Level 2: Sample Activity

Parts of a Word: Connections to Print

Level 2 Activities help develop an “ear” for individual sounds within a spoken word. By playing with the sounds in a word, children discover that a word can be broken into “sound units”; words to syllables, syllables to beginnings (onsets) & endings (rimes), and beginnings (onsets) & endings (rimes) to individual sounds (phonemes).

They then begin to explore the blending of sounds (phonemes) together to form spoken words. This skill is referred to as oral synthesis or decoding, and is one of the key foundational literacy skills for reading. Activities with the alphabet image include connecting the sound to letters, referred to as phonics.

Early Literacy Foundational Skills

• Syllable Splitting

  • listen, detect, & count syllables (beats) within a word

  • listen & detect similar sounds at the beginning (onset) of a word

  • listen & detect similar sounds at the ending (rime) of a word

• Sound (Phoneme) Splitting & Blending

  • listen & detect individual sounds (phonemes) in a word

Sample Activity

GOALS: sound (phoneme) splitting & matching sounds (phonemes) to letters

Materials

• Word Cards

  at it is of cat men sleep jeep bark ship

Directions:

Have words printed on index cards. Segment sounds (phonemes) by saying them slowly, separating individual sounds (phonemes). Begin with two-phoneme words: /a/ - /t/ or /i/ - /t/. Have the child(ren) cut apart the sounds.

This then may be followed by three- and four-phoneme words broken into beginnings (onsets) and endings (rimes): /c/ - /at/ or /m/ - /en/ or /sl/ - /eep/. Finally progress to completely segmented words: /j/ - /ee/ - /p/ or /b/ - /ar/ - /k/ or /sh/ - /i/ - /p/.

HELPFUL TIPS:

• Always model first until the child is comfortable with this activity.

• Begin with short two-letter words.