Are you running out of ways to implement phonological awareness in your classroom? Sometimes we hit a wall and finding fresh fun activities seems impossible, well look no further. I am here to help you! Phonological awareness is the ability to hear different sounds of the spoken language, and how sounds work together to make words. It is critical for reading. Most of the time this gets confused with phonics but be sure to check out this post where I dive deeper into the importance! This begins with our kids listening and picking up the sounds, rhymes and syllables that they hear in our everyday chatter! Do you ever think to yourself “phonological awareness, we do that everyday within other activities”…I am guilty of that but I have made it a goal to focus on this every single day!
I want to help make this a part of your everyday life too! The activities don’t have to be extensive – plus you can do them throughout the day. Like I always say…this can be done in the dark! Some of your students may have mastered hearing and manipulating words, syllables, and onset and rime but practice makes perfect.
Let’s dive into some tips to try in your class! Literature is a great way to brush up on these skills, Catalina Magdelena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner and Don’t Be Silly Mrs. Millie are two of my favorites to focus on rhyming! Make it a goal to add one rhyme book a day and listen to all the rhyming your kiddos will be doing, exposure to rhymes is a natural way to help improve these skills. Phonological awareness builds the foundation for reading skills, it supports the understanding and manipulation of letter sounds. I wanted to share some tips on how to add this to your classroom in a habitual way to create an all day every day approach.
A great time to practice these skills is during clean up time, transitions, and getting in line…the kiddos won’t even realize you are using this as a teachable moment. We really want the kids to understand that the words in a sentence are separate units so I have them repeat the word after me and count on their hands, this is a perfect trick to use at any time throughout the day.
One of my favorite things to do is count syllables with the kids because it gets us clapping, stomping, tapping and singing! When we are lining up, I will call a student and we will clap the syllables in their name and some days instead of clapping we hum their names..it’s a simple and fun way for the kids to practice those syllables.
One of my students favorite games to play is “I went to the zoo”, for example I will say “I went to the zoo and I saw a ZE-BRA”, and another student will follow by choosing an animal and separating the syllables. On a rainy day when you can’t get outside but need to get moving you can try jumping for each syllable…it burns a little energy while practicing our syllables!
During movement between centers is a great way to practice onset and rime, they can move to a new center when they hear a word that starts with B. How about the traditional “I am thinking of” game, try it with “I am thinking of a word that ends in IG”.
Rhyming is one of my favorite things to do with my class because it’s fun and allows them to be silly! Do you use callbacks in your classroom? I have used so many different ones because it’s a great time to rhyme…one of my favorites is Hocus Pocus…Time to Focus or try a classic “1-2-3 eyes on me and they repeat with 1-2 eyes on you”.
Modeling behavior is an excellent way to teach our kids and I have found that when I say things like “oh that’s a cute hat, oh that rhymes with bat” during a conversation I will catch them doing similar things when talking to their peers! Try having your kids line up only by giving you a rhyme with your chosen word, you are going to hear them come up with some crazy words.
The name game is one of my kids favorites, here’s an example… Judy! Judy, Judy bo Budy Banana fanna fo Fudy Fee fy mo Mudy, Judy! Challenge them to do everybody in the class, it’s way harder than you think! See, rhyming activities can be done in so many different ways in the classroom, don’t put too much stress on yourself but instead have fun with it!
Phonological awareness can become a part of your all day, every day with these “done in the dark approaches” but here are some fun and simple ways to use during small groups or during center:
- Provide a rime, take turns placing letters to make new words
- Use pictures to play “what doesn’t belong”
- Use visual charts with letters and picture clues for initial sounds
- “I’m thinking of a word” game
- Initial sounds and rhyming you can play thumbs up if they are the same and thumbs down if they are different
- Check out some of my resources, such as : Digital Phonological Awareness for Syllables, Boom Cards Identifying Rhymes, Phonemic Awareness Centers, Digital Phonemic Awareness for Google Classroom, Boom Cards Where’s the Sound? and Boom Cards Phoneme Manipulation.
As a teacher doesn’t it feel that sometimes the weight of the world is on your shoulders especially when it comes to teaching our students how to read??? There is so much complexity when it comes to reading…but let’s make it our goal to make this fun! I can’t wait to hear how these tips helped your kiddos!
