8 Fun Phonemic Awareness Activities to Boost Early Reading Skills
The First Step to Reading
Did you know that before children can learn to read, they first need to learn how to hear?
Understanding the sounds within words is one of the most important foundational skills for reading success. This is called phonological awareness, and it's all about a child's ability to recognize and play with the sounds in spoken language.
A key part of this is phonemic awareness, which is the ability to identify and manipulate the smallest, individual sounds—or phonemes—in words. For example, a child with strong phonemic awareness knows that the word "cat" is made up of three distinct sounds: /c/, /a/, and /t/. mrsjudyaraujo.com
Don't worry, you don't need to be a reading specialist to help your child build these crucial skills! Here are 8 fun and simple activities you can do at home to play with sounds and pave the way for a lifetime of reading.
8 Fun Activities to Build Phonemic Awareness
1. Rhyme Time
Why it works: Rhyming helps children's ears tune into the fact that different words can share similar sounds. This is a critical first step in sound awareness.
Try It:
Sing Together: Sing classic nursery rhymes and songs like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or "The Wheels on the Bus."
Read Rhyming Books: Choose books with strong, predictable rhymes. Pause before the rhyming word and let your child fill in the blank.
Make Up Silly Rhymes: Say, "Let's think of words that sound like bug." (e.g., hug, rug, mug).
2. I Spy With My Little Ear
Why it works: Sound games teach children to isolate the very first sound in a word, a key skill for learning letter-sound correspondence.
Try It:
Play "I Spy" with a twist. Instead of colors, use sounds: "I spy something in the kitchen that starts with the /m/ sound." (e.g., milk).
As your child gets more advanced, challenge them with ending sounds: "I spy an animal that ends with the /g/ sound." (e.g., dog, frog, pig).
3. Sound Blending: Putting Words Together
Why it works: Blending sounds is essential for reading. It's the skill that allows a child to see the letters c-a-t on a page, say the sounds /c/-/a/-/t/, and blend them together to read the word "cat." understood.org
Try It:
Say the sounds of a word with a short pause between them and have your child guess the word. Start with two-sound words and move to three-sound words.
Examples: "/i/ - /f/ is... if," "/sh/ - /oe/ is... shoe," "/d/ - /o/ - /g/ is... dog."
4. Sound Segmenting: Taking Words Apart
Why it works: Segmenting is the opposite of blending and is crucial for spelling. It helps children break down a word they want to write into its individual sounds.
Try It:
Say a word and have your child tell you the sounds they hear. You can have them hold up a finger for each sound.
Examples: "How many sounds in mop?" (/m/ - /o/ - /p/. Three sounds!). "How many sounds in fish?" (/f/ - /i/ - /sh/. Three sounds!).
Use picture cards of simple objects and have your child say the name of the object and then break it into its sounds. readingrockets.org
A warm and inviting illustration of a parent and child sitting on a cozy rug, playing a game with colorful picture cards. The child is happily pointing to a card with a picture of a 'bug' while the parent holds up cards with rhyming words like 'rug' and 'hug.' The style is soft and painterly, like a classic children's book illustration.
5. Sound Swapping
Why it works: This advanced activity shows children how changing just one sound can create a whole new word, demonstrating how words are constructed.
Try It:
Give your child a word and ask them to change one sound to make a new word.
Examples: "Can you change the /c/ in cat to a /m/?" (mat). "Change the /a/ in mat to an /i/." (mit).
6. Sound Deletion: What's Left Behind?
Why it works: Deleting sounds challenges a child to hold a word in their mind and mentally manipulate it, which is a powerful phonemic awareness skill.
Try It:
Ask your child to say a word without one of its sounds.
Examples: "Say the word cup... now say it without the /c/." (up). "Say the word spin... now say it without the /s/." (pin).
7. Word Families (Onset-Rime)
Why it works: This helps children see patterns in words, which makes learning to read and spell groups of words much easier. Each syllable has an onset (the beginning sound) and a rime (the ending part). mrsjudyaraujo.com
Try It:
Pick a word family, like "-at," and brainstorm all the words you can think of (cat, hat, sat, bat, mat, fat). Write them down so your child can see how they all look the same at the end.
8. Syllable Clapping
Why it works: Breaking words into bigger "chunks" or syllables is a core part of phonological awareness and helps with decoding longer words.
Try It:
Simply say words and have your child clap the number of syllables they hear.
Examples: "Butter-fly" (3 claps), "Dog" (1 clap), "Ba-na-na" (3 claps).
You can make it a game while walking. Take one step for each syllable in a word.
Play is the Way
By incorporating these simple, playful games into your daily routine, you can give your child a powerful head start in their reading journey.
The goal is to have fun with sounds! The more comfortable your child is with hearing and playing with phonemes, the more prepared they will be when they begin to connect those sounds to letters.
A great way to practice these skills is by reading books that are fun to listen to. Our series of books ‘Henry Mozzarella’, is filled with playful rhymes and silly sounds that make learning a joy!