Phonological Awareness

Literacy development spans a broad array of skills elementary school.  In kindergarten we plan lessons that target specific aspects of literacy which can support reading, writing and word study. You may hear teachers refer to a child's "phonological awareness" and it's role in their overall literacy development.  Here is how we approach growing a child's phonological awareness so far this year.

Phonological awareness is an ability to consciously notice, identify, and manipulate individual sounds or sound structures of oral language.  These may include parts of words, syllables and individual speech sounds and units of sound made by more than one letter.  Individual sounds in isolation are called phonemes.  These are the /b/ in bat and ball. Young children naturally play with sounds through oral language play; often "dancing" with word play, rhyme and alliteration.  When we ask children to consciously take apart that word play and purposely change sounds or units of sounds they are building phonological awareness skills.

In our first trimester we focused heavily on individual letter sounds, the beginning sound in a word, changing the beginning sound in a word to make a new one, rhyme recognition and being able to produce rhymes. 

Identifying initial letter sounds in words and labels for objects.

As we learn individual letter sounds, it is critical that children know the name of letter and its sound as two different aspects of a written letter.  Recognizing lowercase letters can be more challenging, especially amongst d, b, p and q!

Movement songs with rhymes and initial letter sounds help engage children in oral language play. Connecting sound play to the name of a letter and it's written form in handwriting instruction.

Dictation: At least once a week we practice writing the letter to match a dictated sound.

Poems and songs with rhymes help build oral language play.  In our word work center there are materials for individual practice with phonological awareness skills.

Separating individual sounds, syllables, and words as they create a full sentence.  We also practice counting words in sentences and pointing once under each word with a reading finger.  This skill connects reading and writing as kids say a word over and over, stretching all the sounds and recording them all to create one word.  We are learning the importance of capitalizing the first word and placing a period at the end of a sentence!