Phoenemic Awareness Activity

Phoenemic Awareness Activity

This is an activity I used at the beginning of this year.  I wanted to first teach students about word segmentation.  I wanted to teach them that sentences are made up of words.  I would start with some short sentences like the follow.

We ran.

I hopped.

I walked.

I would tell children that we are going to clap for each word we say.  We would do a few examples together, then the children would try some together as a class.

Next, I would move on to some three word sentences, then eventually four and five. 

To extend this activity, one day I could provide the “say it and move it” card to each child.  I could give each child some unifix cubes.  I would instruct the children to put the unifix cubes under the “say it and move it” line.  Then, as we say a word, we move the cube up onto the line.  Then, we can also count how many words are in each sentence.  This provides a visual, hands-on approach that I feel many children need. 

It is important to help children understand that sentences are made up of words, so the children can identify individual words instead of thinking the sentence is one continuous stream of sound. 

**I have several ESOL students in my classroom.  The clapping helped them to understand separating the words because I was giving them this visual and something specific to do with their hands.  I also had my parapro sit near some of these students who seemed to be struggling with this activity and help them say the words and clap their hands.