Routine · Phonological awareness
Clap the syllables
Join spoken syllables into a word, then clap a word back into its syllables.
- Time
- 2 to 4 minutes
- Skill
- Phonological awareness
- In a session plan
- Warm-up
When to use it
For students who run long words together, or who cannot yet tell you how many beats a word has.
Materials
- Spoken words with two or three beats, like picnic, rainbow, butterfly
Steps
Get ready
Tell the student this is a listening game with no letters.
Say: Ears on. Words have beats, and we are going to clap them.
I do
Say a word in parts with a short pause, then say it whole. Clap once for each part as you split it again.
Say: Pan... cake. Pancake. Now I clap it: pan, cake. Two claps.
We do
Say the next word in parts and join it together with the student. Clap the parts together.
Say: Rain... bow. Put it together with me.
Student: Rainbow. Rain, bow. Two claps.
You do
Give four to six words, mixing joining and clapping. Use some three beat words.
Say: I say the parts, you say the word. Then you clap it back.
Student: Joins the parts, then claps and counts them.
Check
Say two words without parts. The student claps and tells you the number of beats.
Student: Claps each word and names the count.
If the student...
Claps once for each sound instead of each beat.
Put your hand under your chin and say the word slowly so the student feels the jaw drop on each beat. Clap it together, then ask again.
Say: Feel your chin drop. But... ter... fly. Clap with me. Now you.
Joins the parts into the wrong word.
Say the parts again closer together, say the word, and have the student repeat. Then give that word again from its parts.
Tips
- Keep the gap between parts short at first, then make it longer as the student gets stronger.
- In a group, have everyone clap at once on your signal so no one copies a neighbor.
- One to one, let the student tap the table instead of clapping if that feels calmer.
Original routines written by Literacy Trail. In the app, every routine is filled with your student's lesson.
Related routines
- First sound plus the restJoin a first sound to the rest of a word, and split a word after its first sound.2 to 4 minutes · Warm-up
- Count the beats before readingSay a long word, count its beats, then match each beat to a vowel in the written word.2 to 4 minutes · Word reading
- Rhyme: hear it, make itDecide whether two words rhyme, then make up rhyming words, real or silly.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.