MA Standards:
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.2: With guidance and support, demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Literacy Knowledge/Phonological Awareness: Identifies and discriminates between separate syllables in words.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 8: Listen to, identify, and manipulate language sounds to develop auditory discrimination and phonemic awareness.
Word Play: Clap Fruits and Vegetables
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Phonological Awareness (Segmenting)
Remind children that they have been clapping the parts of their names as they sing a song each morning. Say, Now we are going to clap the parts of different plant foods. Place real, toy, or pictures of fruits and vegetables in a basket.
- Hold up an <apple> and ask children to identify it. Repeat the name as you clap each part of the word; say, Ap-ple.
- Ask, How many times did I clap? Agree that you clapped two times and say, Ap–ple has two parts.
- Have children repeat the word apple and clap the word parts with you.
- Repeat the process with other familiar fruits and vegetables. Begin with some that have one or two syllables (bean, peach, corn, lemon) and then move on to words with three or four syllables (banana, potato, blueberry, watermelon, cauliflower).
Adaptation: If very young children have trouble clapping syllables, hold their hands and clap with them.
Math Extension: Make large number cards 1, 2, 3, and 4. Put one dot on the number 1 card, two dots on the number 2 card, and so on. Put the cards in front of you in numerical order. Point to the numbers and identify them. Say, We clapped two times for apple so I will place the apple under the number two. Repeat the process with the other fruits and vegetables. Be sure to have several objects/pictures for each number. Once you have sorted all the fruits and vegetables by word parts, look at the display and say, Let’s clap all plant foods with one word part. Continue for two, three, and four word parts.