This week we are exploring counting 0-5 as part of the collaborative effort of our Early Childhood Education Team. All year we are exploring early childhood themes and I will be focusing on phonological awareness and phonics activities. Today, I’m sharing a playful phonological awareness activity to build segmentation of words into syllables.
Segmenting Words Activity
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Why We Chose This Activity
Developing phonological awareness helps prepare kids to read. Phonological awareness activities are oral. We work on listening and speaking to play and experiment with language. In our house we are all about prepping to read! We’ve been doing lots of rhyming activities, alliteration games and this week we worked on segmentation of words.
Setting Up
So all you need for this activity are your hands! You could use rhythm sticks or a toy drumtoo to add a little variety.
Time to Play
Start with words that have two parts. Examples include: basket, garden, muffin, kitten, and monkey. Model saying the word and clapping each part. Count the number of claps to determine how many parts there are to each word.
Say the next word and clap with your child and count the parts that you both hear.
Proceed to the third word and see if your child can clap and count as they segment the word.
When ready, move on to three part words such as: dinosaur, butterfly, astronaut, basketball, and umbrella.
Do a few of these a few minutes each day. Soon, your child will be a segmenting master
Enjoy segmenting words with your child and building phonological skills! Your child is preparing to read.
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Keep reading. Visit the links below for more great counting 0-5 ideas from the #teachECE team!
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Natasha says
Never knew what it was called. We have been playing this game for a while now. We like to clap out each others names and new words that we’ve learned.
Clarissa says
I love that this activity can be taken anywhere! Waiting in line at the store, at a restaurant, or just at the dinner table. And a toy drum would be a fun addition!
The Preschool Toolbox says
Love this suggestion as it teaches so many important skills! Using cross-disciplinary skills to promote learning through play = priceless!:) Thanks for a great post!
Danielle says
I love this quick and easy way to add segmenting practice to our daily life!
Cerys says
We do this with my eldest and must start with the younger as well and then we use it to put dots or lines under the letters in the word to show our phonemes and diagraphs. Such a fun way to combine literacy, maths and music
Amanda says
Clapping (2) Syllables (3) is a great way to combing counting and literacy. It’s one of our go-to car games!