So it’s, it’s pretty quick, and it really only takes five minutes. But I found that those, like, structuring the lesson like that every single day is the most effective thing because you’re working in phonics, you’re working in writing and phonemic awareness all in one. It’s like the perfect warmup to your literacy block.
~Kristina Harrill from Episode 74 of The Kindergarten Cafe Podcast
Episode Summary
How important is phonemic awareness, really? In this episode, Kristina from Sweet for Kindergarten explains the crucial role of phonemic awareness in developing literacy skills in young learners. We explore the differences between phonemic and phonological awareness, and Kristina shares effective teaching strategies and engaging tactile methods. She shares the importance of routine and creativity, and provides insights on integrating phonemic awareness with phonics instruction. This conversation is filled with actionable strategies that you can implement in your classroom today!
In this episode we share:
- Understanding Phonemic vs. Phonological Awareness
- The Importance of Phonemic Awareness
- Strategies for Struggling Readers
- Daily Routines for Success
- Connecting Phonemic Awareness and Phonics
- Creative Techniques for Engagement
Phonercise – Exercise Your Body and Brain – Phonercise
Learn More:
Connect with Kristina:
- Instagram – @sweetforkindergarten & @kristinaharrill
- Facebook Group – Kindergarten Tips and Tricks
- Website – sweetforkindergarten.com/
Connect with Zeba:
- Instagram – @kindergartencafe
- Facebook – @kindergartencafe
- Website – www.kindergartencafe.org
- Tik Tok – @kindergartencafe
Read the Transcript
Zeba McGibbon [00:00:00]:
Hey everyone, it’s Zeba here from Kindergarten Cafe. And today on the podcast I have Kristina from Sweet for Kindergarten and she is an awesome resource to talk about phonemic awareness and how it really helps kids with learning those foundational literacy skills. So this is a great episode to listen to if you want help with that. But also, in addition to just talking about like phonemic awareness as a whole, she gives so many little tricks that you can try in your everyday instruction and games that you can try right away. Right after you listen to this episode, you can go try it. So listen throughout the episode because she just drops those in throughout the whole episode. So it’s definitely worth listening to the very end. So I hope you enjoy the episode.
Zeba McGibbon [00:00:49]:
You’re listening to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast where kindergarten teachers come to learn classroom tested tips and tricks and teaching ideas they can use in their classroom right away. I’m Zeba, creator and founder of Kindergarten Cafe and I help kindergarten teachers with everything they need from arrival to dismissal in order to save time, work smarter, not harder, and support students with engaging and purposeful lessons. I’m here to cheer you on through your successes and breakthroughs and offer support and resources so you never have to feel stuck or alone, ready to start saving time and reducing your stress, all while you using effective and purposeful lessons that students love. Let’s get started.
Zeba McGibbon [00:01:40]:
Welcome, Kristina, to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast. We’re so happy to have you. Do you want to tell our listeners a little bit about yourself so that they can get to know you?
Kristina Harrill [00:01:50]:
Sure. Hi, Zeba. Thank you so much for having me. My name is Kristiina and I am the creator of Sweet for Kindergarten, which helps and serves teachers and parents with their phonics and phonemic awareness instruction. And it kind of started on accident. I was creating resources for my classroom and I started putting them up on cpt and then it just kind of snowballed into creating an entire phonics curriculum and trainings and all of that. Because one thing that I really struggled with as a kindergarten teacher was not knowing how to teach phonics effectively. I’d never been taught it in college.
Kristina Harrill [00:02:30]:
I’m sure many of you out there listening are thinking, yes, same. I did not know how to teach it. We were taught, you know, teach sight words and reading comprehension and that was it. That was me too. So it was something that I needed for myself. So I started creating for other teachers. And here we are. It’s been 10 years since I started it and I am just talking all about phonics and phonemic awareness these days.
Kristina Harrill [00:02:56]:
Because those are like my two favorite things to talk about.
