Routine · Phonological awareness
First sound plus the rest
Join a first sound to the rest of a word, and split a word after its first sound.
- Time
- 2 to 4 minutes
- Skill
- Phonological awareness
- In a session plan
- Warm-up
When to use it
When a student can clap syllables but cannot yet pull the first sound away from a word.
Materials
- Picture cards or a word list of one syllable words
Steps
Get ready
Hold up two fists. One fist is the first sound, the other is the rest of the word.
I do
Open one fist as you say the first sound, then the other for the rest, then clap them together.
Say: /m/... op. Mop.
We do
Do the next word with the student, both of you using your fists.
Say: /s/... ock. Say it with me.
Student: Sock.
You do
Say six words split after the first sound. Then reverse it: say a whole word and the student splits it.
Student: Joins each word, then splits a few: /f/... ish.
Check
Give two new words to split and one to join without your fists.
If the student...
Keeps the vowel with the first sound, as in /ma/... p.
Model the split again with your fists, stressing the lone first sound. Do it together, then let the student try the same word.
Say: Only the first sound goes in this hand: /m/. The rest is ap.
Adds a vowel to the first sound, as in muh.
Model a crisp, short sound with no extra vowel and have the student copy it, then redo the word from the start.
Tips
- Start with words whose first sound can be held, like /m/, /s/ and /f/, before short ones like /t/.
- In a group, once everyone has answered, point to single students in turn so you can hear each voice.
Original routines written by Literacy Trail. In the app, every routine is filled with your student's lesson.
Related routines
- Rhyme: hear it, make itDecide whether two words rhyme, then make up rhyming words, real or silly.2 to 4 minutes · Warm-up
- Phoneme blendingHear a word said one sound at a time and put the sounds together into the word.2 to 4 minutes · Warm-up
- Clap the syllablesJoin spoken syllables into a word, then clap a word back into its syllables.2 to 4 minutes · Warm-up
- First and last soundListen to a spoken word and say its first sound, then its last sound.2 to 4 minutes · Warm-up
Have this routine filled in for every lesson
In Literacy Trail, the session plan picks a routine for each block and fills it with the words, sounds and sentence from your student's lesson. Every plan starts with a 15-day free trial.