Objective: Students will apply their knowledge of recognizing individual sounds in words in order to isolate the beginning or final sounds in a given word.
Materials: No material needed
Activity:
1. Begin this activity by telling the students that they will be using their listening skills in order to play some really fun games.
2. Begin by saying the word gate. Ask the students, “What if someone told me to figure out what the very first sound in the word gate is?” Explain that it would be important to say each sound in the word slowly like /g/ /a/ /t/. Explain that the /g/ sound is the first sound you hear.
3. Model for the students how to find the last sound in gate by sounding out the word gate again.
Say /g/ /a/ /t/ slowly. Tell the students that /t/ sounds like the last sound of gate.
4. Work together with students to isolate sound in words. Point out objects in the classroom such as desks, paper, the flag, the calendar, and a chair. Have students decide and explain what the first and last sounds of these words are.
5. Play the game called “Guess Who.” Say the first sound of a student’s name and have them say whose name you are using. Now, say the last sound in a student’s name and have students decide whose name it is.
6. As an assessment, have students draw a picture of a word that starts with a /p/ sound and a picture of a word that ends with a /l/ sound.
Adapted From: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/505441/lesson_plan_phonemic_awareness_activities.h
tml?cat=25

Objective: The students will be able to segment a spoken sentence into separate words.
Materials: Ten counters in a cup for each student, overhead projector (optional)
1. Give each student ten counters in a cup. Tell them that we are going to play a counting game.
Tell that that each time you point to something, put one of your counters in front of you like this.
Demonstrate putting counters one by one in a row in front of you. It may help to demonstrate by placing counters on an overhead projector so that everyone can see.
2. Tell them to count windows. Show that each time you point at the window you put a counter down in front of you. Point at windows (or, the second or third times you play this game, some other object in the room) one by one and help students place counters into a row in front of them.
If students are able to count out loud as well, that's fine, but it's not essential for this activity.
3. Continue until students are able to count reliably. Count other objects in the room if necessary.
If they are already bored of counting, stop here and resume the next day.
4. Ask them if they know that you can also count the words in a sentence? Put your counters back in the cup and I'll show you how. I'm going to say a sentence normally and then slowly.
Here's the sentence: My name is [your name]. My...name...is...[your name]. Place a counter for each word. Tell them to try it and to put down a counter each time you say a word. Help students who are not following. You may need to model for them with their counters, then let them try as you say the sentence.
5. Tell them to now put their counters back and let’s try another sentence. Choose sentences that involve the students in the group, to help keep them interested. For instance: "Peter stayed home sick." "Melissa is wearing a red shirt."
6. Gradually make the sentences more difficult by (i) increasing the number of multi-syllable words in the sentence, (ii) increasing the length of the sentence, and (iii) decreasing the pauses between words. A common problem is for a student to have difficulty distinguishing a word from a syllable. When this happens, for example, with the word "wearing," ask the student if
"wearing" is one word or two. It is best not to introduce the idea of syllables at this point in case you confuse students.
7. When students can count the words in a sentence you say at about normal speed, they have mastered this skill.
Adapted From: http://www.freereading.net/index.php?title=Counting_words_in_a_sentence

Objective: Children participate in a series of activities that help them realize the words are made up of syllables.
Materials (optional):

Cardstock or sentence strips to make word cards.
Activities:
1.) Syllable Cap
Talk with the children about why knowing about syllables can help them when they read and write.
Ask the children to clap with you as you say these words.

sunshine

astronaut

school

vacation

alphabet

wonderful
2.) Syllable Count



delicious
communication
merry-go-round

dinner

calendar

television
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

table

porcupine

communication air ta por com plane ble cu mun pine
I ca tion
2
2
3
5
Variations:
Any words can used. The teacher can choose his or her own words, perhaps maybe site words, spelling words, or vocabulary words.
The words can also just be written on a white board. Word cards are not a necessity.

Objective: Children identify the beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words.
Materials:

Copies of songs used for sound substitution.

Cardstock and sentence strips of words and rhyming words for rhyming riddles.
Activity:
1.) Tricky Rhyming Riddles Using Onset & Rime
Ask children riddles that require them to manipulate sounds in their heads.
The easiest are the ones that ask for endings.
The next easiest are the ones that ask for a single consonant substitution at the beginning.
The most difficult are the ones that ask for a consonant blend or digraph at the beginning.
What rhymes with pig and starts with /d/? dig
What rhymes with book and starts with /c/?
What rhymes with sing and starts with /r/? cook ring
What rhymes with dog and starts with /fr/? frog
2.) Songs that Teach Sound Substitution
Choose a song your students all know and substitute a consonant sound for the beginning of each word in the song.
One song that works well is from "I've Been Working on the Railroad:
"Fee-Fi-Fiddle-ee-I-Oh"
"Bee-Bi-Biddle-ee-I-Oh"
"Dee-Di-Diddle-ee-I-Oh"
"Hee-Hi-Hiddle-ee-I-Oh"
Try Old Mac Donald Had a Farm making substitutions when singing about each new animal.
For a cow, sing, "kee-high,kee-kigh, koh!"
For a sheep, sing, "shee-shigh, shee-shigh, shoh!"
Variations: The words and songs chosen for this game can vary.