DeAngela Huggins: All right. The first listening game that we're going to do is mystery word. Okay. I'm going to give you the sounds, and on my signal, which is going to be a thumbs up, you are going to put those sounds together and tell me my mystery word. So, for example, if I said /c/, /ӑ/, /t/ ... what's my mystery word? Cat would be my mystery word.

So you guys ready? Yes. All right. So first mystery word is /b/, /r/, ...

Students

/b/, /r/, ... bar.

Ms. Huggins: Very good. /C/, /r/ ...

Students: Car.

Ms. Huggins: Oh, this is a tricky one. /Sh/, /r/, /p/ ...

Students: Sharp.

Ms. Huggins: Very good. Yes. The next one ... /f/, /or/ ...

Students: Four.

Ms. Huggins: Very good. /M/, /or/ ...

Students: More.

Ms. Huggins: And last mystery word is /p/, /or/, /ch/ ...

Students: Porch.

Ms. Huggins: Good job. You guys are really good.

Narrator: For more information, please visit reading universe.org. Special thanks to Burgess Peterson Academy and Atlanta Public Schools. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and two anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington, DC, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First Book.

DeAngela Huggins: This is Reading Universe.

Students and DeAngela Huggins: [background noise]

DeAngela Huggins: ... All set and we are ready! Our next listening game, we're going to segment or break the word apart into sounds. So I'm going to give you the entire word, and then you're going to help me tap out the sounds. What are we going to do?

Students and DeAngela Huggins: Tap out the sounds ...

DeAngela Huggins: And then you're going to show me on your fingers how many sounds were in that word. Okay. So let's use my mystery word cat again. If we said /k/, /a/, /t/. Let's tap it.

Students: /k/, /a/, /t/

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds are in that word?

Students: Three.

DeAngela Huggins: Three. So you're going to just show me so I can see that everyone is hearing all of these sounds okay. So you ready? All right. First word, we're going to segment it. The first word is far.

Students: far

DeAngela Huggins: Tap out the sounds.

Students: /f/, /ar/

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds? [Students hold up two fingers.] There are two sounds in that word. Next word. Let's listen. Listen, very carefully. Chart.

Students: chart

DeAngela Huggins: Let's tap it.

Students: /ch/, /ar/, /t/

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds? Three. Very good. The next word ... listen ... has a blend ... start.

Students: start

DeAngela Huggins: start

Students: [students count the phonemes with their fingers] /s/, /t/, /ar/, /t/

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds?

Students: Ooh.

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds Felix? [students hold up four fingers] Four. There are four sounds. You guys are doing so good! All right. Next word is block.

Students: block

DeAngela Huggins: Say the word block.

Students: block

DeAngela Huggins: All right. Let's tap the sounds.

Students and DeAngela Huggins: [Students count the sounds with their fingers.] /b/, /l/, /o/, /ck/

Students: block

DeAngela Huggins: How many sounds? Four [students hold up four fingers]. Very good. In our last one, because you guys are so smart, the word's going to be smart. What's the word?

Students: smart

DeAngela Huggins: Let's tap all those sounds.

Students: [Students count out the sounds with their fingers.] /s/, /m/, /ar/, /t/

DeAngela Huggins: Smart. How many sounds? [Students hold up four fingers.] Good job you guys give your brains a big kiss.

Narrator: For more information, please visit ReadingUniverse.org. Special thanks to Burgess Peterson Academy and Atlanta Public Schools. Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim and Donna Barksdale, the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, and two anonymous donors. Reading Universe is a service of WETA, Washington DC, the Barksdale Reading Institute, and First book.

DeAngela Huggins: This is Reading Universe.