Level 5: Animal Fun

Manipulation of Sounds

Level 5 Activities are the highest level of phonemic awareness. The focus is to manipulate sounds (phonemes) within words; adding, exchanging, deleting, or transposing sounds (phonemes) to form new words.

Children ready for Level 5, have solid knowledge of how language works before attempting this level. Children need to be able to mentally blend sounds (phonemes), modify words, and segment sounds (phonemes) in order to make the sound (phonemic) transference. The ability to manipulate sounds (phonemes) strongly correlates with beginning reading acquisition.

Early Literacy Foundational Skills

• Sound (Phoneme) Substitution

  • identify and substitute beginning sound in a word

  • identify and substitute ending sound in a word

  • identify and substitute middle sounds in a word

• Sound (Phoneme) Deletion

  • identify and omit beginning sound in a word

  • identify and omit ending sound in a word

  • identify and omit middle sounds in a word

Animal Fun

GOALS: sound (phoneme) substitution and sound (phoneme) matching

Materials

• None

Directions for Players:

1. Teach the song following the 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..

2. Have the child(ren) repeat the song several times, using other alliterations (initial sounds in words repeat).

   Example: Henry Hen & friend; Carlos Cat & hat; Polly Pig & twig; Sammy Seal & wheel; Frieda Fox & box; Skitter Skunk & trunk

3. End with the verse:

   Poor Charlie Chick, he was sick (repeat). He couldn’t play all day!

Challenge:

Invite the child(ren) to add their own alliterations in the song.

HELPFUL TIPS:

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