RIC-6974_Phonological_awareness_skills_Book_3

PHONEME ISOLATION games and activities
ACTIVITY 5: Everyday sounds
Everyday environmental sounds can be used to
isolate beginning sounds.
This activity requires the children to isolate
beginning sounds in nonsense words. (Being able
to isolate sounds in nonsense words is a better
indicator of a child’s ability to isolate sounds than
when ‘real’ words are used.)
The children brainstorm to list many different
sounds they hear every day. Examples may include:
a tap dripping; a baby crying; a car roaring past; a
truck beeping when it backs up; a fire engine, an
ambulance or a police siren; a crowd cheering; the
school bell or siren ringing; Dad snoring and so on.
The children’s responses can be recorded on a sheet of cardboard using pictures and
labels, if desired.
Each child who offers an idea makes the sound and isolates and repeats the beginning
sound in the noise. For example, a child may say that a truck backing up goes ‘beep!
beep!’ and the initial sound is /b/.
• This activity may also be useful for final sounds as well.
• Isolate the initial sound in words
ACTIVITY 6: Say the first sound in a word
Select a number of different two-phoneme or three-phoneme words from the lists on
page 90.
Demonstrate how to say the
word and the sound heard at the
beginning of the word.
Select a word, then choose a
child to repeat the word and
state the initial sound heard in
the word.
Use this activity with words
like am, is, at, on, eat and so
on where it is more difficult to
illustrate using pictures. Children
need to be aware of the sounds
in all types of words including
those they use often when
speaking.
• Isolate the initial sound in words
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PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS SKILLS (Book 3) ISBN 978-1-925698-54-1 R.I.C. Publications ® www.ricpublications.com.au