Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is the single most consistent predictor of future reading achievement. Children who enter first grade high in phonemic awareness do well regardless of the kind of instruction they receive. But no method was any better for students who were low in phonemic awareness at the beginning of first grade. All reading begins with phonemic awareness.
Teach Children to Rhyme
Rhyming is considered to be a wonderful way to inaugurate phonemic awareness training with young children. When we rhyme two words (CAT/HAT) we are directing children's attention not to the meaning of those words—there is no relationship there—but to the sounds within those words that are the same. A child who begins to remember rhyming pairs and then starts to generate rhymes (even nonsense rhymes) on his own, is a child who is becoming aware of sounds within spoken language, which is phonemic awareness. So I encourage Kindergarten and preschool teachers and parents to model rhyming often. (Remember, modeling phonemic awareness skills is the best way to teach them.) The more children hear the adults in their learning environment generate rhyming words, the sooner they will begin to generate their own rhymes.
Item#100
$10.00
Rhyming Pictures Set 1 [Large]
44 pairs of rhyming pictures, large enough for classroom instruction. This set can also be used at the resource center as an independent or small group activity. The ability to identify or produce rhyming words is an important first step towards acquiring sufficient phonemic awareness to understand the alphabetic principle, so crucial for reading mastery.
Item#101
$8.00
Rhyming Pictures Set 1 [Small]
48 pairs of rhyming pictures, for individual or small group instruction. An ideal hands-on manipulative for literacy centers.
Teach Beginning Sound Isolation
The child must be taught to isolate and say the beginning sounds of spoken words. The child learns this important phonemic awareness skill by listening to teachers, parents and other classmates model it again and again thr ough oral games. The ability to isolate the beginning sound of a spoken word is the indicator of readiness for learning the alphabet letter-sounds.
Item#110
$79.00
Beginning Sound Animal Figurines
For Teaching Beginning Sound Isolation
20 realistic, hand-painted wild and domestic animals from the world famous Schleich collection. Animals are made of durable molded plastic. Children love to touch and hold these life-like animal figures as the teacher models beginning sound isolation crucial to understanding the alphabetic principle. The ability to isolate the beginning sound of a spoken word indicates readiness for learning the alphabet letter-sounds.
Item #111
$10.00
Beginning Sound Cards
Independent Beginning Sound Isolation
The child identifies the beginning sound of the picture at the top of the card, then places game pieces (not included) on the other pictures that start with the same sound. These cards are also effective for individual or small group instruction. 28 cards.
Teach Blending and Segmentation
The child who is learning to read must be able to listen to sounds (phonemes) spoken to him by an adult (/c/…./a/.…/t/) and blend those sounds into a word he knows (CAT). When playing The Blending Game, the child is hearing the teacher, parent or classmate segment spoken words into sounds again and again. Eventually the child himself will be able to segment spoken language into individual sounds. Note: the number of letters used to spell a word is not important for this game, only the number of phonemes. For example: HOUSE has 5 letters, but only 3 sounds. The Blending Game is the best way to teach a child segmentation, which is a pre-requisite (along with letter-sound mastery) for introducing a child to decoding. Segmentation is the most important beginning reading skill.
Item#120
$8.00
The Blending Game Set 1 [3 Sounds]
For Teaching Blending and Segmentation
An interactive phonemic awareness activity that teaches children to blend and segment words containing 3 sounds, like mouse, church, dog. Segmentation is crucial for understanding the alphabetic principle in preparation for decoding. 59 picture cards.
Item#120S
$18.00
Blending Game Samples [Pkg. of 5 Sample Sets]
For Teaching Blending and Segmentation
An interactive phonemic awareness activity that teaches children to blend and segment words containing 3 sounds, like mouse, church, dog. Segmentation is crucial for understanding the alphabetic principle in preparation for decoding. 20 cards in each of the 5 sample sets.
Item#121
$8.00
The Blending Game Set 2 [4 Sounds]
Advanced Blending and Segmentation
This advanced set consists of vocabulary pictures containing 4 sounds like slide, flag, train. Segmentation of 4 sounds prepares the student to decode 4-letter short vowel words. 53 picture cards.
Learning to Read is Child’s Play
By Maunz, Matthews and Klein
Item#500, $19.00
The sequence, the research, the materials and the 30 years classroom experience which form the foundation of a practical, developmentally appropriate program that leads young children gently but surely into reading. A how-to manual for the early childhood classroom.