Looking for some phonological awareness games that are easy and fun? Here's a list of 5 games for preschool, Kindergarten, and 1st grade students! (Remember that phonological awareness games involve listening, no letters or reading.)

Game #1: I Spy with Syllables

To play this game, look around the room and choose an object (example: a table), and separate out the syllables. For example, with the "table" example, you'd say, "I spy with my little eye: a ta....ble." Students have to say the complete word (table).

After you've done a few rounds, you might choose a student to be the next leader and choose the objects.

Game #2: Stomp My Sentence

To play this game, make up a sentence and say it aloud as students listen. Then, students should stand up and repeat the exact same sentence. Each time they hear a word, they stomp one foot. (This helps develop concept of word.)

Game #3: Rhyming Action Words

Read one of these sentences aloud to students. Then, have them repeat the entire sentence and act out the action word at the end.

Bump rhymes with JUMP!

Fun rhymes with RUN!

Keep rhymes with LEAP!

Trim rhymes with SWIM!

Talk rhymes with WALK!

Hip rhymes with SKIP!

Fit rhymes with SIT!

Fist rhymes with TWIST!

You can also change the game so that you say a rhyming word (i.e. "tip") and students have to act out an action that rhymes with it (i.e. "skip").

Game #4: Mystery Word, Mystery Category

First, choose a category (i.e. "fruit"). Don't tell students the category. Begin giving them various words within the category to blend. For example:

/p/ /l/ /u/ /m/ (students repeat those sounds after you say them and then say the entire "mystery word," plum)

/g/ /r/ /a/ /p/ (students repeat those sounds after you say them and then say the entire "mystery word," grape)

After you do 4-6 words in the category, have students raise their hands and guess what the "mystery category" is.

Game #5: Karate Chop It

For this game, students will need some physical space between them! Show them how to safely karate chop the air. Then, give them one word at a time to segment (for each sound, they karate chop it). Example: you say "hat," they repeat "hat," and then they say /h/ (chop) /a/ (chop) /t/ (chop).

Enjoy these simple but fun phonological awareness games!

If you need more phonological awareness activities, our phonics program From Sounds to Spelling includes daily phonological awareness practice (as well as complete lessons, videos, and materials for teaching phonics and high-frequency words).

You can download a free sample of the program at this link.