14. Phonemic Awareness That Works in Kindergarten

Phonemic awareness in kindergarten does not always click with repetition alone. Many students need more support than fast-paced, verbal routines can provide.

In this episode, we break down how to teach phonemic awareness using hands-on and visual activities that support skills like rhyming, syllables, and beginning, medial, and ending sounds so students truly understand and apply these foundational skills.

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Show notes:  www.kindergartentoolbox.com/phonemic-awareness-that-works-in-kindergarten

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If you've ever sat through your phonemic awareness routine thinking, their mouths are moving, but I don't think they're really getting it. Or you have students who are bored and you just can't get them engaged. Or worse, your reading specialist keeps telling you that they need more phonemic awareness practice, do more Hagerty, and it's just not working. This episode is for you because today we're talking about what to do when phonemic awareness isn't clicking and why repeating the same routine over and over again isn't always the answer. Welcome to the Kindergarten Toolbox Podcast. I'm your host, Amy Murray, here to help you simplify kindergarten with tools and strategies that actually work with real live five and six year olds. Let's dive into your shortcut to calmer days and more confident writers. Phonemic awareness is critical. It's a really important building block in our literacy, and we know that the science of reading shows us it's one of the strongest predictors of reading success later in school. And in most classrooms, teachers are doing something like Hegrity every single day. And it's great. It gives structure, consistency, repetition, and it works to help kids solidify those phonemic awareness skills that they need. But there is a problem. For some students, when it doesn't work, simply repeating it multiple times a day isn't going to make it stick. You've probably seen it. You say the word cat, say it without and they just stare. Or they repeat the whole word again. Or they wait for someone else to answer and copy their answer. And you think, we've done this every single day for months. Why aren't they getting it? Well, here's why this happens. The whole group phonemic awareness routines are fast. It's all verbal. It's abstract. Right. And for some kids, it's just not enough support. You've probably heard people say you can do phonemic awareness in the dark because it's all auditory, right? But while you can't see sound, and yes, you can do it in the dark, many kindergartners, especially struggling learners, they feel like they're guessing because they need some kind of visual to pair with it to help solidify the skills before they can do it in the dark. So what we shouldn't do is keep repeating the same routine over and over again. And saying, oh, just do it again in small group isn't the answer. And we can't just hope it clicks someday because maybe they're not developmentally ready for it yet. Yes, we always have kids who aren't quite developmentally there yet, but that's the point. We need to find a different way to reach these kiddos so they can get the skills as well. So we need to take those important phonemic awareness skills, rhyming, syllables, beginning sounds, medial sounds, isolating ending sounds, putting them all together, and we need to make them visual, hands-on, and probably introduce them a little more slowly with some scaffolded support for our struggling learners. In my kindergarten classroom, we had a high percentage of English language learners and all different languages. So it wasn't like I could just speak, you know, two different languages and reach them all. We had some years up to 10 different languages in across our school, which was awesome, but it posed a unique challenge for teaching phonics. Because especially when we're talking about rhyming, it's a little bit tricky when you're processing different things. Like think about it, we can say cat bat, and we can hear the rhymes. But an English language learner is also thinking, well, what is a cat? What is a bat? And bat has two different meanings. And I don't know the baseball bat, I only know the animal bat. And it's a little bit tricky. So these kiddos also benefit from extra support as well. So let's talk about some practical ways we can provide that extra support and break down these skills in a way that makes sense for our young learners. Let's look at rhyming, for example. Instead of keeping it all auditory, which is the end goal, right? We compare them with pictures. Like instead of saying, Do cat and hat rhyme? Because guess what? They're just going to start guessing. And if you say, give me a word that rhymes with cat, they're going to guess. Sometimes they will meow at you because they don't understand what you're asking them for. But when you show them three different pictures and lay them on the table, cat, pig, bat, they can say them, they can see the picture. It just helps to give like an anchor for it, even without the word there. And then they can match the two that they hear rhyme. You may even put the word underneath of them so that they can see the at at the end of each word, and they can start to see, oh, at and at match those rhyme. They end the same. You can sort pictures by their rhymes at the end of the words, and they can start to see these connections rather than just relying on the auditory processing. For syllables, instead of clapping them out, you can have the picture sorts as well. And I would encourage you, instead of clapping, to have students put their hand under their chin and slowly, not slow, slow, but a little more slowly than normal, say the word and count how many times their chin drops, because that is way more effective than clapping it out. When you're looking at beginning, middle, and ending sounds, kids can struggle to especially pull out the medial and ending sounds, right? Instead of asking what's the middle sound in pig and helping them to do it, if you use picture cards or sound boxes where they're moving something, it's not just in their heads anymore. Pairing with pictures gives an anchor so kids can understand and it doesn't feel quite as abstract. You can make anchor charts by sorting by middle or ending sound. You can use some worksheets to help reinforce these skills so they can see the pictures and match the sounds and those sort of things. Set up different sorts in your center activities so they have some hands-on practice where they're moving pictures around and trying to find the rhymes and trying to match the syllables. And best of all, these centers are great for kids who need extra practice and for kids who already have the skills. The hands-on practice is really important for reinforcing and solidifying these phonemic awareness skills. Making the shift from say it, repeat it, you can do this in the dark, to see it, touch it, move it, then do it. And when you make that shift, you'll start to see it click for everyone. Because we've all had that student who can chant it with the whole group but doesn't really understand, or just stands there and pretends to do it with the whole group. And then when you're one-on-one and you ask them to isolate the skill, they have no idea. That's your sign. They don't need more repetition, they need a different kind of support. And that's exactly why I created our phonemic awareness tools because I needed an alternative to programs like similar to Haggerty or other PA programs that are scripted and doesn't give a lot of wiggle room and doesn't really anchor the learning with any kind of visual. We needed something different, and so we made it. They're all low prep, highly visual, and designed for real kindergartners, aligned with the science of reading and best practices. So you're sure that you're getting meaningful practice on these beginning PA skills that we know our kids need. So be sure to check out that link down in the show notes. If phonemic awareness isn't clicking for some of your students, it's not because they can't learn it, it's because they need a different way to access those skills. Slow it down, pair it with some visuals, give them something they can interact with, and things will start to change. Alright, until next time, thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to the Kindergarten Toolbox. I'm Amy Murray and I'm so glad you're here. Be sure to check the show notes for all the links and resources from today's episode. For even more tips, tools, and support, head to teachingexceptionalkinders.com or connect with me on Instagram at Teaching Exceptional Kinders. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow along and subscribe to the show and take a minute to leave a review. It helps other kindergarten teachers to find us too. Teaching kindergarten is tough, but you're not alone. Here's to calmer days and more confident writers. You've got this.