Where's the Sound?

Purpose:  This activity focuses on phoneme isolation and helps learners to listen for where sounds occur in a word. This strengthens their ability to spell a word through sounding it out.

Preparation Time:  5 minutes

Materials Needed:  beginning/middle/end cards, counting markers

Procedure:

1. Prepare a list of words from the week’s vocabulary that have a specific sound in common.  The sound can be located in the beginning, middle, or end of the words (supplement with words from past lessons or words that you know the learner/s are familiar with).
2. Give each of the learner/s a grid with three squares that are labeled “beginning”  “middle”  and “end” and a game piece, penny, or paperclip to use as a marker.
3. Tell the learner/s which sound they will be listening for. Example, “Where do you hear the /p/ sound?”
4. Say a word that has the /p/ sound. Example, “Pencil. Where is the /p/ sound? Is it at the beginning, middle, or end of the word?”
5. Have the learner/s place the game piece the box that corresponds with the location of the /p/ sound in the word. Check to see that all of the learner/s have the marker in the correct box, and repeat the word several times if necessary, emphasizing where the sound falls in the word.
6. Say a new word with the /p/ sound. Have the learner/s shift the game piece to the corresponding box.
7. Repeat with several more words. At the end of the game, go back over the words and have the learner/s tell you where the sound was located.

Example:

Where’s the /p/ sound?

peas

apple

shrimp

pasta

grape

peppers

Expansion: To make this activity more challenging, change the sound each time. Identify different sounds in the same word Example: Where’s the /p/ in shrimp? Where’s the /sh/ in shrimp? Where’s the /m/ in shrimp? or identify different sounds in different words Example: Where’s the /g/ in grape? Where’s the /t/ in pasta? Where’s the /l/ in apple?

Want to see how you can turn your phone into a document camera to do this activity virtually? Check out this short video from LESLLA here: https://www.facebook.com/LESLLA.org/posts/3768606456512380

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