Part of our Believe and Read instruction in the classroom is phonemic awareness exercises from our Heggerty manual. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. This skill is essential for children as they learn to read. This helps them understand that words are made up of sounds that can be blended, segmented and manipulated.
Examples of Phonemic Awareness Activities
Sound Isolation: Identifying the first sound in a word. For instance, asking a child what sound they hear at the beginning of the word "dog" (/d/).
Sound Blending: Combining individual sounds to form a word. For example, saying the sounds /m/, /æ/, /p/ and asking
the child to blend them into "map."
Sound Segmentation: Breaking a word into its individual sounds. For example, saying the word "cat" and having the
child tap the sounds /k/, /æ/, /t/.
Sound Manipulation: Changing the beginning sound in a word to create a new word. For instance, changing the /k/ in "cat" to /h/ to
make “hat” to create rhyming words.
Try these exercises with your student at home to practice their phonemic awareness skills!
Ms. Fiedler, Kindergarten Teacher & Believe and Read Coach
Sarah Eiden, Believe and Read Coach, K-5 Reading Interventionist & Building Support Paraprofessional