Zeba McGibbon [00:03:00]:
That’s awesome. Yeah, I’m nodding my head. Cause I’m like, yep, that was me in college too. And that’s also like why I started creating resources as well. Cause you’re just using them in the classroom and it’s helping you. And it’s great when those resources can come from someone who’s in the classroom really trying it out and doing it with the kids in front of them. So that’s great.
Kristina Harrill [00:03:21]:
Yes, definitely.
Zeba McGibbon [00:03:22]:
And I think like this phonics, like teachers are right now, I think, really looking for more help with phonics and how to teach those foundational literacy skills. Because there’s so much changing stuff in the news and in like our wider education world of like, how should we be teaching kids how to read? But it really, in my opinion, does come down to those foundational skills. And that’s what you’re talking about with phonics and phonemic awareness. Um, for people listening, if they’re not sure of like the terminology of phonemic awareness, I think people can get it confused with phonological awareness. Do you want to like break that down for people?
Kristina Harrill [00:03:59]:
Sure. So phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words. Where with phonics you are actually looking at. It’s more of a visual scale. You’re looking at the word, you’re sounding it out and reading it. And then phonological awareness is kind of the umbrella. But I like to think of it as like covering rhyming and syllables and alliteration and skills like that that are still important, but they’re not like the most important skills. It’s great to teach rhyming and syllables.
Kristina Harrill [00:04:35]:
It will help with reading fluency and spelling and all of that. But the meat is phonemic awareness for sure.
Zeba McGibbon [00:04:43]:
Yeah, I can see that. Yeah. So it’s like the umbrella of like hearing sounds. Whereas the phonemic awareness falls under that of like. That’s hearing the individual sounds.
Kristina Harrill [00:04:55]:
Yes, like the. Like at. Like the very individual phonemes and sounds.
Zeba McGibbon [00:05:00]:
I was literally thinking of at as my example too.
Kristina Harrill [00:05:04]:
That’s always my go to example. I have to think of some other words. I need like a list in front of me or something. Always say that.
Zeba McGibbon [00:05:11]:
Well, we do like tapping out the sounds in, in my classroom. Cause we use foundations. And I’m always thinking like as my example as well like tap. Cause they out the words. And for some reason the curriculum uses that one a lot as an example. So Anyway, so, like, why should teachers. I mean, you kind of talked about how it’s really important to focus on phonemic awareness, but I guess, why? Why is that so important?
Kristina Harrill [00:05:37]:
So I’ll take you back to my first year teaching kindergarten because I had a student, and I’m sure so many of you can relate to this. I would work tirelessly with her, but she just could not read CVC words. She knew all of her letters, all of her sounds. If you showed her letters, she could quickly say the sound for each one, no problem. But then she would try to sound out a word like, hi at, and she would say something completely wrong, like hippo. Like, it was like she was guessing. And I went to another teacher, and I was just telling her about my frustrations because I was like, I don’t know what else to do. I’m trying everything that I know.
Kristina Harrill [00:06:19]:
And she’s like. She gave me a whisper phone, which is like a. It’s like a pretend phone.
Zeba McGibbon [00:06:23]:
Yeah.
Kristina Harrill [00:06:24]:
But when kids speak through it, they can hear it. And she said, okay, I want you to use this with her, and I want you to only say the sounds to her and have her repeat the sounds. And just do it that way. Don’t worry about letters. Don’t worry about, like, showing her words or whatnot. Just do the whisper phone. So I did this. Like, the first day she got, like, one, and I was like, oh, you got one.
Kristina Harrill [00:06:44]:
Yay. The second day, she got a couple more. And by the third day, she got it like she was flying. And I want to say, like, a couple weeks later, she was reading CVC E words. Words with digraphs. It was insane. I was so shocked. And that’s when I learned what phonemic awareness was.
Kristina Harrill [00:07:02]:
So before, I was teaching just letters and sounds. Okay, now we’re reading. Now we’re spelling. And that was it. But phonemic awareness takes it a step back. And it’s like that foundational skill. Without it, you’re not going to have a solid foundation in phonics because you’re missing that oral skill. It’s like the missing piece.
