RHYMING

Rhyming is the ability to identify words that have identical ending sounds. Rhyming aids students in developing phonemic awareness which leads to decoding, teaches students to group words together by sounds, and teaches students to make connections that are used to spell words. What are some rhyming activities you can incorporate when helping your son/daughter?
1) Read stories that have rhyming words.
2) Give words with the pattern consonant-vowel-consonant words, such as, cat, hat, top. Tell your child two of these words rhyme but one does not rhyme. Then have your child tell you which one does not rhyme.
3) Select four pictures, one is used as the example. Have your child name each picture and then identify the picture that rhymes with the one you are using as an example.
4) You say a word and have your child come up with a word that rhymes.
5) Play a rhyming memory game.
6) Sing songs together that rhyme - Nursery rhymes certainly fit this category. After singing the song several times. Have the child pick out the rhyming words.

For more ideas check out the websites listed on the sidebar.

Isolated Sound Recognition

We want to familiarize children with speech sounds in isolation before beginning sounds within words. The child needs a teacher, parent, and/or adult to provide them with a concept of speech sounds by associating phonemes with a creature, an action, or an object that is familiar to him/her. For instance, the phoneme/s/ could be associated with the hissing sound of a snake - ssssssss. It might be helpful to create a sound personality by calling /s/s the Skinny Snake, Suzy Snake, or Sammy Snake, etc. Many sounds already have a sound associated with it like a crowing rooster for /r/, a buzzing bee for /z/, the be quiet sound for /sh/. These sound personalities can be pulled out of daily, natural settings.

Segmenting

There are a few websites with information and examples of Phonemic Awareness on the side panel. I encourage you to check them out. They are hyperlinked so just move the cursor over the web address and click.

Once a child understands phonemes (the smallest unit of sound) he/she needs to stretch it out, examine it and make some meaningful connections. Please check out the following website for phonemic segmentation activities:

http://www.pcboe.net/les/elderweb/phoneme%20segmentation/Phoneme%20Segmentation%20Games-1.pdf

Blending Activity

So what does Phonemic Awareness actually encompass? The skills within this component of learning to read are: Blending, Segmenting, Deleting, Rhyming, Isolating and Recognizing Same Sounds. Let's analyze each one of these strands of Phonemic Awareness in regards to meaning and strategies. REMEMBER Phonemic Awareness is solely auditory processing.

Let's begin with BLENDING ACTIVITIES: Collect pictures containing three sounds for beginners. Later you may advance to pictures with four sounds, five sounds, etc. Go through the pictures giving the name for each picture. Make sure your child understands and is familiar with the vocabulary on the cards. It is a good idea to go through the pictures one more time presenting the cards like this: "This is /C/....../A/......./T/. Use the phoneme sounds and not the letters. Then place two cards in front of the child (face up) and ask him/her which picture you are thinking of. "Please give me the /C/....../A/......./T/." The child blends the sounds together and picks the correct picture and gives to you. Continue on through the cards following this same procedure. If you want to make the game more challenging you may use more cards. You could lay 3 or 4 cards out at a time.