Phonemic Awareness with Classic ABC Blocks

 

What the heck is phonemic awareness and why does my kid's preschool teacher get all preachy and excited about it? Well, a phoneme is a speech sound. In the word "two" you hear two phonemes - the sound the "t" makes and the "oo" sound. Teachers care about phonemic awareness because it is one of the best predictors of how well children will learn to read in kindergarten. So, you want to teach your little babe a word? Teach them to focus on sounds. You can chat about the sounds, repeat the sounds, and play super simple phoneme games. Try playing - saying! - the activities below to work on phonemic awareness for the "buh" sound!

REPEAT "BUH": Show your tot each letter on a set of classic, wooden blocks and say the sound that goes with it. For example, hold up "B" and make sure baby's eyes are on it as you say "buh, buh, buh." Encourage baby to repeat it and talk about words that start with "B."This is the letter b, b says buh, buh, buh. Can you say buh, buh, buh? ... Nice trying, you can say buh, buh, buh! B says buh. Lots of words start with buh. Buh, buh, buh... Let's see, buh, buh, buh. I know, blocks! Blocks start with "buh." Here, you take one. Now you have a block. I have a block. We have blocks! Let's see if you'll take every block I hand you. Each time, I'll look at you and the block and say "block, here's a block." I wonder how many blocks are here? Let's count the blocks. Block starts with buh, buh, buh. B says buh. What else starts with buh? ... Buh, buh, bubbles!

BUBBLE PLAY: Bubbles start with the buh sound, buh, buh, buh. Bubbles! Here they are! I like bubbles. Do you like bubbles? ... Let's look at the bubbles together and look back at each other. We both see bubbles! ... I'm going to take out the bubble wand and as I'm getting ready to blow the bubbles, I'm going to open my eyes wide, look at you, and say "bubbles!" right before I blow the bubbles. Next, I'll show you how to reach for a bubble and when you reach for one, I'll look at it with you. Then I'll look back at you so we can practice saying "bubble, bubble starts with buh, buh, buh!"

PEEK-A-BUH: Peek-a-boo has a buh sound, peak-a-boo boo boo. Boo starts with buh. Let's play peek-a-boo! With buh, buh, buh! Every time I peek at you I'm going to say "buh," ready? Peek-a-BUH, BUH, BUH. You see me saying buh, buh, buh. Now I'm going to hide behind my hands and say "buh, buh, buh." I'll keep hiding and saying "buh, buh, buh..." I'm going to listen for you saying "buh" and I'm going to peek out at you when I hear you say "buh!" Here we go, I'm hiding, "buh, buh, buh... buh, buh, buh... ...buh, buh, buh... buh, buh-" Buh! That's right! You said buh, buh, buh. B says buh, like in peek-a-Boo! Let's play again!