Teaching phonemic awareness is an important part of the Kindergarten curriculum. Not sure what phonemic awareness is? Read more about the importance of phonemic awareness here. There are five main activity types to practice in Kindergarten- rhyming and alliteration, phoneme categorization, oral blending, oral segmentation, and phoneme substitution. These strategies help students develop their phonemic awareness skills, which will help build strong readers. Today, I am sharing all about oral segmentation, plus some of my go-to oral segmentation activities for you to try with your students.
What is Oral Segmentation?
Oral Segmentation is when students will hear a word and break it up into its syllables or by phonemes. For example for a student to segment a word by its phonemes, the teacher would say the word “top” and the students would stretch out the word to say each sound slowly- /t/…/o/…/p/. This is the FIRST step to having your students be able to sound out words to spell them!
You can also do this with syllables (coconut becomes co-co-nut) or onset and rime (top becomes /t/…/op/) Usually students can segment by syllables or onset and rime before they are able to do it by sound.
Activity #1- Using Fingers to Count Sounds
Counting sounds is the first step to being able segment (and eventually, spell) words. Once students can count how many sounds (phonemes) are in a word, they will be able to use the number of sounds and identify the phoneme for each one.
To practice this, just say a 3 sound word, like “net”, and have students count how many sounds they hear. Have them hold up the corresponding number of fingers to sounds. Once they can do 3 sound words, you can add in blends, digraphs, 4-5 sound words to practice this skill.
Activity #2- Sound Boxes
An easy activity using sound boxes is with these dry-erase spelling cards. To practice oral segmenting first, you can just use a counter to push each sound as you say it. Once students are able to do it orally, you can add in writing letters to spell the word. Simply say a CVC word and have the students stretch the word out. Then, write down each sound they hear inside each box to spell the word. You can find these word box cards in my CVC Words Phonics unit. This activity is a great way to connect the phonemic awareness skill of segmenting to the phonics skill of spelling.
For a similar idea to use in a small group lesson, make sure to check out this YouTube video here: Oral Segmentation with Magnets and Washi Tape
Activity #3- Write and Wipe Spelling
Once your students can count sounds and say the word sound by sound, I like using some dictation practice within our phonemic awareness activity. For this activity, they will need a whiteboard and dry erase marker. Just say a word and model how to stretch it out sound by sound while counting the sounds. Then, write the letters to match each sound on their whiteboard. I like to have them draw small lines or dots to represent each sound, then they go back and write the letter over each line. Once they write it, have them hold up their whiteboard for you to check. After you do this for a few weeks, you should be able to just say a word and they can spell it.
For more advanced learners, just show them a picture on the board and have them try to spell it!
Digital Activity- Oral Segmentation Boom Cards
Want to have your students practice phonemic awareness during independent centers? These Boom Cardsβ’ were created so that your students can still practice phonemic awareness skills without having you there guiding them through it!
Students will listen to each word, then click the letters that make the CVC word. If they get it correct, they hear a “ding!” and it will progress to the next card. You can also see how they do with each activity- how much time it takes them, how many they got right, how many times they played, etc. Learn more about Boom Cardsβ’ here!
Check out these Segmenting Boom Cards to find six activities (onset and rime and CVC words) that practice oral segmentation! You can play a sample of this deck here.
I hope that you found some new oral segmentation activities to try in your classroom!
