Early learning teachers in preschools, child care centres, crèches and schools can help prepare the children in their care for early literacy learning. The sooner, the better. It is all about quality language and talking and listening activities. It is not hard to do once you have planned and programmed for which Phonological Awareness skills are going to be taught.
As a quick guide, here is a checklist of Phonological Awareness skills that children need.
CHECKLIST FOR TEACHERS
1. COUNTING WORDS IN A SENTENCE
a. Can the children point to words in a book and count the words?
b. Can the children count the spaces between the words in a book?
2. COUNTING SYLLABLES IN WORDS
Can the children clap syllables in words?
a. 1 syllable words (For example: boy/ mum/ dog/ house/ food/ school)
b. 2 syllable words (For example: but/ter, pup/py, teach/er, sal/ad)
c. 3 syllable words (For example: el/e/phant, bi/cy/cle, fam/i/ly)
d. 4 syllable words (For example: cat/er/pill/ar, hel/i/cop/ter)
3. HEARING BEGINNING SOUNDS IN 2 WORDS
Can the children hear that the words ‘fat’ and ‘fun’ START with the same sound and say that starting sound back to you? (‘f’)
4. HEARING FINAL SOUNDS IN 2 WORDS
Can the children hear that the words ‘dog’ and ‘rug’ END with the same sound and say that ending sound back to you (‘g’)?
5. IDENTIFYING 2 WORDS THAT RHYME
Can the children recognize that the words ‘man’ and ‘fan’ are words that rhyme?
6. CREATING NEW RHYMING WORDS
Can the children say the words ‘man/fan’ and make a new rhyming word to match (any word that ends in ‘an’ is fine: ‘ran, plan, span’)?
7. IDENTIFYING 2 WORDS THAT DO NOT RHYME
Can the children hear that the words ‘long’ and ‘fan’ do NOT rhyme?
8. HEARING SINGLE INITIAL SOUNDS IN WORDS
Can the children hear that when you say the word ‘dad’ that it starts with the sound ‘d’? Ask them to say the first sound in these words:
mum ‘m’ sun ‘s’ apple ‘a’ toe ‘t’ girl ‘g’ run ‘r’ horse ‘h’
9. BLENDING
Can the children say what the word is when it is stretched out for them?
a. 2 sound words
Say the sounds ‘i/n/’ The child says the word ‘in’; Say the sounds ‘a/t/’ They say the word ‘at’; Say the sounds ‘u’/p’/’ The child says the word ‘up’
b. 3 sound words
Say the sounds ‘b/i/n/’ The child says the word ‘bin’; Say the sounds ‘c/a/t/’ The child says the word ‘cat’; Say the sounds ‘d/o/g/’ The child says the word ‘dog’
c. 4 sound words
Say the sounds ‘c/l/o/ck/ The child says the word ‘clock’; Say the sounds ‘s/t/e/p/’ The child says the word ‘step’; Say the sounds ‘b/a/n/k/’ The child says the word ‘bank’
10. SEGMENTING
Can the children stretch words into sounds? (Segmenting)
a. 2 sound words (an, is, it, on) a/n/, i/s/, i/t/, o/n/
b. 3 sound words (mum, can, sit, wet) m/u/m/, c/a/n/, s/i/t/, w/e/t/
c. 4 sound words (hand, soft, went, jump) h/a/n/d/, s/o/f/t/, w/e/n/t/, j/u/m/p/
Say the word to the child
Child repeats the word
Stretch the word out into its sounds
Child then sounds out each sound
Count the sounds out on your fingers
11. HEARING SINGLE MIDDLE SOUNDS IN WORDS
Can the children hear the middle vowel sound in:
a. ‘rang’ ‘a’
b. ‘ring’ ‘i’
c. ‘rung’ ‘u’
Here is a downloadable teacher guide for each book with ideas and activities page by page to do with the children.
Teacher Guide for Carlos the Caterpillar.docx
Teacher Guide for Andrea the Ant.docx
Teacher Guide for Benita the Bee.docx