What is Phonological Awareness, Why it Matters, & Phonemic Activities

If you are wondering what is phonoglocial awareness, we can help! In simple terms, phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate phonemes in words. This skill is critical for reading success in pre-k, kindergartners, and first grade. In this blog post we will give what is an example of phonological awareness, why it matters at the kindergarten level, plus lots of phonemic activities to work on this crucial skill for early readers. Let’s dive right into what is phonemic awareness!

What is Phonological Awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes. Phonemes are the individual elements of sounds in any language. Reading and understanding word sounds are vital! If we want children to be good readers, we need them to hear and manipulate the sounds that make up words. It is important because studies show that children with a solid phonemic awareness in Kindergarten are more likely to experience reading success later (source).

What is an Example of Phonological Awareness

The English language has 44 phonemes. If you’re interested, you can see a complete list here. An example of phonemes would be the

• beginning sound “s.”
• short a
• ending sound “d.”

These individual sounds come together to make the word “sad.” A learner with well-developed phonemic awareness will isolate and hear each sound and blend them together to read the complete word. Also, some letters have different sounds. Which sound is used depends on where the phoneme is placed in a word. For example, the letter ‘e’ makes one sound in the wordnet and another in the world meet. On the other hand, some letters make a completely different sound when put together in a word. Here are some examples

• shin fish
• thin with
• chin chair

What is Phonemic Awareness

Children can show phonemic awareness in many ways. These include:

• Being able to name words that all begin with the same sound. For example, net, nap, and nut all start with the n phoneme.
• Having the ability to hear and name the beginning and ending sounds of simple words. For example, the beginning sound of the word net is /n/ and the ending sound of nut is /t/.”)
• Understand how to blend the individual sounds in a word read it. For example, “/n/, /a/, /p/ – nap.”)
• Being able to reverse the process to break a word into each individual sounds

What is Phonological Awareness and Why is it Important

Children’s ability to hear and work with sounds is one of the significant factors determining their readiness to read. All the words in our language are made up of different sounds. The way different sounds combine is what makes each word unique. Having the ability to recognize those different sounds is the first step in a long process. Eventually, children discover that letters (and groups of letters) represent the sounds of spoken language. For example, the words cap, tap, and map all have the same ending sound. However, the different beginning sounds make each one of these words unique. Phonemic awareness must be developed before phonics instruction. It will be tough for your child to succeed in phonics if they cannot connect the sounds and the written letters. Watching your child suddenly make the connection between the sounds and the written word is AMAZING! You suddenly see the light turn on in their brain. It is exciting for everyone and it never gets old.

What is Phonemic Awareness in Reading

Children’s phonological awareness abilities improve as they become more sensitive to smaller and smaller word parts. They slowly learn how to hear and rearrange these sounds to make new words. But it takes time and practice for these skills to emerge. Children begin to recognize the sounds of their language around the age of two. They’ll start to enjoy rhymes and wordplay. With lots of practice and experience, children slowly begin to detect differences between similar and dissimilar sounding words. After that, they start to identify and count syllables within words. Learning to hear the different phonemes in a word is the most challenging part of phonemic awareness. It takes a lot of practice, but it is imperative to take the time to build this skill. Phonemic awareness develops as children improve and build on the previous level. One step naturally leads to the next.

Phonological Awareness Skills

It is important to remember that phonemic awareness develops over time. Don’t expect your child to be able to identify all phonemes right away, but do encourage them every step of the way through fun activities. This is the recommended order of activities

1. Rhyming Activities
2. Counting, tapping, blending, and dividing a word into syllables
3. Identifying and matching beginning sounds in words
4. Identifying and matching final and middle sounds
5. Blending sounds into words

See this post for more information about each of these stages. It also has a helpful table that gives the approximate age children develop the skills.

Phonemic Awareness Activities

When it comes to phonemic awareness, games are your secret weapon. They encourage children to practice the skills in a fun and engaging way. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of games and activities that you and your children may enjoy together.

