Standard 2: Reading Foundations

Students will develop foundational skills for future reading success by working with sounds, letters, and text.

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS: Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize, think about, and manipulate sounds in spoken language without using text. 

(e.g., “fast” = /f/ /a/ /s/ /t/). 

Student Actions 

Teacher Actions 

• Students will separate single syllable words isolating each individual sound up to 5 sounds (e.g., “shell”  = /sh/ /e/ /l/). 

• Teachers model segmenting words into individual sounds using an Elkonin box, manipulatives, or motions.  

• Teachers begin with 3 sound words, saying the word, then sliding manipulatives into the Elkonin boxes while saying individual sounds that make up the word.

• Teachers give students opportunities to practice segmenting words into individual sounds in whole and small groups.

• Teachers monitor and provide feedback to ensure students are segmenting words correctly.

Supporting Resources 

Teacher Insights 

Reading Rockets:  Blending & Segmenting Games (webpage-videos)

FCRR:  Phoneme Segmenting and Blending Activities (PDF)

Phoneme Segmentation Games & Activities (PDF)

Segmenting Phonemes with Counters Activity (PDF)

Segmenting Phonemes with Pictures Activity (PDF)

Segmenting Memory Activity (PDF) 

• Segmenting a word into phonemes refers to the explicit identification of each sound in the word.

• Phoneme segmentation is an important step to learning letter/sound correspondence and is essential for spelling.

• Phoneme blending and segmentation skills usually develop together.

Due to recursive nature of the standards, it is essential that teachers are aware of how all objectives within and between strands work together for optimal instruction.