Segmenting words into individual phonemes can be such a challenge for new spellers (aka Kindergartners). But with quality instruction from you and a whole lot of we do practice, most kids will be pounding and tapping, or whatever you do in your class in no time!
Those most kids though are not why you are here. You are here for the kiddos who are not doing such a good job segmenting.
I have a goal for my kinders each year. This goal is that by Christmas they will be reading. That looks different for all, some are just words, some sentences, and others books.
To make sure we were on track, I did many assessments in November for both blending and segmenting. From those assessments, I have been planning my small groups and interventions for my students.
These tips will be great for any K-2 kiddo who needs a little support with segmenting words into individual phonemes or sounds.
So why segmenting? Well, it leads to success with so many phonemic awareness skills, which are essential to reading success.
And, segmenting is also essential for encoding (spelling) cvc words.
But here is the thing, for a student who has a lot of practice, segmenting CVC words can get a bit well, boring after a bit! So I want to share some fun ways to practice segmenting CVC words.
These ideas are tried and true in my classroom, as well as many more in my hallway!
- Tap lights from Dollar Tree: Students will have so much fun tapping the light on and saying each sound in the word that you have orally given. If you are doing CVC words, then 3 lights should be plenty, but if you are a first or second-grade teacher, you may need 4 or 5 lights for words with blends and all those tricky sounds!
- Head, shoulders, knees, and toes, or more or less depending on how many sounds you are targeting. This gets students’ whole bodies moving! When given a word, they can tap a designated part of their body, moving head to toe or vice versa to tap out all the sounds.
- Playdough balls. Students can get a small amount of playdough to create small playdough balls for the number of sounds that will be in the words they are orally given. They will smash a playdough ball as they say individual sounds in a word.
- Pounding and tapping words. Students will pound their first as they say the word and tap their fingers, as they say individual sounds starting with their pinky and working toward their thumb.
I love to create different pounding and tapping mats for each month! Click the picture below to grab my wintertime pounding and tapping mat for free.
This is my go-to strategy for helping my students learn how to encode or spell their words! I have many resources that I use in my small groups and would love to share them with you too. You can find all the resources that I use in my small groups in my tpt store!
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