Rhyming Activities

The very best way to introduce rhyming is to read lots and lots of rhyming books. Most of these books appeal to our kid’s sense of humor, so have fun with them. Draw children’s attention to the rhymes in the book. Click here for a great list of books that rhyme.

• Rainbow Rhyming Words Puzzles
• Camera Strips Rhyming word families
• Lion Rhyming Words Activities
• Cooking up Rhymes Do a Dot Printables
• Butterfly Rhyming Games
• Rhyming Clip Cards
• Glue Puzzles – fun Rhyming Activities for Kindergarten
• Printable Strawberry Themed Rhyming Cards
• Robot Rhyme Puzzle Game
• Winter Rhyming Puzzles
• Smores Rhyming Games for Preschoolers
• Beehive Rhyming Games for Preschool
• Lots of free rhyming activities for kids
• Sneak in some practice this fall with these Pumpkin Rhyming Words
• Practice rhyming with these fun Valentines cut and paste printables
• Rhyme in December with these Gingerbread Rhyming Puzzles

Working With Syllables

These activities will help your kids practice working with syllables.

• 20 Fun and Clever Syllable Activities
• Syllable Counting Punch Cards
• Winter Syllables Printable Activity
• Open and Closed Syllable Reading Activity
• Fall Counting Syllables Clip Cards

The following free worksheet packs all include syllable counting sheets.

• Free Dinosaur Printable Pack
• Scarecrow Worksheets
• Pirate Pack
• Circus Fun
• Farm Lessons

   

Beginning Sounds Activities

Here are some great activities for identifying beginning sounds. Looking for more fun and free begining sounds printables? You will love these engaging activities that help kids work on phonemic awareness

• Free Beginning Sounds Animal Clip It Cards
• free printable beginning sounds worksheets
• Stamping Beginning Sounds Activity 
• Birds on a Branch Alphabet Matching Game
• Beginning Sounds Mitten Match
• CVC Words Beginning Sounds Clip Cards
• Christmas Tree Beginning Sounds Game
• Super cute, Free Phonics Beginning Sounds Worksheets using Do a Dot Markers
• Build a Flower Beginning Sounds Activity
• Adorable Penguin Beginning Sounds Match
• Phonics Buses Beginning Sounds Match
• Clever Letter Sound Matching Game
• Fun Fish Phonics Activities Kindergarten
• Hands-on Beginning Sound Clip Cards
• Pumpkin Phonics Games for Kindergarten
• Ice Cream Beginning Sounds Activity
• Cute Easter Phonics Puzzles
• Printable Kite Phonics Craft
• Free Beginning Sounds Worksheets (write missing letter and cut and paste)
• Clip Cards for working on Initial Sounds Activities
• Free Beginning Sounds Game with magnetic letters
• Free Beginning Sounds Worksheets For Kindergarten and First Grade

Ending and Middle Sounds Activities

These phonemic awareness activities will help your kids practice identifying middle and final sounds.

• CVC Ending Sounds Clip Cards
• Printable CVC Middle Sounds Clip Cards
• Free Ending Sounds Game
• Missing Middles Worksheets
• Reusable Ending Sounds Worksheets – clipcards!
• Middle Sounds Cups
• Short Vowel Worksheets pdf
• Gingerbread Man Middle Sounds Spin and Cover
• Middle Vowel Sounds Board Game

