Paired with Print: Building Phonemic AwarenessThe four activities below are samples that support blending and segmenting skills with beginning readers.

Elkonin Boxes

Materials: Elkonin boxes & pictures, counters/chipsOnset-rime

phoneme

Directions:1. Show students a

picture. Have them say it aloud.

2. Model saying the word “in parts”, e.g., /mop/ = /m/-/op/.

3. Use 2 boxes (onset-rime) when learning word families. Use 3 boxes (phoneme) when focus is on the medial sound.

Push & Say It

Materials: Push & Say It templates, Push & Say it sequence, letter tiles.Directions:1. Show students a CVC

word (using letter tiles).

2. Model how to “push & say it” by pushing each letter as you say it aloud.

3. Provide opportunities to practice.

4. Once children can do this easily, ask them to build words with the tiles. Remind them to push & say it if a word is difficult.

Bubblegum Words[See Phonemic Awareness (1997) by Jo Fitzpatrick. Creative Teaching Press, p. 31]Materials: List of CVC, CCVC words.

Directions: Have children “chew up a word” and “stretch it out slowly” as they pretend to stretch their bubble gum word. Have them pop it back in their mouth, i.e. say the word fast.

Example: Chew up the word “cat”. Stretch it out slowly “/c/---/a/---/t/. {segmenting the sounds}Pop it back in your mouth fast: /cat/. {blending the sounds}

Count My Sounds/ Find My Sounds

Materials: dry erase board, markers, mini erasers/counters, CVC pictures

Directions:1. Show students a

picture. Ask them to say it aloud. Hold up a finger for each sound as you say it. Count the sounds together.

2. Write the sounds they hear on their dry erase boards.

3. Use mini-erasers to find sounds in the word: e.g., /pig/Find the /g/ sound. Is it at the beginning, middle or end of the word?Find the middle sound. What letter makes that sound?

Paired with Print: Building Phonemic Awareness (cont.)

Thacker-Gwaltney, S. (2012)

Break It / Blend It

Materials: Break it/Blend it board, sets of CVC pictures (1 per child).

Directions:1. Give the

children 6 pictures and ask them to randomly place them on the board.

2. Teacher chooses a picture and “breaks it” by segmenting the word. Students must “blend it” & choose the correct picture.

Teacher says: Blend It: “/m/--/op/”. Children place counter on pix of mop. Teacher asks children to “Break It”: children say, /m/--/op/.

Stretch My Sounds

Materials: largest-sized rubberbands, CVC or CCVC or CVCC pictures, dry erase board.

Directions:1. Show students a

picture. Model how you stretch the sounds in the word using the rubber band. Write the sounds you hear.

2. Allow students to practice stretching and writing the sounds.

Mystery Bag

Materials: Mystery bag filled with common objects (e.g., soap, top, pen, sock, chip, ball, small toy animals (dog,cat, cow)

Directions:1. Teacher explains s/he

has a Mystery Bag. Students will guess the object in the bag from my name clue. I will say the name of the object in a “silly” way, i.e., segmenting the sounds into either onset-rime or phoneme. For example, /soap/ = /s/--/oap/ or /s/-/oa/-/p/.

2. Variation: Students must choose object & say it in a “funny” way for others to guess.

Where’s My Sound?

Materials: magnetic letters, trays/burner covers, counters, cards with B (beginning) , M (middle), E (end), or a star (You choose BME)Directions:1. Teacher calls out a

word for students to build with letters. E.g.,pan

2. Ask students to read & spell the word.

3. Take turns choosing a card to find the beginning (B), middle (M), or E (end) or star (your choice!). Use a counter to mark the position.

4. Call more words & repeat steps 1-3.

Thacker-Gwaltney, S. (2012)