S-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g it Out to Learn to Read

Learning letters and their sounds get little ones ready to read, right?

Wrong!!! (Well, that was rather abrasive and negative. I’m sorry. Please see it as passion and not negativity)

Letters and sounds, letters and sounds, letters and sounds. You could find thousands of activities to practice these skills with your little ones on this crazy internet. Hundreds of them right here on my own little piece of the internet in fact. (Apparently, I am part of the problem.)

There is such a focus on having little ones learn their letters and sounds — but that is simply one piece to learning to read.

There are 7 more skills that are rarely mentioned or explained when talking about getting kids ready to read – but they are 100% essential.

Without these 7 skills children will not become incredibly strong readers.

And let’s face it, incredibly strong readers are set up for success in every academic area in school. Reading is everywhere!

So the teacher in me got together with the Mama in me and wrote a book. They had oodles of coffee, a little bit of wine (just to make it fun), and wrote down everything little ones need to know before they can read.

They (okay this is getting weird, I don’t have a split-personality) I also wrote down every fun way I could think of to practice these skills. We need our little ones to know that reading is fun! And these simple activities and quiet time bins are FUN. They have been tested on my little ones again and again.

While all of the 7 skills and playful activities can be found in my book and eBook called Beyond the Alphabet: Play into Reading Readiness, I also wanted to share these skills right here.

I will be sharing one skill from my book every Monday along with a fun way to practice that skill.

There are 7 areas of Phonological Awareness taught through play in my eBook and Book, Beyond the Alphabet: Play into reading readiness. I thought we would do a series here to play our way through that book together!

1. Rhyming
2. Word Awareness
3. Syllable Awareness
4. Sound Identification
5. Sound Segmenting (you are here)
6. Sound Blending
7. Deleting Sounds

This week I wanted to share the skill known as sound segmenting – taking a word and stretching it apart. This skill is very important to develop for future writing as well as reading.

All of the 7 skills I introduce in this book are auditory – hearing the sounds, not knowing the letters that go along with these sounds (though how to teach this skill is also explained in my book).

Here is a fun activity to practice sound segmenting – in a cute little video. It is only about 15 seconds long:

When learning this skill, begin with three sound words: cat, bat, hat, dog, log. All of the images needed for any of the games and quiet time activities are also found in my book.

The button flick game is a great way to help little ones concentrate on each sound. One movement for one sound.

Another idea is to line up 3 balls and kick one ball for each sound. Sometimes big movements help little ones really learn with their whole bodies.

Have you ever made a dog or cat bracelet? Well get ready! Take a picture of a dog and tape it to a pipecleaner. Little ones can thread on three beads while saying the three sounds: d-o-g. Next, they can take another picture that is found in the bin you lovingly made (as simply as can be no less), add it to the bracelet and add another three beads while saying the new sounds.

There are so many ways to play with this skill. Get creative and have some fun playing. And be sure to come back next Monday so we can continue to play our was into getting your little one ready to read.

Thank you so much for reading friends. I hope your week is off to a fabulous start. I will be here again in a day or two to share a fun craft we have been slightly obsessed with (okay I, I have been slightly obsessed with – the kids think it’s okay.)

Find out more about this skill and the 6 others in my book:

 

 

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