Kristina Harrill [00:07:21]:
And so many teachers don’t realize this when they’re teaching. They’re thinking they’re teaching phonics. Okay, I’m good. I’m teaching phonics. But if you’re not explicitly teaching phonemic awareness, too, you’re missing that step.
Zeba McGibbon [00:07:34]:
Yeah, it’s so interesting. I mean, I’ve definitely had students like that before. And something that always is so surprising. But, like, year after year, I have a student where this happens to them. They can tap out the word. So like at. They can, because they’re looking at the letter. So they can say the sound like you just said.
Zeba McGibbon [00:07:52]:
But then when they go to blend, they say like sounds that are not anywhere near the word.
Kristina Harrill [00:07:57]:
Yeah, it’s always like the beginning sound or.
Zeba McGibbon [00:08:00]:
Yeah, well. Or it’s not even. It’s like, I’m not. Where are you getting those letters from? Like, they’ll be like, at mailbox. And I’ll be like, what? Or like, I don’t know, just something not even remotely close to the word. And I’m like, I don’t understand what happened from at to mailbox.
Kristina Harrill [00:08:19]:
Yeah.
Zeba McGibbon [00:08:19]:
So that’s, that’s the phonemic awareness. Like, what would you do for that student right now?
Kristina Harrill [00:08:24]:
I would start with the oral blending and not even worry about visuals or cards or anything like that. Just practicing every single day over and over again using that whisper phone. It sounds like, okay, I’m. That’s all what I’m doing already. But the more consistent you are, the easier it will get for them. You can also add in like tactile things. So with some students, they’re very hands on and kinesthetic. So one thing that I love to do is almost like a slide.
Kristina Harrill [00:08:57]:
So you would hold your arm out like it’s a slide. And the first, the top, the shoulder would be the first sound. So you’d go K the elbow, you’d point and you would say the next sound. Ah. And then you would point to your wrist and say the last sound. So then you would repeat it K a P as you’re pointing to each part of your arm, and then you slide down your arm cap. I don’t know what it is, but I would try so many different ways. But for some reason that like slide motion worked so well.
Kristina Harrill [00:09:29]:
So even just adding in some kind of movement or something like that could also just be like that one like light bulb moment for the student.
Zeba McGibbon [00:09:38]:
I like that. Yeah. I’ve used in the past like chips. So like with a student this year, I gave them chips so they could move it forward for each sound. Or like cubes even just to push it. And like just the act of touching something and moving it really was helpful. But what I like about the arm strategy that you just said the slide is that they have that wherever they go.
Kristina Harrill [00:10:01]:
Right.
Zeba McGibbon [00:10:01]:
They don’t always have the chips and the cubes when they’re trying to read. They have their arm, though. That’s also why I like the tapping that we do with Foundations. It’s like touching the fingers together, beginning, middle and end. I don’t know how to describe that to someone. Listening. Yeah, not seeing it, but like tapping.
Kristina Harrill [00:10:19]:
The pointer finger time.
Zeba McGibbon [00:10:21]:
Yeah. Tapping your thumb with your pointer finger, then your middle finger and then your ring finger for cvc. And so the kids do that and then they blend it together. But so they always have that hand with them wherever they are, wherever they’re reading.
Kristina Harrill [00:10:32]:
Right.
Zeba McGibbon [00:10:33]:
Okay, so that was more for like kids maybe in small groups and like working with you one on one. Is there any kind of like whole class or maybe you do this with the whole class, but is there any kind of whole class, like routine that you recommend teachers do?
Kristina Harrill [00:10:45]:
Yes. So I did a very structured five minute daily routine. Every single day, rain or shine. I did this routine and it worked so well. The first thing that you’ll do is a flashcard practice. And this is just getting the students used to connecting the letters to the sound. So the beginning of the year, you’re going to do like ABC flashcards. But then as you add in, you might want to focus on short vowels when you’re doing CVC words.
Kristina Harrill [00:11:15]:
Then maybe if you do digraphs or blends, you could add in those. And it’s just like a quick flashcard practice. You hold up the flashcard, they say the letter, they say the sound. That’s it. So we start with that and you can even like change it up. I like to do songs sometimes, so like ABC songs on YouTube just for something different. So it’s not always like a flashcard because that does kind of get boring sometimes. And then the next part would be rotating through three different phonemic awareness skills, or phonological awareness skills, or even like language awareness skills.
