Kindergarten students naturally enjoy working with syllables. They excel at "clapping out" words and discovering how many syllables are in a word. Provide students with extra practice comparing syllables with this card game. "Syllable War" is a variation of the traditional "War" card game. Before introducing the game to students, create a deck of picture cards. Do not include the written words. Make sure to include pictures that are easily recognizable for students. Check for a variety of syllables throughout the deck. Model for the students how to play. Place the deck face down and draw two cards. With help from the students, "clap out" both words to determine the number of syllables in each word. Whichever word has more syllables wins. If there is a tie, draw two more cards until one card wins. Whoever ends with the most cards wins. To play this game in a whole group setting, pass the deck around the circle and have students "challenge" the student next to them. The child who wins the round challenges the next student. Continue until all the cards are gone. Place the game at a classroom center for students to play in pairs or small groups. For a fun twist, try this game using student pictures and challenge students to clap out their peers' names.
Segmenting sounds is an important phonemic awareness skill. This ability to separate words into singular sounds helps student decode words in reading and spell words in writing. Turn segmenting into a hands-on activity by creating segmentation sliders for each student. Fasten a bead on the end of a pipe cleaner and slide on three or more beads, depending on how many sounds will be in the words. Fasten a bead on the other end, as well. During segmentation practice, encourage students to slide a bead across the pipe cleaner as they say each sound. For example, when segmenting the word "cat," a student would slide a bead as she said each sound, /c/ - /a/ - /t/. As students become more comfortable with segmenting, add more beads and practice with longer words.
Students are surrounded by rhyming words in songs, poems and books. Recognizing and producing rhyming words helps students become comfortable with word families and word chunks. Try this fun variation of "Duck, Duck, Goose" to help students practice distinguishing rhyming words. Seat students in a large circle. Review and practice producing rhyming words. Choose a child to be "it" and announce a word family for the round, such as "at," "og" or "ip." As the student walks around the circle, say a word each time she touches another student's head. The student continues to walk as long as the words rhyme. However, when a word does not rhyme with the others, the selected student gets up and chases the original student back to the seat--just like in the traditional game. Whichever student reaches the seat last will now travel around the circle. Once students have successfully played several times, challenge students to produce their own words during the game.
Elkonin boxes are helpful tools for segmenting. Create Elkonin boxes by simply drawing three or four connecting boxes onto a paper for each child or create the boxes on the computer by inserting a table into a word processing document. Introduce students to Elkonin boxes by modeling how to slide small items, such as beads, candy or counters, into the boxes as you segment a word. For example, when segmenting the word "bag," push a counter into the first box while saying /b/, another into the second box while saying /a/ and another into the third box while saying /g/. This helps students physically manipulate the sounds and see how many sounds are in a word. For extra practice, encourage students to say the sounds as they slide the items out of the boxes, as well. Try using Elkonin boxes for a quiet way to practice syllables.