Remove a Sound Using Elkonin Boxes

Phoneme Awareness Procedure 1. Provide each child with the paper on which the boxes are drawn and four sticky notes . 2. Introduce the activity, and model it with your own materials . Tell children you will announce a word and determine together how many sounds are in the word . Demonstrate placing a sticky note in a box for each of the sounds in a target word . Use the set of three or four adjoining boxes depending upon the number of phonemes in the word . 3. Repeat the sounds and the blended word with children several times . Then, prompt children to remove their sticky notes from the first box and say what word remains . 4. At a later time, after children demonstrate success with removing the initial sound, model and support them in removing the final sound in target words . (See the lists on the next page for suggestions .) Differentiate or Extend ▲ This is a challenging activity . A simpler task is to use this activity for deleting parts of compound words . For example, using two boxes, have each child place a sticky note in each box for the two parts of the compound snowflake . Then, have them remove the first or second sticky note, and ask what word remains . See List A in the Word Lists section of the Appendix for compound words . ▲ To increase the challenge for older children, use words containing blends, and have children delete part of the blend . For example, ask them to say stand without the /t/, black without the /l/, snack without the /n/, and drive without the /r/ . More boxes may need to be added . Letter Connection ▲ Using words composed of familiar letter-sound correspondences, have children write the letters or letter combinations representing each sound on the sticky notes Remove a Sound Using Elkonin Boxes Objective Students will delete initial or final phonemes in words . Overview The teacher provides each child with a sturdy sheet of paper or cardboard on which two sets of boxes are drawn . At the top, three adjoining boxes are drawn side by side . Lower on the paper four boxes are drawn . Each box should be large enough to fit a sticky note . The teacher directs each child to place a sticky note—one for each phoneme in a target word—into the corresponding number of boxes . Children point to each sticky note as they say the sounds in the target word . Then, they are directed to remove the first (or final) sticky note and say the word that remains . Materials sturdy paper or cardboard on which four adjoining boxes are drawn side by side (Elkonin Sound Boxes); four sticky notes School-Home Connection Provide children with the materials sample . sampleto share with their families . Tell them to read the original word and the word that remains once the initial or final sticky note is removed .

Phoneme Awareness

Sample Words for Initial Sound Deletion

Sample Words for Final Sound Deletion Original Word New Word Original Word New Word ball all *plane play pin in *date day meat eat *bead bee heat eat *drive dry cup up *heat he cape ape *moat mow rat at *lake lay boat oat *bake bay pink ink *rope row hair air *toad toe nice ice team tea reach each seed see race ace tooth too witch itch zoom zoo *plate late beet bee *glove love moon moo *split spit * Letters should not be used with these prompts because the word that remains after a sound is deleted will not be spelled correctly. *grasp gasp *These prompts are more challenging because they require children to remove sounds from blends. For additional more challenging prompts, see Lists F, G, I, and J in the Word Lists section of the Appendix. Remove a Sound Using Elkonin Boxes (cont.) sample