
Activity 8
Phonemic Manipulation: Substitution
Activity 9
Materials: Magic wand, picture cards (available at http://www.speech-language-therapy.com/tx-/k-vs-tR.pdf)
1.
Show students a picture of a key. Tell them that your magic want can take off the first sound in
“key” and change it to a word that starts with /t/. Show them that the key is now tea.
2. Tell them that your magic wand always changes words that begin with /k/ to a new word that
begins with /t/.
3. Show students that your magic wand changes “cop” to “top.” Repeat with “coast” to “toast” and
on until the students understand what is going on.
4. Accidentally “break” your magic wand.
5. Ask if a volunteer is able to help make the wand work its magic. Continue with remaining
words.
Activity 10
Materials: internet, http://www.professorgarfield.org/Phonemics/greenhouse/greenhouse.html
1. Show students how to use this website.
2. Lanolin says a word and shows a picture of it. Then she asks if she changes the first sound in the
word to /(gives a phoneme)/, what new word does that make.
3. If a student answers incorrectly Lanolin helps him or her. Lanolin also repeats correct answers
to reinforce.
Activity 11
Taken from: http://searchlight.utexas.org/Default/content/classroom-resources-test/classroomresources-phonological-awareness-1/concept-clusters/lessons-in-phoneme-identification-blendingsegmenting-and-manipulation/lessons-in-phoneme-manipulation
o Materials:

M & Ms
o Activity:

Review with students that words can be segmented into individual phonemes, or
sounds. Give an example by segmenting a word. Then,

Give each student a small pile of M & Ms (five to ten, depending on the number
of phonemes in the target words).

As a word is said, have students use their M & Ms to represent and “mark”
phonemes in the word, moving one M & M away from the pile and into a line for
each sound identified.

Once students are able to segment individual phonemes in a word, instruct them
to manipulate phonemes in words, moving them to other positions in the word.

Use the M & Ms to help students track the phoneme move.

After manipulating the position of the phoneme, ask students to say the new word
aloud. Listen to how silly the word sounds!

For English language learners, discuss the meaning of the word that is being segmented, and
clearly enunciate the word when initially providing it to students. Be sure to review sounds that
differ between the students’ first language and English, and/or discuss the formation of such
sounds in the mouth and throat.
Activity 12
o Materials:

A favorite trade book
o Activity:

Before introducing the game, select a favorite trade book that your class knows
well. If possible, use a big book, such as Miss Nelson is Missing or Alexander and
the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Display a page with a picture in
front of the class

Today we are going to do a picture hunt. I am going to say the name of an
object in this picture. You must come up and show me where the object is in
the picture.

There is one trick to this game. When I say the name of the object, I am not
going to say the first sound of the word. You have to figure that out! Raise
your hand if you think you can do that?

Okay, ready? I see an “og” in this picture. Who knows what I am looking at?
Call on a student who has his hand up to come point to the picture. Make sure the
student points to the correct picture. Very good. What did you point to? What
picture was I talking about? What is the missing sound in that word?
Excellent!

Continue with other objects in the picture. Use more than one page in the story if
necessary.

If students are progressing well at this game, give them a chance to come to the
front of the room and choose an object to hunt for.

Observe students play the game. For students who struggle, give them help and
make a note in an Activity Log.
Activity 13
Taken from: www.collierschools.com/english/.../IG/1-Phonological%20Awareness.doc
o Materials:

Any age appropriate book
o Activity:

Choose a one-syllable word from a text read. (cat)

Have the students say the word, then segment each phoneme. (bat, sat, fat…)

Have the students create new words by changing the initial sound. (cat)

Using the initial word from the text read, have the students create new words by
changing the final consonants. (can, cab, cap, car….)
Activity 14

Materials: List of word pairs with a single discriminating phoneme in each pair

Practice isolating phonemes in words. Tell the students they will hear two words that have only
one sound that is different. Their job is to identify the sound that is different: the beginning,
middle, or ending sound. Remind students that they must be very good listeners for this lesson.
Call out two words that differ in one phoneme only, such as cat/fat, map/mop, rap/rat. Have the
students identify the position, “beginning, middle or end,” in which the discriminating phoneme
is found. Have students say the sound that is different.

