A Peek into PreK: Phonemic Awareness Activities for the Littlest Learners

In the last blog post, I discussed the importance and components of phonological awareness. Among those components, we find phonemic awareness. Many times these two terms are used interchangeably, but phonemic awareness is a specific part of phonological awareness. It is one of the most important parts of establishing a solid phonological awareness foundation. Simply put, “phonemic awareness is first and foremost about listening to and being able to distinguish the distinctive sounds of a language. It is the ability to understand and manipulate the sounds of a language orally” (Gibbons, 2015, p. 170). In short, phonemic awareness is all about using the ears and not the eyes when it comes to language and reading.

                                                                                       (Photo From: https://phonicshero.com/phonemic-awareness/)

Phonemes are the smallest units of spoken words. There are 44 phonemes in the English language. Changing just one phoneme can alter the meaning of a word. Phoneme blending, segmentation, substitution, deletion, addition, and isolation are vital lessons to master at the pre-reading level in order to ensure later reading success (Houston, 2022). Prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms are full of phonemic awareness activities on a daily basis. The following are engaging activities that can be implemented in such classrooms to develop strong phonemic awareness.

Elkonin Boxes

Elkonin boxes are a popular tool in early childhood classrooms. They are used to specifically focus on phoneme segmentation. Students count the sounds in a given word, and then they move a chip or counter into each box to represent each sound (Virtual teaching resource hub: instructional activities phonemic awareness, n.d.).

Word Sorting
While sorting games help develop a variety of skills for young learners, word sorting can help boost phonemic awareness too. Students are shown pictures, they name the pictures provided, and sort them based on the number of phonemes (or can be done with syllables) within the given word. View the video of this activity in action provided by the University of Florida Literacy Institute here.

Phoneme Dominoes     This spin on the classic dominoes game will have students searching for matching phonemes. The first student will place the START domino card face up and state the word the picture on the domino card represents. He will then look for a domino with a picture that has the same initial sound as the starting word, name it, and say the initial sound. Then the student will connect the two dominoes. The next student will say the name of the picture next to the domino that was previously played and repeat the process. This link provides the materials and instructions needed for Phoneme Dominoes, designed by the Florida Center for Reading Research. A video example of the game being played can also be viewed here.

Spin a Letter

This activity involves initial phonemes of words, but it can easily be adapted to practice medial and final sounds too. A cardboard or interactive electronic spinner can be used. A favorite electronic spinner used in my classroom is Picker Wheel. Students spin the wheel, and whichever letter the spinner lands on, they must give a word that starts with that phoneme. This could be played in teams, as a whole class, in small groups, or individually.

Jump, Skip, Hop

For the little learner who needs to be active, this activity incorporates phonemic knowledge and movement. Create simple picture cards that you find online, draw, or cut out of magazines. Show the card to the child. The child should identify the picture (say the word) and stretch it out to determine the number of phonemes. For example, if the card shows a pig, the child would say, “Pig. /p/ /i/ /g/.” Since there were three phonemes in the spoken word, the child would do three jumping jacks, skips, or hops in place.

Playing and Learning with Phonemes

No matter the game or activity used, phonemic awareness is a necessary skill for emerging readers, and it is one that can be taught and practiced with interactive, engaging methods. Phonemic awareness is the most sophisticated of the phonological awareness skills and is one of the greatest predictors of future reading success (Phonological and phonemic awareness: Activities for your kindergartener, 2022). By practicing these pre-reading skills in the early childhood education classrooms, elementary and secondary classrooms will be full of robust readers.

References

Gibbons, P. (2015). In Scaffolding language, Scaffolding Learning: Teaching English language

learners in the mainstream classroom (pp. 169-179). essay, Heinemann.

Houston, S. (2022, April 29). What is phonemic awareness?: Phonics hero. What is Phonemic 

Awareness The Foundation for Reading and Spelling Success Comments. Retrieved

September 29, 2022, from https://phonicshero.com/phonemic-awareness/

Kindergarten and first grade student center activities. Florida Center for Reading Research.
(n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://fcrr.org/student-center-activities/
kindergarten-and-first-grade#sca3

Phonological and phonemic awareness: Activities for your kindergartener. Reading Rockets.
(2022, September 28). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.
org/reading-101-guide-parents/kindergarten/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness-
activities-your-kindergartner

Virtual teaching resource hub: instructional activities phonemic awareness. UF Literacy
Institute. (n.d.). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/
resources/teaching-resources/instructional-activities/phonemic-awareness/

I know the term, but what does it actually mean? All About Phonological Awareness

        Phonics and phonemic awareness, syntax and semantics, graphemes, morphemes, and phonemes…oh my! The plethora of literacy skill terminology can be daunting to understand. All of these ideas are branches of the tree that is phonological awareness, which is a multi-level skill that can be broken down into many levels (Gillon, 2018). Phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are two literary terms that are often used simultaneously; however, the two concepts have very specific meanings and distinct components. Phonological awareness is the overarching idea over all things literacy based. It is the umbrella, if you will, that covers an array of skills needed for successful readers. Phonological awareness is defined as “the ability to hear and manipulate the sound structure of language” (University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning, 2009). It encompasses working with sounds at the word, syllable, and phoneme levels. 

