This document outlines activities to develop phonological awareness in children at different levels of complexity. It begins with less complex activities like rhyming songs and moves toward more advanced activities involving blending, segmenting, and manipulating individual phonemes. A variety of games and exercises are provided as examples to help children develop skills like rhyming, sentence segmentation, syllable blending and manipulation, onset-rime blending, and phoneme identification, matching, substitution, blending, segmentation, deletion and addition. The goal is to guide children along a continuum from broader to more fine-grained phonological awareness skills.

1. HAVING FUN WITH
PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
By,
Mark Smith &
Jenny Kwong Shuk Wah
IPG, Gaya Campus

2. A Continuum of Complexity Of
Blending,
Phonological Awareness segmenting &
manipulating
Onset-rime individual
blending phonemes
& segmentation (phonemic
Syllable awareness)
segmentation
More Complex
& blending Activities
Sentence
segmentation
Rhyming songs
Less Complex
Activities
From Chard, David J & Dickson, Shirley V. (1999). Phonological Awareness: Instructional and
Assessment Guidelines

3. 1.Rhyme
Example Variation
Row, row, row your boat  Ba, ba, black sheep
gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merri
ly;
Life is but a dream

4. 1.1 Sing to the tune “if
you’re happy and you know
it…”
Did you ever see a cat /be∂/ in a hat /tʃe∂/?
Did you ever see a cat / be∂ / in a hat / tʃe∂/??
No, I never, no, I never, no, I never, no, I never
No, I never saw a cat/ be∂ / in a hat / tʃe∂/?.
Variations:
A mouse in a house.
A bear in a chair.
An owl drying off with a towel.

5. 1.2 Rhyme Through Movement
One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes, four
Five potatoes, six potatoes, seven potatoes, more
Task:
In small groups, children sing the rhyme while passing
around an object.
The child holding the object at the end of the rhyme (on
‘more’) must then state a word that begins with the
same initial sound. i.e. /p/
Example: Vary with other food names such as banana
/b/, papaya /p/, tomato /t/ etc.

6. 1.3 Make a Rhyme
Example Variation
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,  Pussy Cat
Jump around
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,  Daddy Dog
Touch the ……….  Speedy Spider
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,
Open the box
 Coco Cow
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,  Henny Hen
Pull out the ……..
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,
Bake a cake.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear,
Swim in the ……… .

7. 2.Sentence Segmentation
Level
Teacher cuts out green lily pads and places on classroom
floor.
Children then hop the number of times they hear words
in a sentence dictated by the teacher.
Alternative: Children clap the number of words heard in
a sentence.
Task: Practice some short sentences with your partner.
Have them clap the number of words they hear. Swap
roles.

8. 2.2 Sentence Segmentation Level
Model Practise
1. Good morning children. 1. Ned has a newt in his net.
2. How are you today? 2. Penny has a penguin in her
pack.
3. I am fine thank you. 3. Sally has a seal on her
4. What is your name?. seesaw.
5. Tomorrow we are going 4. Tom has a tiger in his tent.
to town. 5. Alex has an ox in his box.
6. Yousef has a yak on his
6. Ahmad is working very
yacht
well today.
7. Zara has a zebra in her zoo.

9. 3. Syllable Level
Objective:
Students will be able to define syllables
and recognise how many syllables are
in a word
 ‘Mark’ : clap once (one syllable)
 ‘Jenny’: clap twice (two syllables)
 ‘cucumber’: clap thrice (three syllables)

10. 3.1 Syllable Level
Name Game
 Write all of the children’s names on index cards
and place in a basket.
 Sit in a circle and pass the basket from one child
to the next when the music begins.
 When the music stops, whoever is holding the
basket pulls out a card and reads the child’s
name on the card.
 The class repeats the name and claps out the
number of syllables or parts as they say the
name (e.g. Jen-ny has 2 claps.

11. 3.2 Syllable Manipulation
Model Practise
‘Sabah’. What  Say robot without the ro
would the word  Say table without the ta
say If I took off  Say potato without the po
the ‘Sa’?  Say cucumber without the
cu
Elicit: It would say
‘bah’ and now we Other Examples??
only have 1
syllable. Source: Blevins (1997: 58)

12. 4. Onset-Rime Level
Onset is the beginning sound in a word or
syllable and rime is the ending sound.
onset rime word
/k/ /at/ cat
/s/ /un/ sun

13. 4.1 Developing Limericks
Guided Practice
Model In groups use the following
words to make up your
own limerick.
Mat
There was a young boy called …
Who had an overly large … Siti, mouse, kitty, house/in/
When it chased the …
It shook the …
So Mat got rid of the …
Sharing
Now read your poem aloud to
your friends.

14. 4.2 Creating Rhyming Poems
Model Extension of Variations
Using the word family chart  /in/
developed by the
children, create simple  /ip/
rhyming poems.
 /op/
Eg.  /ick/
My Cat
My cat is very fat.  /eck/
He should be chasing the rat.
But instead he sits on the mat
And expects a pat.
Oh, my cat is very fat.