Kristina Harrill [00:11:52]:
So that’s where this whole big umbrella comes in. I definitely want to focus on phonemic awareness. So the main three skills that you would want to cover every single week, you need to pick one of these skills and practice is oral blending, which is what we were just talking about, oral segmenting, which is saying the word and breaking it apart by phoneme. So saying the word hat and then saying at, which will help with spelling, and then phoneme manipulation, which is just changing the sounds in the words. And this will actually help build fluency. So we want to have one of these three skills every single day. So what I like to do is just pick one for the week. So usually the beginning of the year, we’re going to do a lot of oral blending.
Kristina Harrill [00:12:39]:
You can do it with CVC words, you can do it with words with digraphs and words with blends because they have different number sounds. So it’s good to kind of switch it up depending on what you’re teaching your students. So that’s like the first main skill. The second one would be a phonological awareness skill. So either rhyming or syllables or even alliteration, something where they’re identifying the beginning sound of words that are the same. And then the last one would be language awareness, which really is just repeating sentences, practicing expression fluency. So, so saying a sentence like you are amazing. And then they have to kind of repeat your expression and also counting words in a sentence, because that’s really important for writing.
Kristina Harrill [00:13:29]:
So that kind of like, ties writing into it as well. So focusing on three different skills every week, you focus on those same skills every single day. And you do maybe five to ten words is really not a lot. You don’t have to do that much. And then how you teach it, you want to do, like an I do. We do. You do. So you’re going to do it first.
Kristina Harrill [00:13:52]:
You’re going to show them how to do it, you’re going to do it together, and then you’re going to have them do the last couple on their own. So you’ll start by saying, okay, we’re going to break apart a word. Ready? We’re going to break apart the word mad. Okay, let’s listen to the word mad. Say the word mad. And then they’re going to stretch it out and say each sound M AD Mad. Good job. And that’s.
Kristina Harrill [00:14:18]:
That’s it. So it’s, it’s pretty quick, and it really only takes five minutes. But I found that those, like, structuring the lesson like that every single day is the most effective thing because you’re working in phonics, you’re working in writing and phonemic awareness all in one. It’s like the perfect warmup to your literacy block.
Zeba McGibbon [00:14:40]:
It’s really reassuring because so we do heggerty and we do foundations, and like, all that stuff is in, like, what you’ve just said. Like, it’s just like the good, common blocks of, like, foundational literacy. So it’s always like, reassuring to be like, okay, yes, like teachers, we’re on the same page. We’re doing, like, the right things. Quick question. When you’re doing this, are you ever showing them the spelling of the word? Like, are you ever connecting it to the letters?
Kristina Harrill [00:15:09]:
Yes. And that is such an important thing to talk about, because I feel like a lot of times people Hear, phonemic awareness can be done in the dark, and they think it’s completely separate from phonics. But the way that you’re going to make it more impactful is if you actually connect it to phonics. So I’ll use oral blending as an example. In your phonemic awareness lesson, you can easily integrate it into phonics. So what you would do is you would practice the oral blending first. And then I like to play a game. It was called I Spy.
Kristina Harrill [00:15:41]:
And I would have, like, a bunch of CVC picture cards on a pocket chart. And I would say, okay, I spy at. Can you find this? At? They would repeat it and then they would find the picture. So it’s still phonemic awareness, but it’s also integrating that phonics. And you can even take it a step further by having the words actually there and then having to find the word and just connecting the dots that way. So if you are able to do that within your phonemic awareness lesson, even just like two examples per skill, that’s. So that’s going to affect your students so much greater than if you were just to teach phonemic awareness. Stop.
Kristina Harrill [00:16:28]:
Okay, let’s teach phonics. And the skills don’t match up, right?
