Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

from Purposeful Play for Early Childhood Phonological Awareness

References Cited

Phoneme Awareness Procedure 1. Teach the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes .” (The lyrics appear on the next page and in the Digital Resources, and the melody can be found on the internet .) As children sing about each body part, have them touch it with both hands . 2. After the children are familiar with the song and have had many opportunities over days to sing it in its original form, tell them you are going to be silly with the song . Sing the song, using the motions, with a different sound in the initial position of each body word, such as /l/ (lead, loulders, lees, and loes) . Ask children what they notice about your version . Help them conclude that you started words with the /l/ sound . Sing again and invite children to join in . 3. Talk explicitly about the sound changes . For example, comment that head became lead, and shoulders became loulders . Ask what you might call your thigh if it was in the song (ligh) . What about your ankle (lankle)? cheek (leek)? chest (lest)? Assist children as they substitute the initial sounds in these words, and provide feedback . 4. Ask children if there is a different sound they would like to try . As needed, suggest sounds . Have fun! Differentiate or Extend ▲ Sing the song faster each round . This will be especially challenging with the modified versions of the song . Provide ample practice prior to increasing the speed . Letter Connection ▲ Prepare cards with consonant letters or letter combinations (e .g ., sh, ch) to represent initial sounds . Either intentionally or randomly select a card, remind children of the sound the letter or letters represent, and then sing the song using that sound in the initial position . Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes Objective Students will identify initial sounds in words, match initial sounds, and substitute initial phonemes in words . Overview Children sing the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes,” touching each body part as they sing about it . Then, they substitute initial sounds in the song . Materials letter cards (optional) School-Home Connection Encourage children to share the original and the silly versions of the song with their families . Later, ask them to share with you and their peers other ways their sample samplefamilies sang the song .

Phoneme Awareness

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes (cont.)

Sample Verses Sound Substitution Verse

/b/ bed, boulders, bees, and boes /d/ dead, doulders, dees, and dohs /f/ fed, foulders, fees, and foes /j/ jed, joulders, jees, and joes /k/ ked, koulders, kees, and koes /l/ led, loulders, lees, and loes /m/ med, moulders, mees, and moes /n/ ned, noulders, nees, and noes /p/ ped, poulders, pees, and poes /r/ red, roulders, rees, and roes /s/ sed, soulders, sees, and soes /v/ ved, voulders, vees, and voes /w/ wed, wolders, wees, and woes /y/ yed, youlders, yees, and yoes /z/ zed, zolders, zees, and zoes /ch/ ched, choulders, cheese, and choes /sh/ shed, shoulders, shees, and shows /th/ (voiced) thed, thoulders, these, and those