15. 5.1 Phoneme Identification

16. 5.2. Phoneme Matching
Initial (beginning) sound
Final (ending) sound
Middle sound
Possible Activities:
 Teacher distributes pictures to students who must then match the
pictures according to the teacher’s instructions.
 Snap.. Card Game.

17. 5.3. Phoneme Substitution
The Teacher has students listen as he/she says a CVC
word eg. ‘bug’.
“How many magnets will I use?” (3) …. “Let’s count…”
“What about if I change the /b/ to a /m/? What is the word
now? …
“Now lets try ‘dad’. How many sounds do you hear? (3) …
So, how many magnets? (3) …
“Do you hear any sounds that are the same?” (d)… So our
beginning and ending sound will be the same colour.
TASK: In pairs, use magnets to practice the above
procedure with other 3 letter words. E.g. ‘bat’ ‘top’ ‘fat’
etc.

18. 5.4. Phoneme Blending
Explain to children that you are going to say a word in
parts. (Robot Talk) You want them to listen
carefully, and then say the word as a whole. i.e.
blend the sounds.
For e.g. If I say /m/ /a/ /p/, you would say….. ‘map’.
What about if I say /t/ /o/ /p/ ?
TASK:
In pairs practise the above procedure with the
following words. Remember not to show your
‘student’ the letters.
Practice e.gs: /m/ /o/ /p/, /f/ /i/ /t/, /s/ /u/ /n/, /c/ /a/ /t/.

19. 5.4 Guess It!
Place picture cards in a bag and draw out one picture
at a time. Tell the children I can see a /k/ an /a/ and a
/t/.
Show the picture card for children to check their
response.
Teaching points:
Commence at easier level first e.g. Onset-rime and
gradually increase difficulty level. E.g. I can see a /c/
/at/ BEFORE I can see a /c/ /a/ /t/.
Invite children to be the ‘teacher’.

20. 5.5. Phoneme Segmentation
Involves children segmenting the sounds they hear in an oral word.
Teacher Dialogue: I’m going to say a word and I want you to listen very
carefully and tell me all the sounds you hear in that word.
For e.g. If I say the word ‘mop’ you would say /m/ /o/ /p/.
Understand?
TASK: In pairs , role play a teacher and student using the following
words:
/Hi/, /it/, /so/, /sat/, /top/, /map/
NB: This is a purely aural task. Ensure ‘children’ can’t see the words you
are dictating.

21. 5.5 Segmentation Cheer
Change the words in the 3rd line of the first stanza each time you say the cheer.
Instruct children to segment the word sound by sound.
Listen to my cheer. Then shout the sounds you hear.
Sun! Sun! Sun!
Let’s take apart the word sun!
Give me the beginning sound.
(Children respond with /s/)
Give me the middle sound.
(Children respond with /u/)
Give me the ending sound.
(Children respond with /n/)
That’s right!
/s/ /u/ /n/ - Sun! Sun! Sun!

22. 5.6. Phoneme Deletion &
Addition
Explicit Instruction:
“I’m going to take a word and make new words using it. I can
take the /s/ off sat, put on a /p/, and I have a new word – pat.
Guided Practice:
Have children replace the first sound in each word you say
with a /s/.
hit, well, funny, bun, mad, bend, rat, rope.
NB: Once children are familiar with substituting initial sounds,
move onto final sounds and finally middle sounds.

23. 5.6 Phoneme Deletion
Exercises
1. Initial Phoneme
 Say part without the /p/
 Say sun without the /s/
2. Final Phoneme
 Say meat without the /t/
 Say mop without the /p/
 Say take without the /k/
3. Second consonant in an initial blend
 Say spell without the /p/
 Say clap without the /l/
Source: Blevins (1997:58)

24. A Continuum of Complexity Of
Blending,
Phonological Awareness segmenting &
manipulating
Onset-rime individual
blending phonemes
& segmentation (phonemic
Syllable awareness)
segmentation
More Complex
& blending Activities
Sentence
segmentation
Rhyming songs
Less Complex
Activities
From Chard, David J & Dickson, Shirley V. (1999). Phonological Awareness: Instructional and
Assessment Guidelines

25. Individual Phoneme Level
Yopp & Yopp (2000) suggest 6 levels of
phoneme manipulation:
1. Identification
2. Matching
3. Substitution
4. Blending
5. Segmenting
6. Deletion & Addition

26. List of References
Chard, D. J., & Dickson, S. V. (1999). Phonological Awareness: Instructional
Assessment Guidelines. Retrieved, July 31, 2007, from
http://www.ldonline.org
Blevins, W. (1997). Phonemic Awareness Activities For early Reading Success.
Ashton Scholastic, New York.
Adams, M.J.(1990). Beginning to read: Thinking & Learning about print.
Cambridge, MA: MIT press.
Chard, D.J. & Dickson, S.V. (1999). Phonological Awareness: Instructional and
Assessment Guidelines. Retrieved, July 31, 2007 from
http://www.ldonline.org
Juel, C., Griffith, P.L.,& Gough, P.B. (1986). Acquisition of literacy: A Longitudinal
study of children in first and second grade. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 78,243-255.
Yopp, H.K., & Yopp, R.H.(2000). Supporting Phonemic Awareness in the
classroom. Reading Teacher, 54, 130-141.