Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Phonological Awareness in Play

Phonological awareness is when children are able to understand the structure of the sounds that letters and words make. This is an extremely important step in the process of learning how to read and children are exposed to it very often throughout the day. Children who are able to separate words and sounds into syllables and recognize that they have different sounds and parts are likely to be phonemically aware.
One of the best ways to work on phonological awareness with young children is by reading books that manipulate sounds and words. Using books that include a lot of onomatopoeia (which are words that make the sounds of a noise) or rhyming words allows children to really look at the break down of the letters and try to figure out what makes them sound the way that they do. Children can be asked to pick apart the words of a poem and find the ones that rhyme. They could then pick apart each rhyming word and try to discover which letters and sounds cause these certain words to rhyme. Phonological awareness is an essential part of moving forward for early readers.

5 comments:

  1. Using books to help children with their phonological awareness can be fun and creative. Rhyming books can engage students while working on these skills. Learning should be something children enjoy.

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  2. Phonological awareness is really important for preschool students. With the awareness, children will learn how to read and how to interact with stories of books. I think rhyming activity is a great way to practice phonological awareness.

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  3. You gave a lot of great suggestions for working on phonological awareness. I like the idea of reading books that manipulate sounds in interesting ways, and I think children enjoy these books greatly. One of my favorite examples is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

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  4. I think that many teachers are already integrating phonological awareness activities into their curriculum without knowing it! Familiar, catchy finger play songs that are used in routine or freely are practicing rhyming and vowel and consonant sounds. Teachers who are not interacting with their children in this way may be missing out on a great window to introduce early stages of literacy to children. Most classrooms already embody the basic structures and elements of this skill!

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  5. Phonological awareness is SO important, and there are a plethora of great books, finger plays, songs and rhymes that are fun for children and help foster this skill. I love your point about onomatopoeia. There is a book called "City Sounds" that is literally nothing but onomatopoeia, and I love using it with young children. It is great to use to focus on specific speech sounds and you can skip around and allow the children to point to their favorites.

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