Break It

Phoneme Awareness Break It!

Objective

Students will segment words into phonemes .

Overview

Children snap apart interlocking cubes as they segment words into sounds . This is a challenging activity that many young children may not be ready to undertake . Depending on the age and phonological abilities of children, you may wish to simply model it occasionally for purposes of exposure .

Materials

one large bag that children cannot see through; many small plastic bags; interlocking cubes; a variety of small, familiar objects, each having a singlesyllable name

Procedure 1. Select a variety of familiar objects, each of which has a single-syllable name . Place each object in its own sealed, clear plastic bag . Add enough connected interlocking cubes to each bag to correspond with the number of phonemes in the name of the object . For example, one bag might contain a key and two connected cubes for the two sounds in the word key (/k/—/ē/) . Another bag might contain a leaf and three connected cubes for the three sounds in leaf (/l/—/ē/—/f/) . (Additional suggestions are provided in the table on the next page .) Place all the individual bags in a large grocery bag or box . 2. Have a child take a small bag, open it, withdraw the object and the cubes, and hold them up for others to see . Ask the child to name the object . Provide support as needed . 3. Guide children to segment the name of the object into its constituent phonemes as the child holding the object breaks off one cube for each sound spoken . 4. Repeat the whole word, and ask children to break apart the word as the volunteer holds up individual cubes . Then have the child reassemble the individual cubes, snapping them together as each sound is said again, and then repeating the whole word . Play the game only as long as it holds children’s interest . Differentiate or Extend ▲ Make the bags with objects and cubes available for children to handle and play with as they desire . ▲ Consonant blends (such as /kl/ in clock) are more difficult for young children to segment . Avoid using words with blends initially . Then, provide plenty of support when you do . Letter Connection ▲ Create a set of cubes on which you have printed letters with a permanent marker . Use these for the activity . Carefully select target objects so that the spellings match School-Home Connection Invite children to take home some of the plastic bags with cubes and objects to share with their families . If they wish, children may add other objects with the same number of sounds to the bag and bring the bag back to school sample sampleto share . the correspondences learned . See the word lists in the Appendix for ideas .

Phoneme Awareness

Sample Objects Object Word Segmented into Phonemes

ball book chip comb fine nail pen ring rock tape block brush clock glue sand stick

/b/—/ô/—/l/ /b/—/o˘o/—/k/ /ch/—/ĭ/—/p/ /c/—/ō/—/m/ /f/—/i/—n/ /n/—/ā/—/l/ /p/—/ĕ/—/n/ /r/—/ĭ/—/ng/ /r/—/ŏ/—/k/ /t/—/ā/—/p/ /b/—/l/—/ŏ/—/k/ /b/—/r/—/ŭ/—/sh/ /c/—/l/—/ŏ/—/k/ /g/—/l/—/oo/ /s/—/ă/—/n/—/d/ /s/—/t/—/ĭ/—/k/ Break It! (cont.) sample