Zeba McGibbon [00:16:31]:
Yeah. I actually started this year for the first time ever, like, with Heggerty, which goes into a bunch of different skills. Really fast, rapid, like, just a lot of phonological awareness stuff. And they’ll do, like, beginning sounds and identifying the middle sound, identifying the ending sound. And, like, I’ve started pointing to the letters on our letter chart that we have up because we were just doing phonics. And so it’s not just abstract, like, hearing the beginning sound. If we’ve learned the beginning sound of that letter, I’ll, like, point to it on the chart. And then the kids make that connection to the sound that we’re talking about, to the letter that we just learned.
Kristina Harrill [00:17:06]:
Yes. That’s why I love picture sorts. Picture sorts are like the greatest phonics center because it practices that phonemic awareness skill of phoneme isolation, which is one of the important phonemic awareness skills that you want to rotate through, because that’s so many ways to do that as well. But it’s so great to. After you would do what you were just saying, you could pull out a picture sort and you can have your students practice sorting the pictures into the different letters and just. That would be like the next step. And then you could even take it further and have the kids starting to phonetically spell the words that they’re sorting. So picture sorts are great.
Kristina Harrill [00:17:44]:
Like if you’re not already using picture sorts, I definitely recommend starting.
Zeba McGibbon [00:17:50]:
Okay, awesome. Because I am definitely. We are doing that this year as well. For the first year, I’ve been doing a lot more picture source, so I might just. This is so just reassuring for me that I’m on the right page.
Kristina Harrill [00:17:59]:
You’re doing a great job.
Zeba McGibbon [00:18:01]:
Thank you. And another question, or I guess not a question, but I guess just like connection is. I just did a whole like miniseries on math instruction and I talked a lot about the value of consistency and repeated instruction and how like in, especially in small groups, teachers can feel like they’re banging their head against the wall, like doing the same thing every day. And like it’s feeling like the kids are getting bored by it and the teachers are getting bored and they want to change up the activities. But really what I was arguing is that the kids aren’t getting bored and that the kids need that repeated practice and repeated routine and that the more you can stick to the routine, like you don’t have to teach it new every time and you can just target that skill. So it really can take five minutes if they’re used to the routine and if they’re used to that consistency. I guess just adding on to what you were saying about that.
Kristina Harrill [00:19:03]:
Yeah, I think consistency is so important. Like phonemic awareness. I would tell my students this is the most important part of our day. Like, no matter what we were doing that day, if we were going on a field trip and we were going to be gone most of the day, we would sit down and do our phonemic awareness routine before we left. Like, even if a fire drill interrupted it and we came back to the classroom and we were behind. Nope. I’d start with phonemic awareness. It was.
Kristina Harrill [00:19:27]:
It’s just one of those things that if you keep putting it off and the students aren’t getting that consistent practice, it’s not going to be as effective. You have to do it every single day.
Zeba McGibbon [00:19:36]:
Yeah, exactly. They need that repeated, repeated instruction, that, that time to practice. But also, I think as a teacher too, it’s less work for you if you’re used to the routine and you have that set and you know that really well. Like, you know, I think sometimes we’ll be like, oh, this is going to take like 10 minutes to set up and it’s a five minute thing like that, you know? But if you’re used to the routine, then it’s not going to take that long to set up.
Kristina Harrill [00:20:02]:
Right, right. Like, I just had them on a clipboard. I had one week, was on one page, and I would just flip to the next week when it was over. That was it. I grabbed my clipboard, my students sat in front of me. We went, that was it.
Zeba McGibbon [00:20:15]:
Like, no prep, and it’s boom, boom, boom. Yeah. And I know, like, with Heggerty, it’s the same kind of routine, but they don’t get bored with it. And to keep that engagement up, what I can do as a teacher is make sure that when we’re switching it up to, like, the next part of our routine, the next segment is, you know, I do, like, kind of a call and response. And so it’ll be like, tappers ready or, like, choppers ready for chopping up the sounds and including hand motions, it sounds like you’re doing all of that too.
