Phonemic Awareness

I am a product of the "whole language" generation. AKA: When I was taught to read, parents and teachers handed us books and said, "Learn to read this."

Okay so it wasn't exactly like that- but really, I don't think I knew my letter sounds until I went to college to learn how to become a teacher. I was never taught phonics.

Current research shows that teaching kids to read is a balance of phonemic awareness (letter names and sounds) and whole language.

One of these days I *MIGHT* get brave enough to bring some cookie sheets with sugar on them and let the kids practice writing letters in the "snow." MIGHT being the key word. There are so many fun ways to practice letter names and sounds in kindergarten. But in the meantime, here are a few things we do:

• ABC Bingo
• Play "Simon Says" to write letters and sight words using dry erase boards and markers
• Sing our "Who Let The Letters Out?" song each day with motions for each letter
• Play ABC stop game where we sing the alphabet and I stop on a letter & the kids have to tell me its name and sound
• Use flash cards in order and out of order to practice letter names, sounds and the motion for each letter
• Magnetic letters
• During computer center, the kids play games online to practice letter names, sounds and blending them together
• Write letters in shaving cream & say the sounds
• Next Friday we are going to build letters using play dough.

Those are just a few examples of the things we're doing at school that would be a great way for you to work with your child at home if he/she is struggling with this. Phonemic awareness is a HUGE component for young children to become strong readers and a big predictor of their future success in reading classes. So it's important that we get it right now and help them build a strong foundation.

I'm curious- what ideas do you have? What have you done at home to help your child learn letter names and sounds?

HERE is a link with some fun phonemic awareness games for your child to play on your home computer. Do you know of any others?