Phonemic Awareness Activities
Phonemic awareness is often confused by many people. Some people believe that phonemic awareness is shown through worksheets and other visible assignments, but it is actually through sounding out sounds in our language without visibilty. A good way to remember this is that if you can do it with your eyes closed by sound only, it is phonemic awareness. If it it involves letters and needs to be done with your eyes open, it is not phonemic awareness. In Phonics They Use, Cunningham (2013) defines phonemic awareness as "the ability to recognize that words are made up of a discrete set of sounds and to manipulate sounds". Phonemic awareness is where manipulating sounds on a smaller scale takes place. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound, therefore, when students perform phonemic awareness activities, they should involve auditory involvement, or activities that can be performed without the eyes open. This is where explicit language is so important. Phonemic awareness is the ability to isolate and manipulate (through segmenting, blending, and deletion) the phoneme. For example, segmenting a word into its separate sounds, combining or blending the separate sounds in a word, and deletion to say the first or last sound in a word. Education Oasis' website has deeper explanation of phonemic awareness and gives examples that are very helpful. This information can be found at http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/Articles/phonemic_awareness.htm.
Activity one: Elkonin Boxes
Elkonin Boxes help students build phonemic awareness by allowing them to segment the sounds in a spoken word. Elkonin Boxes help provide a place to hold the sounds that they hear in a spoken word. Elkonin boxes support segmenting because students are physically segmenting words into phonemes by sliding chips into the boxes. Using Elkonin boxes is simple and can be used in a couple of different ways. For the word fish the student would slide a chip into three boxes because fish is segmented into /f/ /i/ /sh/. This activity works for students because Elkonin Boxes provide a place where a sound will go. The chips the students will slide into each box allow a visual representation of a sound.
I also found another website that makes parking spaces to slide toy cars into to help students build phonemic awareness. I thought it was very creative and a fun way to learn. You can find the information about the Sound it Out Parking Lot at http://www.icanteachmychild.com/sound-parking-lot/.
I also found another website that makes parking spaces to slide toy cars into to help students build phonemic awareness. I thought it was very creative and a fun way to learn. You can find the information about the Sound it Out Parking Lot at http://www.icanteachmychild.com/sound-parking-lot/.
Activity retrieved from: www.pinterest.com
Original Author: http://littlemindsatwork.blogspot.com/2013/10/kindergarten-guided-reading-step-by-step.html
Picture From: www.pinterest.com
Original Author: http://littlemindsatwork.blogspot.com/2013/10/kindergarten-guided-reading-step-by-step.html
Picture From: www.pinterest.com
Activity two: Segmenting Sound Hop
This activity is a variation of Elkonin Boxes but instead it is done physically. Instead of each token representing a sound, a hop will represent the sounds within the spoken word. For this activity you take duct tape and create boxes outside your classroom door that are in a line together, like in the picture shown. You can do three boxes or more, that is up to you. This activity can be made fun and creative by using decorative duct tape that will interest your students. In order for student to enter your room in the morning and after lunch, they have to segment a word that you say. When you say the word the student will hop in the line of boxes the number of sounds in the word given. For example, if you say the word jar the student would start in the first box sounding out /j/, then hop to the second box sounding out /ar/. For the word jar the student would only hop in two of the boxes, but depending on the word the number of boxes would change. In this activity the boxes on the floor provide a place where a sound with go, and the hop will show a visual representation of a sound. This is a great activity for students to practice segmenting sounds in spoken words while also getting to be active, which we all know children love.
Activity retrieved from: www.pinterest.com
Original Author: http://www.thekindergartensmorgasboard.com/2012/12/12-days-of-christmas-giveaways.html
Picture From: www.pinterest.com
Original Author: http://www.thekindergartensmorgasboard.com/2012/12/12-days-of-christmas-giveaways.html
Picture From: www.pinterest.com