Phonological awareness skills are foundational skills necessary for reading. Students work to learn the sounds of language by understanding how sentences are made of individual words, that syllables are the parts of a word, and finally that letters make up the individual sounds within a word. A child with strong phonological awareness skills can recognize these different parts to spoken language and begin to compare and contrast how words are connected.
Read rhyming books, such as Sheep in a Jeep or Dr. Seuss books like Hop on Pop
Play Rhyme Me Out: Think of a rhyming word ("king") and say the word. Have your child think of a matching rhyming word like "sing". Continue saying words that rhyme. This is a great game to play in the car!
Do activities that focus on sounds associated with letters
Play Sound Scavenger Hunt: Have your child find objects around the house whose names start with the same beginning sound (e.g., bowl and button both start with /b/). As each object is found, your child should say its name and beginning sound.
Play I Spy with beginning sounds of words. "I spy something that begins with /t/".
Make up your own silly sentences with words that begin with the same sound, such as, "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers."
Blending and Segmenting
Play Guess My Word: Have your child guess a word that you say very slowly (e.g. "rrrrrrruuuuuuuug")