Phonemic awareness is awareness of the individual speech sounds that make up words - and it also includes the ability to identify, isolate, add, delete, and substitute sounds.

In this post, we'll share examples of many different types of phonemic awareness activities. All these activities come from our phonics program, From Sounds to Spelling, which includes lots of phonemic awareness and phonological awareness activities.

Phoneme Isolation

• "I'm going to say a word, you repeat the word, and you tell me the first sound in the word. Ready? Say 'lunch.'" (lunch) "The first sound is..." (/l/)

• “I’m going to say a word, you repeat the word, and you tell me the last sound in the word. Ready? Say 'him.'" (him) "The last sound is..." (/m/)

• “I’m going to say a word, you repeat the word, and you tell me the middle sound in the word. Ready? Say 'shop.'" (shop) "The middle sound is..." (/ŏ/)

Phoneme Blending

• “I’m going to say the sounds in a word, and you tell me the whole word. Ready? The sounds are /ŏ/ /f/." (off)

Phoneme Segmenting

• “Let’s segment some words. Say 'fuzz.'” (fuzz) "Tell me all the sounds in 'fuzz.'" (/f/ /ŭ/ /z/) 

Phoneme Addition

• "I’ll say part of a word, and you repeat it. Then, we’ll add another sound to the beginning of the word. Ready? Say 'in.'" (in) “Add /th/ to the beginning, and we get…” (thin)

• “We’re going to add a sound to the end of a word. Say 'play.'" (play) “Play, add /t/ at the end and we get…” (plate)

Phoneme Deletion

• “Let’s play a game where we take away the first sound in the word. Say  ‘scoop.’" (scoop) "Scoop, take away /s/ is…” (coop)

• “I’ll say a word and you’ll repeat it. Then, we’ll take away the last sound in the word. Say 'shirt.'" (shirt) “Shirt, take away /t/ makes…” (sure)

Phoneme Substitution

• “I’ll say a word, and you repeat it. Then, we’ll switch out the first sound to make a different word. Ready? Say 'fleet.'" (fleet) “Change /f/ to /s/, and we get…” (sleet)

• “We're going to practice changing the middle sound, the vowel, in some words. Say 'pack.'" (pack) “Pack, change /ă/ to /ē/ and we get…” (peek)

• “I’m going to say a word, and we’ll switch out the last sound in the word. Say 'stick.'" (stick) “Stick, change /k/ to /f/ and we get…” (stiff)

Practicing Phonemic Awareness Activities

Phonemic awareness can take a while to develop - so consistent practice is important. In our  phonics program, From Sounds to Spelling, Kindergarten and 1st grade teachers practice phonemic awareness in small amounts of time throughout the day. Teachers get a page of transition activities to keep handy, so they can practice between activities. Phonological awareness is also embedded in the daily phonics lessons.

In second grade, students have phonological awareness practice embedded in the daily phonics lessons. More practice is included for the first half of the school year and it gradually decreases over time.

To learn more about this research-based phonics program and download examples of phonemic awareness activities (part of the free trial week), click here.