Phonolo
Phonological
Awareness
Moving Along the Continuum
Connect to the Classroom
Design a Phonological Birthday Party
Overview
In this activity, you will begin by looking at a scoring rubric for a phonological
birthday party. This rubric is a way for you to assess whether or not the party
incorporates enough phonological awareness activities. Then you will plan and
implement a phonological birthday party of your own.
Objectives
To make phonological awareness part of a fun and engaging event
Materials
Worksheet, “Rubric: Design a Phonological Birthday Party”
Worksheet, “Example: Design a Phonological Birthday Party”
Worksheet, “Design a Phonological Birthday Party”
Instructions
1. See a Sample Party
Read the scoring rubric on the first worksheet. Then look at the example
of a birthday party design on the second worksheet.
Using the rubrics, give the sample birthday party a score.
Next, on the “Design a Phonological Birthday Party” worksheet, write
down your ideas for a birthday party celebration that incorporates as many
steps in the Phonological Awareness Continuum as possible. Try to
include activities that are spread throughout the day.
2. Design Your Party
Develop a birthday party plan.
If you prefer to avoid having parties for individual children because of all
the logistical headaches it can create, consider these ideas: 1) the party
could be for an imaginary child; 2) it could be celebrating all the children’s
birthdays at once; or 3) it could be for a famous person, familiar character,
or a beloved member of the school or center community.
Try having the birthday party in your classroom. (Take photos if you can.)
Discuss how it went.
3. Prepare to Share
Have your results ready to share with other teachers taking this course.
© 2014 Children’s Learning Institute, All rights reserved
Phonological Awareness
Moving Along the Continuum
Connect to the Classroom
Design a Phonological Birthday Party
Rubric: Design a Phonological Birthday Party
4 Great Birthday Party!!
The celebration includes activities covering all of the steps of the
continuum.
The celebration includes activities that children can do independently in
the centers to reinforce learning.
The activities are spread throughout the day.
The activities focus on a common theme.
The activities are fun and playful, and not a bit dull or boring.
3 Good Birthday Celebration!
The celebration covers three or four steps in the continuum.
The activities take a couple of hours to do.
The activities are not closely related to one another.
Most of the children are having fun.
2 Okay Birthday
The celebration covers two steps of the continuum.
The activities take place in half an hour or less.
The activities are unrelated.
It’s fun while it lasts.
1 A Boring Birthday (I hope the cake tasted good!)
The celebration covers one or no phonological awareness activity.
The class spends a few minutes celebrating.
It’s really nothing to remember.
© 2014 Children’s Learning Institute, All rights reserved
2
Phonological Awareness
Moving Along the Continuum
Connect to the Classroom
Design a Phonological Birthday Party
3
Example: Design a Phonological Birthday Party
Here is an example of a birthday party celebration that incorporates phonological
awareness. How good is this plan? Use the rubric to give this birthday party a
score from 1 to 4 (low to high).
1. Across the door as children arrive is a sign: “This is Dandy Dave’s Day.”
(alliteration)
2. I greet Dave at the door, calling him “Dandy Dave,” and ask another child
to tell me one thing he likes that starts with the same sound as Dave’s
name. (alliteration)
3. Putting a puppet on her hand, the teacher announces that Dandy Dave
has become the helper of the day. (alliteration)
4. We count the words as a class as I announce Dave’s first job. “Dave does
the daily news” (five words in a sentence). The teacher asks for a helper
for Dandy Dave. (alliteration and sentence segmenting)
5. We read Dave’s favorite book, The Cat in the Hat, during our read aloud.
(rhyme)
6. The teacher asks another student and then the entire class to come up
with words that rhyme with Dave—e.g., cave, gave, pave, rave, save,
wave, crave, grave, and shave. (rhyme)
7. We ask puppet Dave for his full name at birth. Oh my! We made a
mistake. His full name has two syllables rather than just one. Let’s clap
out the syllables in “David.” (syllable segmenting)
8. We ask puppet Dave to pick friends with two or more syllables in their
names. As a class we clap out those children’s names. (syllable
segmenting)
9. We can also play with phoneme manipulation. If we take away the /d/,
and add a /w/, Dave’s new name would be….
SCORE:
© 2014 Children’s Learning Institute, All rights reserved
_____
Phonological Awareness
Moving Along the Continuum
Connect to the Classroom
Design a Phonological Birthday Party
4
Design a Phonological Birthday Party Worksheet
Design a birthday party that incorporates the steps in the Phonological
Awareness Continuum. Describe your idea in the space below. Then try it in your
classroom. If you can, take some photos☺!
Describe the Party:
Try the activity. How did it go?
© 2014 Children’s Learning Institute, All rights reserved