Why This is Important
Phonological awareness primes children’s ears for working with words and sounds. It includes identifying and saying rhymes, clapping out the number of syllables in a word, and recognizing words with the same initial sounds, like mom and make.
Goals for Strong Readers
- Isolate, identify, and categorize sounds in the beginning, middle and end of a word
- Blend and break up sounds
- Manipulate, (delete, add, and substitute) sounds
Quick Activity

Explain to your child that rhymes are words that have the same middle and ending sound. Prompt your child to create rhymes. Example: Ask, Can you tell me a word that rhymes with cake? (bake, rake, lake)
More Activities and Games

- Using magazines, newspapers, and store advertisements, have your child look for pictures of objects that rhyme.
- Have your child cut out the pictures and paste them onto paper to create rhyme collages.

- Think of an animal.
- Identify the number of syllables in that animal’s name.
- Brainstorm types of food with the same number of syllables that you could feed to that animal.

- Gather some small items such as pennies, pom-poms, or different colored blocks.
- Think of a simple word such as chat and push one item toward your child while making each sound in the word: ch – a – t
- Ask your child to put the sounds together and tell you what word you just said. Example: What word am I saying, ch – a – t? Answer: chat
- After your child can successfully blend the sounds together, ask your child to break words apart into their separate sound. Example: What are the sounds in chat? Answer: ch – a – t
- Sample words for this activity: chat, mit, truck, shut, cat, met