Phonemic AwarenessMara Carver

Kindergarten TeacherGamaliel Elementary School

Monroe County Schools

Literacy Action PlanFocus: Phonemic Awareness

Grade level/Audience: Kindergarten Class of 23 students from various backgrounds.

Why Phonemic Awareness?● In kindergarten we focus on letters, sounds, rhymes,

words vs. sentences, syllables etc. throughout the year. ● It is vital to get them knowing their letters and sounds

and putting those letters and sounds together to make words to help them to read.

● At the beginning of the year we give our first Literacy Assessment which allows us to see where students are when they come to us in August. These assessments also help us to ability group students to help them work on parts of phonics/phonemic awareness for small group and whole group instruction.

○ These assessments are given 3 times throughout the year (Fall, Winter, and Spring)

The Book: ● We received the book

Phonemic Awareness in Young Children during one of our days during our summer trainings. This book fit perfectly and gave the extra ideas, and activities needed to help boost my students phonemic awareness skills.

● We started out by implementing an extra activity once or twice a week with the students.

Order of the book/curriculum● Listening activities● Rhyming● Words/Sentences● Syllables ● Initial and Final sounds ● Phonemes ● Introducing letters and spellings

Just a thought: The order of this book went right

along with the order of our phonics curriculum that we use. I

was able to enhance my phonemic awareness section

throughout the week with more activities! And the kids loved

them!

The next two slides are some of my favorite activities!

Listening activitiesNonsense

● The purpose of this activity is to develop the children’s ability to attend to differences in what they expect to hear and what they actually hear.

How to play: Have to children join you in a circle and close their eyes. Read a familiar story but every once in awhile change the lines to nonsense. Mix up words change the order etc. Encourage them to explain what they heard that was WRONG.

“Listening Games.” Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: a Classroom Curriculum,

by Marilyn Jager. Adams et al., Paul Brookes, 1998, pp. 23.

Syllables:Troll Talk!

● Engage students with a story about the troll wanting the kids to know their presents.

○ “Once upon a time…”● Teacher gets to be the troll first and she will walk around the deliver

the presents to one child. When she gets ready to tell the student what the present is the teacher will separate the word into syllables and the student will have to put the syllables together to figure out what their present is! If the student guesses correctly then they will be able to be the troll and give another student their present by practicing figuring out the syllables in each word and presenting it to another student.

“Awareness of Syllables.” Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: a Classroom Curriculum, by Marilyn Jager. Adams et al., Paul

Brookes, 1998, pp. 56.

Snapshots

Words vs. letters

initial /Final Sounds