Learning letters and sounds through games is an excellent way to reinforce phonics training. When young children are learning their phonemes, games provide entertainment and education at the same time!
When we teach children about phonemes, they begin to understand how sounds come together to create words. This important skill is called phonemic awareness. How can children develop their phonemic awareness? They work with phonemes in many different ways, such as blending and segmenting.
Learning Letters and Sounds to Blend and Segment
If you already know all about blending and segmenting, feel free to skip ahead to the activity below. If you’d like a quick illustration of what these terms mean, keep reading!
To give you a sense of blending and segmenting, let’s start with the word hen. Hen has three individual phonemes: /h/, /e/ and /n/.
- Blending is the ability to put individual phonemes together to create a word. First, children say the phonemes /h/, /e/ and /n/. Then, they blend them all together to create the word hen.
- Segmenting is the ability to pull a word apart into its individual phonemes. First, children start by hearing and speaking the complete word hen. After, they practice breaking it apart into separate sounds: /h/, /e/ and /n/.
Keep in mind that children don’t need to be able to read in order to practice these skills! They can work with phonemes simply by listening and speaking. The more practice children have blending and segmenting, the better they will be at reading.
For some extra blending and segmenting practice, we recommend playing Put It Together and Take It Apart alongside Professor Pup’s Phoneme Farm.
Activity: Put It Together and Take It Apart
This activity requires no additional materials and works as a fun mini-lesson. All you need is the following list of CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. These are short three-letter words that most children will already know, which makes learning letters and sounds much more doable.
Our CVC list includes:
- Rat
- Sit
- Cup
- Log
- Lip
- Sun
- Bed
- Net
- Hop
- Fan
- Tin
- Cot
- Hen
- Pig
- Jam
- Bus
1. Introduce the Activity
First, explain to your students that they will be learning how to put sounds together to create words. Then, they will also learn how to take words apart. As a result, they will have individual sounds. Ultimately, they should have lots of practice learning letters and sounds. This makes blending and segmenting will be an exciting practice!
2. Blending
To practice blending, pick a word from the list and clearly enunciate each individual phoneme. Take the word “fan,” for example.
First, point to the word “fan.” After, explain that it has three distinct sounds: /f/, /a/ and /n/. Then, explain, “If I blend the sounds /f/, /a/ and /n/ together, we get the word fan.” Finally, allow your students to practice with you. Guide them into blending those phonemes into a whole word.
3. Segmenting
To practice segmenting, just do the opposite! “The word fan contains sounds /f/, /a/ and /n/.” Have the students repeat each individual phoneme by itself. First, clearly pronounce each phoneme. This allows students learning letters and sounds to see, understand and distinguish one phoneme from another.
Be sure to be as explicit as possible. Reading is not a natural learning process. Therefore, students need plenty of directions and examples in order to make progress. After blending and segmenting one word, move onto the next. Ask for volunteers, and always provide encouragement!
We recommend repeating this exercise for at least two days, so children have plenty of time learning letters and sounds.
Learning Letters and Sounds with Professor Pup’s Academy
Blending and segmenting can be challenging at first, but it’s easier with the right tools! Make use of this fun mini-activity in your classroom alongside Professor Pup’s Phoneme Farm for a positive learning experience.
If you are new to Professor Pup’s Academy and would like to learn more about our classroom solutions, please visit our teacher’s page. We offer a free 30-day trial for all educators.