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Phonemic Awareness Activities for Kindergarten

16 free PDFsUS Letter or A4Answer key includedNo login

Picture worksheets for blending sounds, segmenting and counting sounds, first, middle and last sounds, and adding or changing a sound, plus a guide of daily oral games.

Download the phonemic awareness worksheets

Phonemic awareness activities guide

Ten quick oral games and word lists for every day.

Blending sounds

A grown-up says the sounds; your child blends them and circles the picture.

Segmenting and counting sounds

Say each sound in a word, mark a box for each one and count them.

First, middle and last sounds

Find where a sound is in a word and match middle sounds.

Change, add and take away sounds

Make a new word by changing one sound.

Print at 100% (actual size) for the cleanest tracing lines.

About these phonemic awareness worksheets

Phonemic awareness is hearing and working with the single sounds in spoken words. Cat has three sounds, /k/ /a/ /t/. A child who can blend those sounds into cat, or say the sounds in sun one at a time, is ready to connect sounds to letters when reading and spelling.

Most phonemic awareness work is done out loud, so these pages are built for a grown-up and a child together. On the blending sounds pages you say the sounds and your child circles the picture. The segmenting pages have one box per sound to touch and mark. Other pages ask where a sound is (first, middle or last), how many sounds a word has, and what new word you get when you change, add or take away a sound: cat becomes hat, rain becomes train.

The phonemic awareness activities guide is a two-page printable for the teacher or parent: a five-minute daily routine, ten oral games from rhyming to sound swapping, and word lists to use with them.

Standards

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.DIsolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.EAdd or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.BCount, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.CBlend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.BOrally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.DSegment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).

How to use them

  1. Do a few minutes every day rather than one long session. The activities guide has a five-minute routine.
  2. Read the sounds from the grown-up box at the bottom of the page. Say each sound short and clear, with a small pause between sounds.
  3. Name the pictures together first so your child uses the same word you do.
  4. Move in this order: blending, then segmenting, then first and last sounds, then middle sounds, then changing, adding and taking away sounds.
  5. Use counters, buttons or blocks: push one into each box as you say each sound.

Teaching tips

  • Blending is usually easier than segmenting. If segmenting is hard, go back to blending for a while.
  • Stretchy sounds (/m/, /s/, /f/, /l/) are easier to hear than quick ones (/b/, /t/, /k/). Start with words that begin with them.
  • Middle vowel sounds are the hardest to hear. Stretch the middle: s-uuu-n.
  • Remember that sounds are not letters. Shoe has two sounds, /sh/ /oo/, even though it has four letters.
  • Once children can segment, connect it to print with sound boxes: one letter or letter pair in each box.

Questions teachers and parents ask

What is phonemic awareness?

It is the ability to hear and work with the single sounds (phonemes) in spoken words: blending /d/ /o/ /g/ into dog, saying the sounds in sun, or changing the first sound of cat to make hat.

How is phonemic awareness different from phonics?

Phonemic awareness is about sounds you hear, with no letters needed. Phonics connects those sounds to letters. Children who can hear the sounds in a word find phonics much easier.

What are good phonemic awareness activities for kindergarten?

Short daily oral games: robot talk for blending, stretching words and holding up a finger for each sound, finding the first sound, and swapping sounds (cat, hat, hot). The activities guide lists ten with word lists.

What is blending sounds?

Blending is putting single sounds together to say a word: /s/ /u/ /n/ makes sun. It is usually the first phonemic awareness skill children master, and it is what they do when they sound out a word to read it.

What is segmenting?

Segmenting is the reverse of blending: hearing a word and saying each of its sounds, like sun into /s/ /u/ /n/. It is what children do when they spell a word.

Are these phonemic awareness worksheets free?

Yes. Every page is a free PDF with no sign-up, in US Letter and A4. Sheets with right answers have an answer key on page 2.