Kristina Harrill [00:20:46]:
Yes. Hand motions are definitely key. Just easy. Like, for segmenting, I would get a slinky, and I would show them how to stretch out a word, because that middle sound is really difficult for students to hear. And they get. You know, they get E and I confused all the time. And so something about, like, seeing the slinky stretch out, we would stretch out that middle sound, and it just. It helped them stick.
Kristina Harrill [00:21:13]:
So they would put their hands together like they had. They were holding a slinky. They would say the beginning sound. They would stretch out that middle sound, and then we would clap back together for the N sound. And I don’t know what it was. It was magic. My students were so good at identifying that middle sound in CVC words because I would see them go like this as they’re, like, doing their spelling work.
Zeba McGibbon [00:21:34]:
It’s funny. I actually saw you in the video, because we’re on video, everyone listening. I can see you, and you did something where you put your hands out and then in. And I was one. I was totally gonna ask you about that, and I forgot, and then you just did that. And now I realize it’s because you’re modeling the slinky going out, coming in. Awesome. Yeah.
Zeba McGibbon [00:21:52]:
So I think, first of all, this is great, like, overall thinking about phonemic awareness, but also, you’ve given us so many. Just little, specific little games or, like, teacher tips that, like, anyone can just take and do tomorrow. So I love that. Like this. There’s a lot of gemstones in here to find.
Kristina Harrill [00:22:10]:
Yeah. It’s so easy to incorporate, like, any of this into your phonemic awareness instruction, even if you already have a solid routine, just, like, learning little tips and tricks just to make It a little bit more engaging. It does. It can get kind of boring. And that’s why the hand motions and all that. It’s like, really important to keep it engaging and helping the kids really retain the information when they’re using their hands. And, you know, even adding in songs is fun.
Zeba McGibbon [00:22:35]:
I’m all about the songs.
Kristina Harrill [00:22:37]:
Yep.
Zeba McGibbon [00:22:37]:
My. I’m right teach. Right next door to second grade teachers. And they’re always making fun of me for singing all day long, but I’m like, welcome to kindergarten. We’re always singing.
Kristina Harrill [00:22:46]:
Have you heard?
Zeba McGibbon [00:22:47]:
To get their attention.
Kristina Harrill [00:22:49]:
The Dr. Jean song. Fauna size.
Zeba McGibbon [00:22:52]:
No.
Kristina Harrill [00:22:53]:
What? Okay, what about. What about vowel bat?
Zeba McGibbon [00:22:56]:
No.
Kristina Harrill [00:22:57]:
Oh, my gosh. Okay, I. I’m gonna. Everyone needs to have fauner size and vowel bat in their lives.
Zeba McGibbon [00:23:04]:
Okay, Please. Yeah, I feel like now I feel like I’m under a rock. Everyone’s gonna be, like, messaging me. Be like, how did you not know?
Kristina Harrill [00:23:11]:
I can explain fauna size really quick. Okay.
Zeba McGibbon [00:23:13]:
Please.
Kristina Harrill [00:23:14]:
It’s a very simple song. It’s Dr. Jean. She’s like the OG kindergarten song lady. But what it is, is it’s an exercise routine that you go through the Alphabet. So you start with the letter A, and when you. You say the word, the name of the letter A, you tap and you lift your arms up. I keep forgetting where our not on video.
Kristina Harrill [00:23:38]:
And then you touch your shoulders and you say the sound, so. Ah. And then everyone touches their toes and says a word that starts with it, and you go through the whole Alphabet.
Zeba McGibbon [00:23:47]:
Oh, my gosh.
Kristina Harrill [00:23:47]:
And so sometimes instead of flashcard practice, we would do that.
Zeba McGibbon [00:23:51]:
Yeah, that’s like the perfect brain break, too. Especially if you’re, like, transitioning to the rug. Oh, my gosh.
Kristina Harrill [00:23:56]:
Yeah, I used it for everything.
Zeba McGibbon [00:23:58]:
I mostly go to Jack Hartman. He’s like my go to guy. But I have to check this out. And what was the other one?
Kristina Harrill [00:24:04]:
And vowel bat. Vowel bat’s really good for short vowels.
Zeba McGibbon [00:24:08]:
And that’s also Dr. Jean.
