A phoneme is the smallest sound we hear when we say words. We have learned to hear the sounds in the beginning of words, in the middle of words, and the end of words. Remember?

We are going to learn how to say words sound-by-sound and then put the sounds back together to make a whole word.

Let’s stretch and say the word ship:

/sssshhhh/, /ĭĭĭĭ/, /pppp/

Ship.

The word is at.

I sit at my desk.

At.

Aaaattttt.

At has two sounds: /ă/, /t/.

The word is /ī/, /s/.

Ice.

I put ice in my drink. 

Ice.

The word is /m/, /ou/, /s/.

The word is mouse.

We must be quiet as a mouse.

Mouse.

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Carla Stanford: These are called sound boxes. I'm going to say a word. I'm going to have you repeat the word, and then we are going to push the two, the first two sounds in the word, and you can tap. So it will go like this. We'll do a practice. The word is block. Repeat.

Students: Block.

Carla Stanford: Tappers up.

Carla Stanford and students: /b/, /l/ ...

Carla Stanford: Did you hear that? /b/, /l/, /ŏ/, /k/. Block. Excellent.

Free Lesson Plans

We hope you'll consider using the Reading Universe lesson plans for teaching phoneme segmentation and blending. Our research-based plans include carefully sequenced activities and go in-depth on the skills.