Early Literacy Project--Phonological Awareness

Phonological Awareness--the ability to hear and play with the smaller sounds in words.

Willoughby Wallaby Woo Willoughby wallaby wee, an elephant sat on me Willoughby wallaby woo, an elephant sat on you. Willoughby wallaby wammy, an elephant sat on Tammy. Willoughby wallaby wessica, an elephant sat on Jessica. …and so on using the children’s names (changing the initial sound to /w/)

This song could also be adapted to different initial sounds such as /d/, /f/, /h/ to practice other beginning sounds.

 Lee, D. (1974). Willoughby wallaby woo [Recorded by Raffi].On Singable songs for the very young [CD].Shoreline Records. (1996)

Time for Rhymes

(Tune:  The Addams Family)

Time for rhymes (clap, clap) Time for rhymes (clap, clap) Time for rhymes, time for rhymes, time for rhymes

There’s cat and there’s pat,

There’s fat and there’s rat.

There’s mat and there’s hat.

The “-at” family.

 

Additional Verses:

Sad, mad, had, fad, pad, dad

Set, met, let, pet, get, vet

Bike, hike, Mike, pike, trike, like

Schiller, P., Lara-Alecio, R., and Irby, B. J. (2004).The bilingual book of rhymes, songs, stories and fingerplays. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House, Inc.

Say What? by Angela DiTerlizzi, illustrated by Joey Chou

This book’s simple text and pictures help children to identify the sound animals make, then to change beginning sound of the word and ask if that is really what the animal might be saying.  For example: “When a horse says neigh, does she really mean hay?”  The illustrations give a clue about what the word will be changed to.

DiTerlizzi, A. (2011).  Say what? (J. Chou, Illus.). New York: Beach Lane Books.

Sleep, Big Bear, Sleep!by Maureen Wright; illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

This book has a fun time playing with words, especially with the beginning sound.  Winter is approaching and Old Man Wind whispers to bear, “Sleep, Big Bear, sleep”.  But bear is a little hard of hearing and mistakes this message for several others—such as “sweep”, “leap”, and “dive deep”.  Children will love the silly things Big Bear does!  Discussing how much words change when the beginning sound changes is a great lesson for children.

Wright, M. (2009).Sleep, Big Bear, sleep (W. Hillenbrand, Illus.). Terrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendsish Children.

Tap Tap Bang Bang by Emma Garcia

Tools make all kinds of sounds, even though they don’t talk!  This simple book shows tools working to build something.  Each tool has its own sounds, and children will enjoy making the sounds with the reader.  “We can cree craw cree craw cut with the saw and chippety chip with the chisel.”  Near the end of the book a double page spread shows all the tools and the sounds they make, and then asks, “What did we make with all these tools?”  Can you guess?

Garcia, E. (2010). Tap tap bang bang.  New York: Boxer Books.