Phonemic Awareness Activities

Last week I was looking to purchase a "blending cards" and was disappointed to find that to purchase a new one, it'd be roughly $40-50 (just for one set).

$40-50 times 5 kids at my reading table = NOT GUNNA HAPPEN!

Luckily, I came across an awesome blog that had them for free! (Not only did they have the cards I was looking for, but there are a TON of really good resources for teaching phonemic awareness). Needless to say, I ran through some colored ink and card stock pretty fast. Anyways, head on over to Make, Take, Teach to snag the downloads for these cards. I did print my cards like a traffic light...the first sounds on green card stock, the vowel sounds on yellow, and the last sound on pink/red. 

Now, I also was looking to purchase a "blending board" and was frustrated to find they too were pretty expensive. You can click on the following links if you want to spend between $35-50 IMSE and RLAC. That too was not gunna happen! Make, Take, Teach has directions on how to make your own...but that was too much work for me!

I located a magnetic board that I purchased from JoAnn Fabrics a while back...(Sorry for the horrible pics!)

I went to Staples and purchased three plastic business card holders ($1.99 each) and six magnets ($2.99).

I took some Gorilla Glue and glued the magnets to the back of the business card holders. I glued two magnets on each holder and let them dry for a few minutes.

When the magnets were in place, I was able to put them on the board...

Another cool thing about this board is that there are holes at the top...If I decide to punch holes in the top of the cards I can also flip them over the board!

I'm sure you've worked with kids who've had difficulty blending at least three phonemes. No matter how much I stretch each sound, /c/ /a/ /t/ sometimes it comes out like 'at' or 'tack'. Here's a little freebie to help those kiddos...a little something I learned this past week when I was taking a reading class. (It's not as big as it looks in the pic below).

So let's say the word is "rag". Place the card in front of the child:

(1) Have them look at the first row. Every time they say a sound, have them tap their finger on a dot. Don't have them try to put the sounds back together! (/r/ /a/ /g/)

(2) Have them look at the second row. They are only going to say the first two sounds as they tap their finger on the dots. (/r/ /a/)

(3) Have them look at the third row. They are only going to blend the first two sounds as they drag their finger on the line. (/ra/)

(4) Have them look at the fourth row. They are going to blend the first two sounds as they drag their finger on the line and then tap the dot as they say the last sound. (/ra/ /g/)

(5) Have them blend the first two sounds (/ra/) and the last sound /g/ as they drag their finger on the line.

And there you have it! I think once the kids have this concept down, it would be helpful for them to look at the cards that are on the blending board as they tap out the sounds...Eventually, they could just tap on the table!