Sound Awareness

Fox Chapter 2: Fox identifies seven ways children demonstrate sound awareness. Choose one of these and then select two activities (also from chapter 2) that support the development of this sound-awareness skill. What is the focus of the activity? What are the directions? What would you be looking for to let you know the children are using the targeted skill (assessment)?

Skill: Blending
Shows that student knows how to blend when phonemes are combined to form a whole word

Activity: Picture blending
Focus of activity: reducing the number of sounds to make blending easier
Directions: Show a picture to a child and say the name of the picture. Cut picture into as many parts as you wish for blending. Point to each picture piece and say sound it represents. Explain sounds go together just like puzzle pieces to form a word. Demonstrate by moving the picture pieces together while you blend the sounds to produce the word. Ask child to push pieces together while you pronounce the word. Ask child to blend sounds along with you and on their own. Extend activity to written language by writing the letters under each picture piece. After the child uses this skill discuss sounds in words and the letter sounds present in the words you are using.
Looking for: do the sounds overlap? Can they combine the phonemes to pronounce a whole word?

Activity: Finger Puppet talk
Focus of activity: phoneme identification
Directions: Using a finger puppet, tell class that the puppet speaks only in sounds. Use an example and ask the class to identify the word. Continue pronouncing words sound by sound then ask the class to say the whole word
Looking for: can the students blend the phoneme to form a whole word