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: Jumping Syllables
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Phonological Awareness (Segmenting), Vocabulary
Have children stand in a circle. Say, I’m going to say some words we heard or read this week. Explain to children that you want them to jump once for each syllable.
- Say the word evaporation slowly: e-vap-o-ra-tion.
- Ask, How many times did you jump? Yes, five times. There are five word parts in evaporation. Who remembers what the word means?
- Repeat the process for the words laundry (laun-dry), clothesline (clothes-line), underwear (un-der-wear), absorb (ab-sorb), puddle (pud-dle), drop (drop), and waterway (wa-ter-way).
Adaptation: With very young children, have the whole group jump each word together.
Educator Tip: Guided and independent letter, sound, and word practice continues to take place in center activities. It is helpful to set up the literacy center immediately after the direct instruction and repeat instruction before children work in the literacy center identifying letters.