Phonemic Awareness Activity: Rainforest Animal Slide

Does your child know most of his letter sounds?  Are you wondering what to work on next? If so, it’s time to play with those sounds and how they work together to make words.  We are building phonemic awareness with this rainforest themed hands-on activity.  A child with a strong phonological awareness background will be better prepared to read.

Phonemic awareness activities are oral activities that do not include matching the visual letters with the sounds.  We want the focus to be on hearing the sounds first.  The visual component of matching letters with sounds (phonics) will come soon.

Rainforest Animal Slide Phonemic Awareness Activity

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Getting Ready to Play

First, you need to make your rainforest animal slide.  Grab some string, a file folder, a bead, a glue stick, a pair of scissors, and the FREE animal printable that includes an iguana and jaguar.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE RAINFOREST ANIMALS

Glue the printable to a file folder or piece of cardstock.  You could also just print the download onto cardstock.  Cut out each animal around the black line.

Poke a small hole in the left and right black dots.  Take the string and thread it through one hole.  Place your bead on the string and then thread through the other hole.  Pull snugly and tie on the back.

Time to Play

First, review beginning, middle and end with your child.  It’s super important not to overlook this step.  You want to make sure your child has an understanding of this concept.  Model by moving the bead to the left (beginning), middle and right (end). Then, have your child repeat the sequence.

There are a few ways to play to work on phonemic awareness.

1. Say a word with three phonemes such as cat, dog, bug, hen, or sit.  Have your child segment each phoneme as he slides the bead from beginning to the middle and to the end.
2. You could also use the slide to help your child isolate sounds in words.  For example, say, “What sound do you hear at the end of cup?”  The child can move the bead across the animal to segment the sounds and listen for the ending sound.  Repeat to work on beginning and middle sounds too.

Enjoy playing and learning phonemic awareness activities with your child.  And, check out these other rainforest theme activities from the Early Childhood Education team.

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