Language Games to Support
Phonological Awareness
sentence
awareness
phonemic
awareness
word
awareness
syllable
awareness
:onset & rime
rhyme
awareness
:sound level of
words
Story
Segmenting
• place the nursery rhyme picture cards face up in a stack
• place the cubes on a flat surface
• the students select the top nursery rhyme picture card and say the
entire rhyme
• the students repeat the first sentence and stacks the number of
cubes to equal the number of words in the rhyme
> "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall." (there are 6 words)
• students place the number of cubes next to the picture
• the correct number of words can be written on the back for selfassessment
• the students continue until all of the nursery rhyme cards are used
FCRR - Phonological Awareness - K-1 - Part 2
Word Wall
I Spy
• choose a child to pick a word from the word wall
• keeping the word secret, the child gives 1-2 hint(s)
• hint sound be based on the sounds or features in the word
> "the word has the short 'i' sound" or "the word starts with 'th'"
• using the hints, the class attempts to guess the word
• once the child provides a hint, one child is chosen to guess the word
from the word wall
• if a correct guess is made, that child picks a new word from the word
wall
• if the guess is incorrect, another hint is given
variations - words posted on: topic/curricular vocabulary,
holiday words, student names, etc.
PALS - Sight Word I Spy
Word
Segmenting
each student gets 4 cube-a-links
place cube-a-links on the drawing of the train
each cube represents 1 word
say a sentence (up to 4 words in length)
> "I have a dog."
• model how to break apart and move the cube-a-links from the
train into the boxes as each word is said
• one cube should be moved for each word in the sentence
• students repeat the activity individually as the teacher says
additional sentences
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•
•
•
Comprehensive Literacy Resource for Kindergarten Teachers - Trehearne
Bubble
Wrap
We're going to read a story about popcorn and dragons
With your partner, make a list 8 words - 4 about popcorn, 4
about dragons. Write out words that you think will be in a
story about popcorn and dragons
popcorn
Nancy Updegraff, Learning Sciences International
dragons
Each person should take 1 piece of bubble wrap
pop the bubble wrap any time you hear a word in the
story that is on your list - either about popcorn or dragons
story read was - The Popcorn Dragon -by Jane Thayer
Break It
In Half
• say a two-syllable word and have the children repeat it
• model how to "break" the word in two using hand motions
• model holding the word with two hands (e.g. - two fists, side by
side)
• the "break" the word in half as you say the word
• say the first syllable (e.g. "des" in the word dessert) as you move
your right fist up and away from your left
• turn your right palm upward
• repeat with your left first as you say the second syllable
• have children practice hand motions with other two-syllable words
Phonemic Awareness -Playing with Sounds - Fitzpatrick
Head, Waist,
Toes
• have the students stand as they listen to you say a 3 syllable word
• say each syllable of the word separately and ask the students to
place their hands on their hands, waist or toes, to indicate
whether the sound is at the beginning, middle or end of the word
• have students repeat the sounds as they take their positions
• repeat with additional three syllable words
• syllables can be said faster and faster as the game progresses
• additional body parts can be added to increase to 4 and 5
syllable words
Adpated from: PALS - Head, Waist, Toes
Guessing
Game
onset & rime
• place onset and rime picture cards face down in a stack
• divide students into pairs
• student 1 selects the top card - make sure that student 2 cannot
see it
• have student 1 give clues to student 2
> "It ends with /ug/."
• student 1 continues to give clues until student 2 guesses the word
> "rug"
• reverse roles until all of the picture cards are used
FCRR - Phonological Awareness - K-1 - Part 2
Roll-AWord
• give each group one onset cube and one rime cube
• taking turns, have students roll each cube
• model for students how to arrange the cubes so that the onset
cube is placed to the right of the rime cube
• blend the onset and rime and say the word
> ch/ip = "chip"
• have the students write each word as it is created with the cubes real or nonsense words
• have students underline the real words and put an "X" through the
nonsense words
• have students read their lists of real words
FCRR - Phonics - Letter-Sound Correspondance - 2-3
Make a
Silly Word
• use compound words
• have students find which two words go together to
make another word
• use the pictures to represent both parts of the
compound word
• switch the pictures around and ask students what the
new silly word would be, if they said the word parts
(syllables) backwards or reversed their order
Comprehensive Literacy Resource for Kindergarten Teachers - Trehearne
Hot
Potato
Take one alphabet bean bag per group.
Start throwing/passing the bean bag while the music plays.
When the music stops, the person holding the bag names as
many things as he/she can that end with the letter on the
bag - or words in the same word family - e.g. - mat, bat, etc.
The music will start to play again, and when the music
stops again, the new person will continue to name words in
the same word family
variations - words that start with the letter on the bag,
verbs, nouns, topic words etc.
Rhyming
Game
• place Rhyming Game board, number cube and rhyming
picture cards face up in rows
• place game pieces on the START space
• taking turns, students roll the number cube and move the
game piece according to the number shown
• the student names the picture where the game piece lands
(e.g. "lamp" and looks at the cards to find a rhyming match
• if a match is made, say the match (e.g. "stamp, lamp")
• if a match isn't made, then the game piece returns to it's
previous space
• continue the game until all the students reach the END
space
FCRR - Phonological Awareness - K-1 - Part 1
Tap and
Sweep
• say single-syllable words one at a time
• have students "knock" on tabletops as they say each
phoneme, moving their hands from left to right to show
whether the sound comes at the beginning, middle or end of
the word
• have the students go back to the first tap position and sweep
their fists on the table from left to right, "blending" the sounds
together - ask the students to say the word as they show the
hand motion
Phonemic Awareness -Playing with Sounds - Fitzpatrick
Animal
Fun
• teach the following verse to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb"
Freddy Frog had a log,
had a log,
had a log,
Freddy Frog had a log,
He stayed and played all day.
• repeat the verse using other alliterations (Henry Hen, friend; Carlos Cat,
hat; Polly Pig, twig; Sammy Seal, wheel; Frieda Fox, box; Skitter Skunk, trunk etc.)
• end with the verse Poor Charlie Chick was sick,
he was sick,
he was sick,
Poor Charlie Chick was sick,
He couldn't play all day!
Phonemic Awareness -Playing with Sounds - Fitzpatrick
Circle Around
the Sound
• divide the class into two groups - and have each group sit in
a circle
• choose a target ending sound, such as /t/
• select one student from each group to start "passing the
sound" by saying a word that ends with the target sound,
such as "pet"
• the student to the left must then say another word that ends
with the target ending sound, such as "vet"
• continue "moving the sound" to the left until all students have
had a turn
Phonemic Awareness -Playing with Sounds - Fitzpatrick
Word
Chain
• explain to the students that they will create a word chain by
listening to beginning and ending sounds of words
• say a word (cat) and have children repeat is slowly, and
"punch out" the ending sound
• ask the students to think of another word that starts with the
ending sound of the last word (last word was cat - /t/ - top)
• write both words on the board on a sequence to form a
word chain (cat-top)
• continue adding more words to the chain (cat-top-pack-kiss-sit)
• have students read & repeat all words aloud
Phonemic Awareness -Playing with Sounds - Fitzpatrick
Making
Words
How many words can you make from ALL the letters in your names?
________
________
a, as, is, ha, ah, has, his, ash, sail, sass, hail, sails, hails, lass
variations - pair up different students, use last names, use
word wall words, use topic/curriculum words, etc.