Blending and segmenting games and activities can help students to develop phonemic awareness — the ability to hear the individual sounds in spoken words. Begin with segmenting and blending syllables, and then move to working with individual sounds (phonemes). Learning to blend and segment sounds is key to learning to read.
This episode focuses on phonological awareness. Reading expert Linda Farrell helps kindergartener Autumn learn to blend two parts of a syllable (onset and rime). Watch how Ms. Farrell gives Autumn explicit practice with onset and rime — a core phonological awareness skill that helps kids recognize and blend sound chunks within syllables. This is an essential step toward developing phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness, a vital pre-reading skill, is being able to blend, segment, and manipulate the sounds in words.
Join the conversation! We’re writing about the best practices in reading instruction, how to support literacy at home, building background knowledge, and choosing and using children’s books.
