3
Important Skills Needed for Reading
Rhyming
Words
Rhyming words are words like rat and cat or even head and red.
Rhyming words are words that have ending sounds that are similar. While there
is such a thing as imperfect rhymes {words like home and bone, found in the
song, “This Old Man”}, I like to focus more on the rhymes that end the same,
like house/mouse or dog/frog. Rhyming words are not always spelled the same;
they just need to sound the same. Here are some things we want kids to be able
to do with rhyming words:
• Recognize when
words rhyme and when they don’t
• Produce rhyming
words {You ask: “What rhymes with cat?” and they answer, “Rat.”}
• Play with rhyming
words. Create a bunch of words that rhyme with the word, even silly ones.
Syllables
Syllables are the “big parts” in words. For example, words
like cat or fish only have one syllable. Words like happy and table have two
syllables. For those who find it tricky to hear syllables, I tell people to put
their hand under their chin and count the times they “drop” their child when
they say a word. Generally, this is the number of syllables the word has. Here
are some things we want kids to be able to do with syllables:
• Count the number
of syllables in a word
• Combine syllables
to form a word. Example: “What word do you get when you put together the two
parts, hap {pause here} py?”
• Say the parts of
a word when a syllable is dropped. For example, “What does it sound like when
you say rainbow without the rain part?“
Phonemes
This is where I usually lose people. Phonemes. It sounds so
teacher-y, doesn’t it? So, what exactly are phonemes? Phonemes are the
What makes this one a little tricky, especially for adults
trying to teach phonemes, is that some words have more letters than phonemes.
Take the word light, for example. While it has 5 letters, it only has three
phonemes {or individual sounds}: /l/ – /i/ – /t/. We will explore more about
phonemes on days 4-6 of this series. But for now, let’s see what we want kids
to be able to do with phonemes:
• Isolate phonemes,
such as “What’s the first sound you hear in the word bear?”
• Blend phonemes.
For example, “I’m going to say the sounds in a word very slowly. See if you can
listen to what I say and tell me what word it is: /m/-/ee/.” {me}
• Separate
phonemes. For example, “How many little sounds do you hear in the word bug?”
{3}
Counting phonemes is a more advanced skill that typically
comes AFTER kids have mastered rhyming and syllables. Many children will also
be reading easy texts, like those found in Reading the Alphabet, before they
have mastered counting and manipulating phonemes.
Phonological
& Phonemic Awareness
Phonological Awareness is a broad term. It refers to the
awareness of sounds in a word. A child with phonological awareness can identify
and create rhyming words, count syllables in a word, or (on the smallest level)
identify and manipulate individual sounds in a word.
Phonemic Awareness fits under the umbrella of phonological
awareness. It is an awareness of the smallest units of sound (or phonemes) in a
word. For example, a child with phonemic awareness could hear that the word bat
has the sounds: /b/ /a/
/t/. A child with keen phonemic awareness could change /h/ at the
beginning of hat to /c/ and know that now, it’s the word cat.
Phonological and phonemic awareness activities are things your
child can do with their eyes shut. They
only need their ear as they identify and manipulate sounds within words.
Enjoy,
Ms. Nora Sierra
EC Assistant Principal
Discovery School
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