Kristina Harrill [00:24:10]:
No, it’s. I don’t even know. I just. Or YouTube it.
Zeba McGibbon [00:24:14]:
We will put the link in the description.
Kristina Harrill [00:24:17]:
You’ll get a.
Zeba McGibbon [00:24:18]:
And I’m gonna find it.
Kristina Harrill [00:24:19]:
You’ll come back to me in a week and be like, it’s stuck in my head.
Zeba McGibbon [00:24:22]:
Yeah, that and the. The KooKoo kangaroos or. Oh, I love.
Kristina Harrill [00:24:27]:
Yep.
Zeba McGibbon [00:24:27]:
They’re not at academic, but they are. Those songs get stuck in my head. The kids will request them, and I’ll be like, okay, sure. Now I’m gonna be the rest of my life. Yes. The cat party one. Just.
Kristina Harrill [00:24:40]:
Oh, My gosh, the Dino stomp, that.
Zeba McGibbon [00:24:43]:
Was always a hit. Just saying them and then pizza. All I do is, all I eat is pizza or something like, oh my gosh, they’re catchy. They’re good at what they do. So yeah, it’s so true with the music and like the hand motions that it, they really help keep kids engaged and you know, gets their energy going to stay focused. I feel like sometimes teachers, if it’s like a routine that you’re doing over and go over again, they’re worried about being boring. And I just think that kids feed off of your energy. So if like you’re being boring or you don’t want to do it, then they’re not going to want to do it.
Zeba McGibbon [00:25:17]:
Right.
Kristina Harrill [00:25:18]:
Exactly. That’s why you have to add in a bunch of different hands on activities. Think about like what your students really like to do. My students were always obsessed with writing on whiteboards with expert workers. So we, I had like a mini set. So everyone had like a mini whiteboard and a marker and they literally carried it around the classroom with them because we did this activity. I called it Write and Wipe. I don’t know what the name of it is, but I would use it for every lesson.
Kristina Harrill [00:25:47]:
It’s pretty much like a show me kind of thing. So we would do it for oral segmenting, which is just sounding out and spelling the words. And we would go through the entire process of them doing it orally so in their head and then tapping out how many sounds so that they understand how many sounds are in the word, how many letter. Well, phonemes they need to write. And then they would actually write it. So this actually turned into a dictation routine. But I did it in phonemic awareness every day. So for example, I would say the word cut.
Kristina Harrill [00:26:23]:
They would have to say, they would count the sounds. I would have them draw three little dots for each sound. And then they would put a letter or if it’s digraphs or something or you know, vowel patterns, it would be two letters. But for each dot they would put the sound. And so they would spell C U T cut. And then they would hold it up. I would quickly check, say, great job. I would kind of see if any students didn’t have it right and kind of correct that I would write.
Kristina Harrill [00:26:55]:
We would write it together on like the big whiteboard. They would erase it and we’d do another one. And you can do that with any skill. If you’re practicing identifying the middle sound, you say the word is dog. What’s the Middle sound in dog. They have to sound it out. They write the O, they hold it up. Even oral blending.
Kristina Harrill [00:27:15]:
I did one that was with pictures, so this only works for a couple words, but it’s kind of fun. So I would say a word like N and then they would have to draw it on their fun.
Zeba McGibbon [00:27:26]:
I bet they loved that.
Kristina Harrill [00:27:27]:
It’s before they’re really, you know, spelling. They’re hearing the sounds, they’re doing the oral blending skill, and they’re showing that they know it by drawing it. So it only works with like sun, cat, hat, dog, like easy words, but.
Zeba McGibbon [00:27:41]:
It’S gonna do some funny ones. You know, I love to draw. Uh, this has got me thinking though. Like, kindergarten is such a, such a journey. And like, right now where I’m teaching, we are totally in the CVC words and like, you know, deep in the reading and writing of them. But it took us a while to get there for learning the letters and sounds and being really solid in those. Would you do this routine that you’re talk, talking to us about, like before you’ve taught all the letters and sounds, or would you wait?