Continue calling out word pairs.

For English language learners, be sure to clarify the meanings of all unknown words. Provide
pictures when appropriate
Activity 15
Word list of three-phoneme words
Explain the procedure to the class. You will introduce a one-syllable word that will
“move” around the circle from person to person. To move the word, you must make a new word
by changing the beginning sound and saying the new word aloud. Ask the students to sit in a
circle; introduce a three-phoneme word (e.g., sit). Model the procedure by saying “I have the
word sit and I’m changing it to fit.” Hand the word to the first student. (You may want to use any
object [e.g., ball, beanbag] to represent “word” so the students have something tangible to pass;
students pass the object to the next person as the word is changed.) Instruct the first student to
change the beginning sound of the word to create another word (e.g., hit). Have the new word
(hit) move to the second student in the circle. That student changes the first sound of the word to
create another word (e.g., mitt). Have the new word (mitt) move to the third student in the circle.
That student again changes the beginning sound to create a new word (e.g., bit). Continue the
game by moving the word (and object) around the circle. Words already used may not be used
again.
Activity 16
The Happy Birthday Song
Needed: Happy Birthday lyrics (Most students probably will not need to learn this song, but you
may need to teach it prior to this activity.)
Tell students that you are going to sing the Happy Birthday song as a class with a different sound
at the beginning of each word. For example, you might substitute each initial sound in the song with an
/s/. The song would start like this: “Sappy Sirthday Soo Sou…” (Blevins 1998)
Activity 17
“Picture Puzzles”
Needed: Pictures that are divided into as many puzzle pieces as the sounds in the word (A picture
of a boat would be cut into three pieces: /b/ /oa/ /t/.
Have students substitute different sounds for different puzzle pieces. For example, students
might take the /g/ piece from the picture of a goat, and add substitute it for the /b/ in the picture of a
boat. This would create a make-believe picture for a real word. The word would be goat, but the picture
would be of a goat’s head on the front of a boat. (Blevins 1998)
Activity 18
Sound Focus
Materials: -Materials Ctrl + Click to follow link
Procedure:
Using the materials provided here, cut out the words and place them in a basket. Be sure to use one set
of words at a time. Have a child draw out a card and the teacher will read it to the children. Have the
children take turns changing each word by taking off the first sound and exchanging it for the sound
indicated.
http://phonologicalawareness.org/8.html
Activity 20
First Drop Off-Adapt game to use words that begin with a consonant blend
Materials: Materials Ctrl + Click to follow link - adaptation includes words with blends
Procedure:
Cut out the pictures provided here and place them in a basket. Have a child draw out a picture and name
it. That child can then call on another child to tell the group what that word sounds like when you
remove the first sound of the word (e.g., “cat” becomes “at”). That child can then draw the next picture,
name it, and then call on another child.
Picture cards: broom, plate, train, smile
http://phonologicalawareness.org/8.html
Activity 21
Willaby Wallaby
In this game, the teacher sings and uses the students' names to complete the rhyme.
Willaby Wallaby Wusan,
An elephant sat on Susan
Willaby Wallaby Wark
An elephant sat on Mark
As students catch on to the rhyming pattern, they can generate the rhyme using other names.
Activity 22
Do the Phoneme Shuffle!
Objective:
The students will orally manipulate phonemes.
Materials:
• None
Lesson:
Review with students that words are made up of individual sounds or phonemes. Tell students
that they will be playing a game by listening for ways to orally change a word by deleting and
adding individual phonemes to different parts of a word. They will begin the game with one
word and finish with a different word.
1. Tell students to listen carefully to the clues.
2. Call out a word (e.g., rake).
3. Ask the students to take away one sound (e.g., the /k/ sound) and add another
(e.g., the /l/ sound) to the remaining part of the word (in this example, to the end,
creating rail).
4. After saying the new word together, rail, have the students remove and add
another sound (e.g., change the /r/ to a /p/, making the new word pail).
5. Continue the game until the students have changed sounds in all positions in the
word (beginning, medial, final).
Adaptations:
The game can be made easier by focusing on changing beginning, middle, or ending sounds
only.
Provide game chips to represent sounds. The students can use the chips to visually move the
sounds to form their new words.
For English language learners, review sounds in English before