Chapter 4: Hearing Sounds in Words¶
Overview¶
This chapter develops phonemic awarenessthe ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. These listening skills are foundational for connecting letters to sounds and learning to read.
Learning Objectives¶
By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:
- Remember: Identify rhyming words
- Understand: Recognize that words are made up of individual sounds (phonemes)
- Apply: Identify beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words
- Analyze: Break words into syllables and individual sounds
Chapter Summary¶
Before children can connect letters to sounds, they need to hear and distinguish the sounds in words. This chapter focuses on listening activities that build phonemic awarenesshearing initial sounds, final sounds, rhymes, and syllables without focusing on letters.
Concepts Covered (13)¶
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Phoneme | The smallest unit of sound in a word |
| Phonemic Awareness | Ability to hear and work with sounds |
| Initial Sound | The first sound in a word |
| Final Sound | The last sound in a word |
| Medial Sound | The middle sound in a word |
| Rhyme | Words that end with the same sound |
| Rhyming Words | Words like cat, hat, bat |
| Syllable | Word parts with one vowel sound |
| Onset | The beginning consonant(s) of a syllable |
| Rime | The vowel and what follows in a syllable |
| Sound Isolation | Identifying one sound in a word |
| Sound Segmentation | Breaking a word into its sounds |
| Sound Counting | Counting sounds in a word |
Key Vocabulary¶
- Rhyme: Words that sound the same at the end (cat/hat)
- Sound: What we hear when we say a letter
- Beginning sound: The first sound in a word
- Ending sound: The last sound in a word
Activities¶
- Rhyme Time: Identify words that rhyme (Do cat and hat rhyme?)
- Sound Safari: Find objects that start with the same sound
- Clap the Syllables: Clap once for each syllable in a word
- What's the Sound?: Identify beginning/ending sounds in words
- Sound Stretching: Stretch words out to hear each sound (c-a-t)