In this phonological awareness activity, children learn how to change onsets in words to create new words. Provide children with a rime, or a chunk word; "at," for example. Discuss the sound that the chunk word makes. Instruct children to spell out the chunk word with magnetic letters on magnetic cookie sheet. Encourage them to create different words that contain the given chunk word by placing different letters, or onsets, in front of the rime. In the given example, children may create the words "fat," "rat," "cat" and "hat."
Provide children with a dry-erase board and a dry-erase marker. Inform children that you are going to state a word and that you would like them to identify the letter that makes the sound in a particular section of the word. For example, if you say the word "dig" and ask children to identify the letter that makes the first sound in the word, children should write the letter "D" on their dry-erase boards. This activity allows students to identify the letters that are associated with specific sounds and also allows them to identify where they hear these sounds in words.
Segmentation refers to the ability to identify the individual sounds within a word. This physical activity encourages children to segment the sounds that they hear in words. Instruct children to stand up and explain to them that you are going to say a word and upon hearing the word, children are to touch their head, their hips and their feet to represent the individual sounds in the word. For example, if you say the word "lap," children should touch their heads for the l sound, their hips for the a sound their feet for the p sound.
Rhyming is also an important part of phonemic awareness, as it allows children to hear the relationship of sounds between words. On a large sheet of poster board, draw a grid and within each grid, draw or glue a picture of an item that can be easily rhymed. Lay the poster board on the ground and provide children with bean bags. Instruct one child at a time to toss a bean bag onto the poster board. The child must name a word that rhymes with the word indicated by the picture. For instance, if a child's bean bag lands on a picture of a tree, she may say the word "key." Children may state nonsense, or made up words, as long as they rhyme with the word illustrated by the picture, as this indicates they understand the relationship between the sounds.