Students learn so many critical skills while in school. For instance, they learn how to add and subtract, which are essential when dealing with money. Additionally, they learn how to write, read, and spell, which are necessary for many aspects of life. Therefore, teachers work hard to create exciting ways for students to learn content. In terms of language arts, it takes time to understand that sounds blend together to make words. Luckily, phonological awareness small group activities are an ideal way to teach students about words in calm, supportive ways.
What is Phonological Awareness?
Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize the spoken parts of sentences and words. Additionally, a strong awareness involves the ability to manipulate different aspects, such as identifying words that rhyme or identifying the number of syllables. Furthermore, students gain an understanding of blending and segmenting onset and rhymes.
Why is Phonological Awareness Important?
Honestly, learning how to read is an extremely complex and challenging skill. Therefore, students need lessons that incorporate the science of reading and ways to teach the skills without causing excess stress. Thankfully, working on phonological awareness allows students to gain skills needed for reading and spelling success. Instead of becoming overwhelmed, students understand that words are different sounds put together.
Phonological Awareness Activities
Since phonological awareness is essential, it will be crucial to have multiple activities. Otherwise, students may become bored and tune out during lessons. Thankfully, this Phonological Awareness Small Group Resource provides over 150 activities! Overall, there are 9-15 lesson plans for EACH area of phonological awareness with multiple levels of instruction. Thus, students can work on the activities repeatedly while their skills increase. Honestly, these activities will help ensure students understand language consists of words, rhymes, syllables, and sounds.
Phoneme Blending & Segmentation
Phoneme blending and segmentation are essential elements as students turn into readers and writers. Specifically, blending involves putting sounds together while segmenting involves pulling sounds apart. When students understand that words can break apart into individual sounds, they can sound out words while reading and spelling. Thankfully, there are fun ways to teach blending and segmenting!
Clap the Words: When beginning phonological awareness instruction, teach students to segment sentences into words. A helpful way to do this involves having children clap their hands for each word.
Words to Syllables: As students progress in skills, have them segment words into syllables. It can be helpful to have children segment popular words, such as their name, when first starting this practice. Then, have them blend syllables to make words. As students become comfortable, try words with more syllables.
Phoneme Practice: As students become more confident blending and segmenting, add in words with a select number of phonemes. For instance, start with two and progress when students are ready. In this activity, have students practice blending and segmenting words with continuous sounds. Be sure to have them articulate the sounds clearly.
Robotics: A great way to help students slow down during phonological awareness small group activities involving talking like a robot. Students will hear segmented sounds and put them together while acting like robots. As an extra exciting element, allow students to walk around and talk to classmates!
Engage Students
Honestly, there are so many phonological awareness small group activities. Truly, this is important because teaching students to identify and manipulate sounds allows them to be strong readers and writers. Luckily, the suggestions and resources above will ensure students have engaging, exciting lessons!
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