Vowels Printables

• looking for more fun vowel activities and resources to make learning to read and spell words fun? Check these out!
• Missing Vowels Clip Cards are a fun way for kindergartners and first grade students to practice adding in the missing vowel sounds
• Practice adding short and long vowels to word with these no-prep Vowels Worksheets
• Practice matching vowels sounds to clipart with these puzzles featuring Kindergarten Vowels
• Make practicing FUN with this cute short vowel games or use this long vowel games
• Grab these super cute CVC word puzzles free printable
• Handy Long Vowel Sounds Worksheets
• MIssing Sound Clip Cards Vowel Activities
• Practice adding short a words with this cut and paste activity for kids
• Long a vowel clip cards
• Short e words printable book for practicing adding the e vowel
• Cut and Paste short i words mini book
• Short i words Printable  sight word reader for kids to practice reading short i words
• Cute Bunny Short i words puzzles are a fun way for kids to practice listening for the short i sound in words this spring!
• Work on short o words with this cut and paste booklet for kids to read, build, and write
• Cut and paste short u cvc words printable book for practicing adding the u vowel
• Printable vowel activities for kindergarten
• See all our Vowels activities here

FREE CVC Words Printables

 

Digraph and Blends

As children progress in phonics they work on digraphs and blends. Digraphs are two consonants that make one sound such as /TH/ sys thumb. Consonant blends have two constonants that each still make their own sound such as . If you are looking for more blends for kids games, worksheets, and activities? Check out these resoures or see all our digraph activities or consonant activities.

• Spring Digraph Activity Puzzles
• Printable Digraph Game for working on sh, ch, th words
• Ice Cream Puzzles Digraph Game for summer learning
• Build-a-Digraph Puzzle – Digraph Activity
• Digraph BINGO Game

Mastered digraphs? Move on to trigraphs for kids! These words are 3 constonants that make one sound such at

• Trigraph Printables – color and read trigraphs
• Printable Trigraph Readers – set #2
• Trigraph Workhseets – cut and paste to learn trigraph words
• Bingo Dauber Trigraph Worksheets make learning fun
• THR Word Activity with playdough!
• Trigraph Phonics Blending Games

Consonant blends activities

Other Literacy Activities you may enjoy:

• Free Ending Blends Worksheets
• Spring Bee Initial Blends Game
• Consonant Blends Games (puzzles in color or black & white)
• Blue Bird Initial Blends Activity
• Read and Color Free Blends Worksheets
• Dab a Blend – Ending Blends Worksheets in First Grade
• Final Blends Game
• Hands-on L Blend Worksheets
• Graph a Blends Activity
• Final Consonant Blends Worksheets with do a dot markers
• Mitten Initial Blend Puzzles – Winter activities for first grade
• Ending S Blends Activity
• L Blends Fun Pack, TH Blends Fun Pack,  or R Blends Fun Pack
• Leaf Puzzle Blends – fall activities for first grade
• Th Worksheets – reading the words in sentences
• Color by Blend Worksheet
• Clip Card Consonant Blends Activities
• Find and Dot Ending Blends Activities
• Reading phonics blends

What Does the Lack of Phonemic Awareness Look Like?

Children who have not fully developed their phonemic awareness skills struggle to do certain things. They

• Cannot sort words that sound similar from words that sound different. They will not be able to separate the word sun from cap and cut.
• Struggle to break words into separate syllables
• Are unable to blend sounds to decode a word.
• Find it hard to identify and isolate the individual sounds in words.
• Cannot detect and changes sounds to make different words. For example, change the c in cap to m (map) or t (tap).

Homeschooling Tip: It is common for children with dyslexia to have difficulty with all of these skills. They will continue to struggle, no matter how much practice they get. If this describes your child, try to get them tested as soon as possible. A diagnosis can make a huge difference.

How Do You Assess Phonemic Awareness?

There are a whole set of assessment tests available to teachers. If you are interested, you can find a list here. However, most homeschoolers can conduct an informal assessment of their own using questions. You can find a list of questions here.

Final Thoughts

Phonemic awareness is a critical foundational skill for children at the kindergarten level. In this article, you learned about phonemic awareness and why it matters. We also touched on informal assessments. You can help your child develop those skills through a variety of games and activities. We’ve given you a great list of those, so bookmark this page or pin the post, so you can come back to it often. If you have found this article helpful, please consider sharing it with fellow homeschooling families. We would really appreciate your help.