Wonderful Wordplay

Use these activities to build your child’s phonemic awareness-ability to hear sounds in words:

  • Choose a three-letter word, such as cap.  Have your child substitute different beginning sounds from the alphabet to make new words (lap, map, nap, rap, sap, tap, zap).  How many did they get?
  • Pick a long word, and tell them to clap once as they hear a syllable.  For the word mozzarella, they would clap 4 times:  moz-za-rel-la
  • Ask your child to say a word without the first sound. Example: “Can you say sit without the s?” (Answer: It)
  • Think of a word, and give your child a “sound” clueto figure it out.  For instance, “I’m thinking of a word for something that you chew but don’t swallow.  The word has an uh sound in the middle.”  (Answer: Gum)