The ability to separate the sounds of a word is called “phoneme segmentation”. It’s a critical skill in both learning to read and write. By six and a half/seven years of age students should be able to tell you the sounds in a word. So, for example, if given the word “cat”, the student should be able to tell you that the sounds in “cat” are /k/ /a/ /t/. Understanding that words are made up of separate speech sounds is an important foundational skill. Phoneme segmentation is considered a “phonemic awareness” skill which falls under the broader category of “phonological” skills.
Around the end of kindergarten/beginning of first grade we should be directly teaching students to segment words into their separate speech sounds. As it is when teaching any skill, it’s important to scaffold our instruction and provide clear and concise directions (explicit teaching). When introducing the skill, we often begin with words containing 2 and 3 phonemes.
I have to say that the bead slide is one of my all time favorite activities for teaching this skill. It’s super easy to make. I purchase the wooden beads through S&S Worldwide. It’s important that there is some resistance with the shoelace and when the beads slide too easily it just defeats the purpose. The shoelace is just a lace I picked up at Walmart, tied at one end and then strung 6 beads to make one slide. I can usually make 3 bead slides with one lace.
For the bead slide activity have your students slide the beads to one side. Provide a word and then have him/her slide a bead for each sound.
It’s sometimes difficult to think of words with varying number of sounds so I included a “cheat sheet” in this post. Just click the link below if you’d like to use it.
Just click the following link to download this FREEBIE: Phoneme Segmentation Cheat Sheet
Phoneme segmentation is one skill addressed in the Big Box of Phonemic Awareness Activities. This kit contains activities and picture cards for teaching 5 phonological/phonemic awareness skills.
The Big Box of Phonemic Awareness Activities is available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store or through the Make, Take & Teach website.
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