(https://sites.google.com/site/literacyresourcewebsite/home/phonemic-awareness)

A child’s phonological awareness is one of the most important indicators of early reading performance and literacy achievement (Gillon, 2018). In fact, “awareness of the phonological structure of a word helps children draw connections between the spoken form of a word and its written representation” (Gillon, 2018, p. 3). In other words, strong phonological awareness leads to better reading, a solid foundation of vocabulary, and deeper comprehension. 

As previously stated, phonological awareness is a multilevel skill that involves breaking down words into smaller units. This includes syllable awareness, onset and rime awareness, and phonemic awareness (Gillon, 2018). Each of these processes is distinct in skill, but they all work together to develop a reader.

Syllable Awareness

Phonological awareness at the syllable level requires a reader’s understanding that words can be divided into syllables. Activity ideas to support syllable awareness include (Gillon, 2018):

• syllable segmentation: “We can clap out the syllables for hamburger like this - ham…bur…ger. Now you clap out the syllables for spaghetti.”

• syllable blending: “I am going to say parts of a word slowly, what word do I get when I put the word parts together? Pen…cil.  Pencil!”

• syllable identity: “What part of misbehavior and misspell sound the same?”

Visit the Reading Rockets website for more syllable awareness activities developed by the Florida Center for Reading Research, such as the one below:

Onset-Rime Awareness

Understanding of onset-rime takes syllable awareness to a deeper level. The onset of a given word is the initial phonological unit of word (the letters prior to the first vowel), while the rime is known as the string of letters that follow (the vowel and final consonants) (Reading Rockets, 2022). For example, in the word story, st is the onset and ory is the rime. Gillon (2018) suggests these activities to measure onset-rime awareness:

• rhyme detection: “Do these words rhyme: mouse - house?”

• rhyme oddity task: “Which word does not rhyme: bed, head, book?”

• rhyme generation: “I’m going to say a word, and I want you to tell me a word that rhymes with it. Tell me a word that rhymes with ball.”

I liked the many skills this Onset and Rime Slides activity encompassed, including decoding, vowel/consonant knowledge, and real words versus nonsense words. You can access the entire activity and materials here.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the understanding that words are made from individual sounds. This is the building block for decoding, and includes phoneme blending, deletion, and segmentation. To measure phonemic awareness, there is great value in the following tasks (Gillon, 2018):

• alliteration awareness: “Which word has a different first sound: cat, cub, desk, cold?”

• phoneme matching: “Which word starts with the /r/ sound like rich: rake, ball, itch?”

• phoneme blending: “What word do these sounds make: /r/ /ea/ /d/?”

• phoneme deletion: “Say hot. Say hot again, but do not say the /h/.”

• phoneme segmentation: “How many sounds do you hear in dog?”

The Literacy How website offers teacher tips and interactive activities to heighten children’s awareness of letter sounds and developing words. One tip is to practice phonemic awareness throughout the day. Giving instructions, such as “Line up for recess if your name starts with /s/,” can easily be turned into an “I Spy a Word” game because it can be done anywhere, at any time. Instead of spying an object of a certain color, an item that begins with a specific sound is found, “I spy, with my little eye, something that starts with /b/.” 

Wrapping It All Up

The many skills of phonological awareness are “strongly interrelated…However, the tasks do differ in their degree of difficulty and level of linguistic complexity” (Gillon, 2018, p. 8). Most importantly, children need to be given the opportunity to play with language. Through games, rhyming, songs, and daily conversation, students are presented with the chance to use the components of phonological awareness in their everyday environments. While it may seem like an overwhelming task at first, once broken down into the various strands, you can hold up the phonological awareness umbrella with confidence and have reading success pour down on your students!

References

Gillon, G. T. (2018). 1 Phonological Awareness Defined. In Phonological awareness: From 

research to practice (pp. 1-12). essay, The Guilford Press.

Phonemic Awareness. Literacy How. (2021, December 20). Retrieved September 21, 2022, from
https://literacyhow.org/phonemic-awareness/

Phonological and phonemic awareness. Reading Rockets. (2016, April 14). Retrieved September

19, 2022, from https://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/phonologicalphonemic

Submitted by Pilar South (not verified) on July 12. (2022, March 2.) Onset/rime games: 

Classroom strategy. Reading Rockets. Retrieved September 19, 2022, from

https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/onset_rime

University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning. (2009, July 17). Big ideas in beginning

reading. Big Ideas in Beginning Reading. Retrieved September 18, 2022, from
http://reading.uoregon.edu/