Hearing the individual words in a sentence is the first phonological awareness skill that children develop. To practice this, an adult can say a short sentence (3-5 words), and the child can use their fingers or objects to represent each word. (Note that this is not a math activity; children don't need to say a number to indicate how many words are in a sentence. Just observe to make sure they are putting up one finger or moving one object for each word in the sentence.)
This is an early syllable awareness activity because compound words contain the most recognizable syllables. Children can segment the syllables in a compound word (e.g., segment cupcake into cup and cake), or blend two syllables to make a compound word (e.g., blend sea and shell to say seashell.)
After children can segment and blend compound words, they are ready to practice segmenting and blending other syllables. To create independent shelf work, children can be given a picture of a word that is 2-4 syllables long, and they can use counters to represent each syllable. For example, for the word "chicken", a child would place a counter in two of the boxes to represent the two syllables (chick-en).
Children can practice rhyming independently by matching pictures or objects that rhyme.
Children can sort a collection of objects or pictures by their beginning sound. Similar to the 'I Spy' game, this activity helps children hear the initial sound of words.
Similar to word and syllable counting, this work helps children segment the individual sounds, or phonemes, in words. This is a critical prerequisite still before children are able to write using the movable alphabet.
There are 4 sets of 12 picture cards each, which can be sorted by their final sound.
This section includes 3 sets with 12 picture cards each, which can be sorted by their final sound.