Phonemic Awareness is so much fun!!!

YAY!
You must have clicked to read this for one of two reasons.
1.  You think phonemic awareness is super fun too!
2.  You really hate teaching phonemic awareness and want to see why I think it is fun.

Whatever reason you are here I am so glad that you are!!!

I used to hate teaching phonemic awareness, but I kept at it, and now it is one of my favorite things to teach!

Today we are going to focus mainly on segmenting.

Segmenting in general is a huge skill.   It needs to be taught in many different steps.  Here is how I like to teach segmenting.

1.  Segmenting Syllables (read my post about this here)

2.  Segment off the First Sound

This game is the easiest way that I have found to teach first sound.  Plus they LOVE it.   Roll the ball to them, say a word, they have to say the first sound, and then roll the ball back.

3.  Segment off the Ending Sound.  This just takes a ton of practice for a lot of kids to get.   I use the ball game above (but use a different ball to help their brain switch from beginning to ending sounds.)   I also really like to start using the Chipper Chat here because they need a lot of practice.

4.  Segmenting out the Middle Sound.   If you thought ending sounds took forever then strap in.  This can be so hard for struggling readers.   Again repeated practice it the key.

5.  Segment Onset-Rime
Onset-Rhyme is when you segment off the first sound in the word, and then say the rest of the word.  I have found using just these card stock cards for this activity work really well.   Say the first sound and point to the first card and then say the rest of the word.

6.  Segment two sound words.   Students segment all the sounds in the word.  I start with short two sound words to do this.   Such as go, me, hi, my, etc.

7.  Segment three sounds in words.  This is where we get down to the nitty gritty to get them reading.  They need to be able to segment and blend sounds orally before they will be able to do it in print.

This foam chopper works perfect.   They "chop" out all the sounds in the word.

8.  Segmenting four sounds and BEYOND!   Make sure you are mixing in short vowels long vowels, etc.  I see students really hit a wall with beginning and ending blends.   SO lots of repeated practice and tons of different activities are important at this level.

I love using these lights.  They tap a light for each sound.

Or puppets...he is putting down one finger for each sound!

Or this sound board, you can get it free HERE.   I put it in a plastic sleeve and almost always use some sort of snack when we do it.  Clean up is so EASY and it makes the game so much more enticing.  Pull down each sound then blend the word back together.

Remember to warm up with segmenting daily.  Usually before we start reading words I will give them some of the words orally for them to segment before we start.  

You might like to see my favorite phonemic resources HERE.  

Want more great reading ideas?  CLICK HERE. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Amy

P.S.  There are affiliate links in this post, in case you want to purchase these materials.  Thanks for supporting my book addiction!