Not too long ago, I shared 6 of my favorite read aloud books
to promote phonological awareness. I promised that there would be even more to
come. Here they are! Not only are these great books for building phonemic
awareness, but several of them have sequels that have similar structures and
can be used to support similar skills. Since phonemic awareness is such a
crucial skill, and is something striving readers often struggle with, it is
wonderful to weave in stories and activities that build these skills at every
opportunity. Bring along a couple of stories to explore next time you have to
wait for an appointment and strengthen your child’s foundation of phonological
awareness skills.
Here are some more favorite reads to add to your home or classroom library!
(This list contains affiliate links.)
Mrs. McNosh Hangs up Her Wash by Sarah Weeks
This delightful story will appeal
to all ages. Mrs. McNosh wakes up very early to get the washing done. What
starts as a very ordinary list of laundry, quickly turns into a very silly
tale, as Mrs. McNosh gets carried away putting everything, and I do mean
everything, on the clothes line. This story lends itself to retelling and sequencing
activities as well as phonemic awareness work. Since Mrs. McNosh always hangs
up rhyming pairs, you could use those items for rhyme matching activities, or
rhyme generation by finding more things that could be hung up with them. What
if Mrs. McNosh hung things up by their first sound instead of rhyming? How
would the object get hung up now? There are also several opportunities to look
at how words that may sound the same aren’t always spelled the same way. If you
enjoy this Mrs. McNosh book, you are in luck. The fun doesn’t end there. You
can also check out Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash or Oh My
Gosh, Mrs. McNosh for more silly rhyming fun.
Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas
The rhyming dust bunnies love to
rhyme. Ned, Ed and Ted are demonstrating their rhyming skills, but Bob has an
important message to share about approaching danger. His friends grow
frustrated with him for not rhyming, but soon realize their error. This book is
great for generating words from a specific word family. Students have an
opportunity to make as many rhyming words as they want to or are able to before
turning the page and seeing the dust bunnies answer. thereby providing good
rhyme generating practice. Finding the word that doesn’t rhyme is pretty easy
in this case, but it isn’t always so. Using this story as a jumping off place
for finding the “odd one out” in a group of words such as mad, sad, and pat
helps to develop the ear not only for finding obvious non-rhymes, but trickier
ones as well. For even more rhyming fun with Ned, Ed, Ted and Bob, you might
enjoy the sequel, The Big Mean Dust Bunny.
Jillian Jiggs by Phoebe Gilman
Jillian Jiggs has a wonderful
imagination but a very messy room. Her mother tries just about everything to
get her to clean up her mess, but Jillian always has just one more thing to do.
The longer format, rhyming couplets and delightfully detailed illustrations
lend themselves to having students predict what the rhyming word is going to be
at the end of each couplet. The repeated refrain of “Jillian Jillian Jillian
Jiggs, your room looks as if it’s been lived in by pigs.” is perfect for having
your student join in and read along. If you are delighted by Jillian’s
imaginative play, there are more fun rhyming tales starring this messy fun
loving girl.
Don’t Be Silly, Mrs. Millie by Judy Cox
Much like the beloved Amelia
Bedelia, Mrs. Millie is always getting things mixed up. She frequently mixes up
similar sounding words by changing a sound or syllable. In addition to being
fun to predict what Mrs. Millie really means, this book makes a great
introduction to advanced phonemic awareness skills like deleting a syllable,
changing one of the syllables of a word or even changing the first phoneme.
Having children figure out what Mrs. Millie mixed up about the word and what
other words they could make using the same pattern is a great way to increase
fluency and comfort with these tricky advanced phonemic awareness skills. This
would be particularly suitable for older children or an overall review, because
there are multiple types of phoneme and syllable manipulation within the story.
There are several Mrs. Millie stories to enjoy as well, so the fun doesn’t stop
here.
Piggie Pie by Margie Palatini
This book is quite a bit longer
than many of the others on the list, but it is a fun read. Gritch the Witch is
hungry for some Piggie Pie. All she needs are some plump piggies, but the pigs
are far too clever for the witch. This book is full of delightful language that
sets the mood and creates descriptive images. It is also full of alliteration
and rhyme. This book naturally pairs with a writing activity that asks students
to write their own rhyming or alliterative descriptions. For more delightful
Gritch the Witch adventures, you may like the sequel Zoom Broom.
The Hungry Thing by Jan Slepian and Ann G. Seidler
The hungry thing speaks a language that most
of the townspeople don’t understand and he is very hungry. Fortunately, a young
boy understands the Hungry Thing’s word game and is able to solve their
problem. This is a longer story and appealing for many ages. From predicting
what the Hungry Thing is hungry for, to generating their own nonsense words,
this book is full of examples and opportunities to practice manipulating the
first phoneme in a word. Students could translate their lunch or snack into the
Hungry Thing’s language. For even more word play fun, enjoy The Hungry Thing
Returns.
Once
you start looking for books to promote phonological and phonemic awareness, you
will discover them everywhere. The dozen I have shared are far from the only
books that use these skills. Since phonemic awareness develops along a fairly
predictable continuum from basic to more advanced, read alouds make a fabulous
introduction to new skills such as manipulating phonemes or a review of earlier
skills such as rhyming. The same story can be used at a variety of levels of
phonemic awareness work. In addition, the context of the story supports the
students as they are learning new skills. Students can begin to refine their
phonological awareness while using some of their strengths of comprehension,
story telling and creativity.
Be sure to check out my other post on the first set of picture books for building phonological awareness.
If you find yourself seeking more teaching ideas for building phonemic awareness, try out my email series called, "What's So Important About Phonemic Awareness?"
This series will give you a FREE download with some phonemic awareness sample games from my Phonological Awareness Bundle. Read what some teachers have said about the Phonological Awareness Bundle already:
- "Great resource for students who still need to work on phonemic awareness. Extremely thorough bundle!" -Nicole
- "Wonderful resource! A well thought out progression, worth every penny." -Deborah
- "Great resource to simplify the organization/presentation of phonemic awareness activities!"-Margaret
- "Fantastic! Beautifully designed. Leads you through the levels so well. You only have to do the prep once and you've got a complete Phonological unit you can use for years. Love it!" -Katharine
- "Wowzers, this product is AMAZING!!! Phonemic awareness is so important for reading success, and this product makes teaching and practicing PA skills fun!! I absolutely love everything about this product, and cannot wait to use it with my students this year!! If I could give this an A+, I would!!" -Erin
- "Emily Gibbons never disappoints!" -Renie
- "FULL of expert ideas! Thank you for this huge resource :)" -Positively Teaching
 |
| Phonological Awareness Bundle |
0 comments:
Post a Comment