When I speak with parents about our program, I often discuss
Phonological Awareness. This is important in our program as it is such an important part of learning to read:
“The best predictor of reading
difficulty in kindergarten or first grade is the inability to segment
words and syllables into constituent sound units (phonemic awareness)
Lyon, (1995) Toward a definition of dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 40,
51-76
This series of blogs will explain these very important and sometimes not understood early reading skills.
The VERY first skills required to read are actually being developed well
before letters are taught.
Phonological Awareness is broadly defined as being able to hear the
sounds in language including words, parts of words (sounds and
syllables). This skill is being learnt from the minute children are
learning language and speech, however also requires explicit instruction
for understanding.
Phonological Awareness includes:
- Rhyme
- Hearing syllables – and onset/rime
- Working with Phonemes:
- Isolating
- Blending
- Segmenting
- Manipulating
This series of articles on Phonological
Awareness gives some ideas that we implement and that you can try at
home to reinforce hearing rhythm and rhyme.
RHYME
We start instruction by introducing sounds through RHYME. This is such a
great starting point as it is very motivating for the students. Rhyme
is easily introduced through literature and nursery rhymes. We make sure
this literature is throughout our programs. Specifically in ‘Little ED 4
School’ and ‘Learn 4 School’ we focus strongly on nursery rhymes and
their rime sounds to start to assist the students to hear those sounds
clearly.
We have provided an example of how to use our Nursery Rhyme resources on our blog Teach Rhyme with Nursery Rhymes
Our nursery rhyme packages are available for purchase:
With instruction and repetition of the nursery rhymes, the rhyme
sound should also be taught explicitly for those students who need some
assistance with hearing the sound. One way to teach these sounds is via
direct instruction through the use of the ED Specially 4U Rhyme Flashcard resource
This resource can be used for direct instruction teaching the rhyme sounds.
Extension Ideas with this resource:
Show and name a sequence of cards in a rhyme sound and include a
different rhyme sound – ask the students to work out the rhyme card that
does not belong. For example: wall, call, ball, fall, moon. This
activity can be repeated, changing the position of the word that does
not belong, in the sequence.
NURSERY RHYME RHYME GAMES
We offer a lot of hands on learning opportunities to reinforce instruction and concepts of rhyme. Our Nursery Rhyme Games are:
Nursery Rhyme Match -
matching the words to a baseboard (similar to a bingo board) which can
be played by one or more players. This game is great as an
instructional tool – with the teacher leading the rhyme activity or as
an activity for students to independently work through.
Find The Rhyme -
This is a harder activity than the Nursery Rhyme Match, as the player
has to match to locate a rhyme sound that matches the picture already
supplied
Nursery Rhyme Memory Match -
This game is played in the same style as traditional memory match, with
the player matching rhyme words that have the same rhyme
READ
Reading is of course, highly important when you are introducing rhyme to
students. There is a wealth of great literature for children of this
early learning age, which uses the prose of rhyme. Books with full
rhyming sentences and words are great for developing the sound of rhyme.
When you are reading a book with rhyming words, talk to your child about
the words that rhyme. Repeat sentences highlighting the rhymes and
reinforce the rhyming sound in the words. Explain that words sound the
same because the ending sound is the same. Give the rhyme words as your
example.
You can assess your child’s understanding of rhyme by pausing where
the rhyming word should be read and allowing the student to complete the
sentence (rhyme word). If it does not make sense, that is ok. The
important part of this skill is to hear the word:
Where’s My Teddy? Jez Alborough
“Eddy’s off to find his teddy.
Eddy’s teddy’s name is ______”
(Freddy is the real word required here – however if your child said
sneddy, reddy, beddy etc. they would be showing that they understand
the rhyming pattern)
When your child is learning, it is always easier for them to select a
correct answer than say it. So this activity should not be expected
until your child has had a good amount of experience with rhyming
sounds.
RHYME WITH WORD FAMILIES
Word families are a great way to introduce rhyme.
Word families are words that have the same ending sound, by just
changing the beginning sound. For example: cat, hat, mat, sat are all
rhyming words.
We offer resources and games that assist with the word family rhyming
activities.
CVC Word Family Rhyme Match - Like the nursery rhyme rhyme match, this game is extremely versatile as an instructional tool or as a game
CVC Word Family Memory Match -
played like a traditional memory match game. This game is appropriate
to different learning levels as it comes with pictures and words to add
to the complexity of the game for older students
SING RHYMING SONGS
Preschool finger plays and songs often use rhyme to entertain, thus providing a fantastic teaching opportunity.
Songs such as :
HAVE FUN
Rhyming stories and poems are fun for little learners. Make sure that
all teaching of this skill includes FUN.
We enjoy using real objects to extend learning fun. One game that we
love doing with the students when they have become more experienced with
their rhyming sounds is:
FEELY BAG – SAY THE MATCH
Provide a mystery feely bag with several objects which are suitable for
rhyming tasks. The teacher/tutor/parent or the student can take the
objects out of the bag one by one.
- If this game is only played with one player, they can make a guess
of a word that rhymes with the object they have taken out of the bag.
ie. (dolls house) chair = …bear/pear/where/hair/stair etc. block =
sock/lock/frock/dock
- If there is more than one player, the students can take turns to
see who can make a match with the object. As each player correctly
guesses, they can hold onto the object until the end of the game, where
the rhymes can be reviewed. The winner of the game is the student with
the most objects
RHYMING BALL
Using a round medium sized ball, pass the ball between your child and
yourself (this game can be played with more players including whole
class groups – and is actually really effective with larger groups)
Start with a CVC word family word such as cat, throw the ball – on each
throw of the ball he players have to say a word that rhymes with that
word family.
The teacher/parent/ or a designated student is responsible for
‘CHANGING” the rhyme. When they feel it is a good time, or the rhyme
sound has been exhausted, or just for fun – the designated person shouts
CHANGE and then nominates a new word family rhyme.
This game is best played at a fast pace, and gets the students thinking.
Rhyme Time is an enjoyable experience for parents/teachers and students alike.
Children benefit from the explicit teaching of rhyme sounds.
These can be taught through nursery rhyme, Short Vowel Rhyming words, games and of course books.
For the Love of Learning
Donna
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