Level 2: Who Did You Catch?
Parts of a Word
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
Who Did You Catch?
GOALS: syllable splitting & sound (phoneme) blending
Materials
a list of words orally familiar to the child
books and stories being read to the child
animal names
common household objects
Directions for New Players:
Practice blending the beginning (onset) and ending (rime) of words. EX: SAY /h/ - /orse/ to form /horse/
To the tune of A Hunting We Will Go sing:
A-searching we will go, a-searching we will go
We’ll catch a /h/ and add a /orse/, And now we have a . . . (horse)
Repeat this tune with other beginnings (onsets) and endings (rimes).
Directions for Established Players:
Practice blending the beginning (onset) and ending (rime) of words. EX: /h/ - /orse/ to form /horse/
To the tune of A Hunting We Will Go sing:
A-searching we will go, a-searching we will go
We’ll catch an /at/ and add a /c/, And now we have a . . . (cat)
Repeat this tune with other beginnings (onsets) and endings (rimes), stating with the ending (rime) first, then the beginning (onset)
CHALLENGE:
segment the word into individual phonemes (sounds)
EX: /c/ - /a/ - /t/ to form /cat/
HELPFUL TIPS:
Always model first until the child is comfortable with this activity.
Begin with one-syllable words.