Why is phonological awareness important?
Phonological awareness is the ability to hear, take apart, and put together the sounds of language. It is one of the most important skills that leads children to become good readers and writers. There are many easy, fun activities that help develop phonological awareness skills.
At
this stage, the main focus is to teach children to hear and manipulate
sounds, starting from larger chunks and gradually moving to smaller
pieces. Here are the concepts and some ideas for working on them:
Words and Sentences
What is important
- Understanding that words make up sentences
- Counting words in a sentence
- Adding words together to make a sentence
- Taking words away from a sentence
How to help children develop these concepts and skills:
- Say a simple sentence and then together take a giant step for each word in the sentence. (Watch the video below for an example of this.)
- Say a simple sentence slowly and count the words together.
- After counting the words and saying them individually, take one word out of the sentence and use it in a different sentence.
- Play a game where you say a sentence, then take the words away one at a time. Replace each word with a clap. Then put the words back one at a time to make the sentence again.
Rhyming
What is important
- Listening for and recognizing rhymes
- Making rhymes
How to help children develop these concepts and skills
- Play a game by singing songs and telling nursery rhymes. When the song or rhyme is familiar, leave off the last word and see if the child can say the word by himself.
- Have fun making silly rhymes with names. For example, say Annie, lannie, mannie.
- Read rhyming books together.
Syllables
What is important
- Breaking words into syllables
- Counting syllables in a word
- Blending syllables together
- Blending syllables together
How to help children develop these concepts and skills
- Clap and count syllables in words. Start with compound words, then move to words that are not compound words.
- Say a two-syllable word with a space between the syllables. Ask the child to put the syllables back together.
- Say a two syllable word, for example, table. Then say, "What would be left if we took off the 'ta'?"
Onset and rime (breaking syllables into two parts Eg: c/at)
What is important
- Recognizing onset and rime
- Breaking syllables apart into onset and rime
- Blending together onset and rime to make a word
How to help children develop these concepts and skills
- Model the onset of words. The onset is anything that comes before the vowel in a one-syllable word. For example: dog -/d/, play -/pl/, at -(no onset).
- Model the rime part of words. The rime is the vowel and everything that comes after the vowel in a one-syllable word. For example: dog -/og/, play -/ay/, at -/at/
- Play a game where you take one-syllable words apart, breaking them into onset and rime.
- Play a game where you put the onset and rime together to make a one-syllable word.
Our Phonological Awareness Kit is a complete full year curriculum. It teaches all of the phonological awareness skills using music and games. It is easy to use with minimal preparation. Click here for more information.
To see all of the skills in the experimental reading and writing stage, click on the links below
Letters and Sounds
Sight Words
Beginning Writing
Vocabulary and Oral Language
Concepts About Print