Kristina Harrill [00:28:12]:
Yes, I would do it before I taught all the letters and sounds. So the better way to do it is to start blending as soon as possible. So if you have like P, A, T, S, I, N, like that’s like most of the beginning sounds that you’re going to work on. You’re able to spell like 30 something different words. You’re able to sound out 30 something different words, even just sounding out word families like at and it and ip, like it doesn’t even have to be a real word. But even just sounding out two phoneme words or word families is just great to start with. So I would start, I would say the first month I would really focus on letters and letter sounds. And of course, some kids are kind of already going to know them.
Kristina Harrill [00:28:56]:
You can kind of do that, like in small group setting. But then I would start right away with oral blending and just doing a couple practice ones every day. It doesn’t have to. You’re not really throwing it in CVC words. But if you start with oral blending early on in the year, then by December, they’re reading and spelling CVC words.
Zeba McGibbon [00:29:18]:
Right. And I think I’m a strong believer in kids need to like, hear it and say it before they can read it and write it. Would you agree with that?
Kristina Harrill [00:29:27]:
Yes, definitely.
Zeba McGibbon [00:29:29]:
So even if they don’t, like, know which letter makes that sound, they can still practice breaking apart the sounds and hearing those Sounds.
Kristina Harrill [00:29:37]:
They can still. Yeah. As long as they’re able to hear it and identify the sound, that piece can come a little bit later. It doesn’t have to be at the same time. But that’s also why you want to do that flashcard practice every single day. Just because like you said, being consistent at repetition, that’s what’s, that’s how they’re going to learn. So it’s just. It’s kind of like everything all at once.
Zeba McGibbon [00:29:58]:
Yeah. Oh, I know that. I was going to tell you too. Of like you said, sometimes you put on a video or something instead of the flashcards to just keep it engaging and like make it a song. Another way I found to really helps keep the kids engaged doing it every day. Like, even still, like you said, this is February and end of February and we’re still just reviewing the letter sounds flashcards every day. And we will eventually add in blends and digraphs like you said. But I have the kids take over showing, like, they lead the review of the flashcards.
Zeba McGibbon [00:30:33]:
And so they get up there with like a little pointer and they are like the little teacher and they say, M man. M. Then the kids all say, M man. Mmm. And so because it’s a kid leading instead of me, everyone’s like instantly engaged and they’re wondering like, when it’s gonna be their turn. And so that’s another way to keep it engaging.
Kristina Harrill [00:30:51]:
Yeah. My students always love to be like the teacher anytime they would, like, imitate me.
Zeba McGibbon [00:30:56]:
And I know it’s a great way to like observe yourself and be like, wow, this is what I sound like. This is how I do things. Okay, awesome. Well, Kristina, I feel like, like I said, there’s going to be so much too many gemstones, I think is the way I said it. But that’s a weird way to say it. But I just think there’s so much goodness in here of like, little things that teachers can incorporate every day to have more phonemic awareness in their instruction. But where can they go to learn more from you if they want to learn more about this awesome, like, routine that you have that you’ve made?
Kristina Harrill [00:31:31]:
Yeah. So I have a free three day video training series. It’s broken down. I think the video is about 10 minutes long and it just breaks down. The phonemic awareness routine is the first one, so you will be able to see the exact, like how I format it. And then the second one is connecting phonemic awareness to phonics. So kind of how we were talking about how the skills interconnect and how you should integrate it into your phonemic awareness lesson. And the third part is all about hands on phonemic awareness activities.
Kristina Harrill [00:32:04]:
So if you are feeling like your instructions feel a little dry, kids are kind of getting a little bored. That is definitely the one for you. So that is at www.sweetforkindergarten.com power and you’ll be able to get those three videos. It’s like a three day thing. And then I also have hands on activity guide that you’ll get as well. So you’ll be able to actually have the directions in front of you and pictures of what I’m talking about so you can really implement it right away into your classroom.
Zeba McGibbon [00:32:36]:
That’s always helpful. And we’ll put the link in the show notes as well. And like where can people. I mean sweetforkindergarten.com but like how else can they find you?
Kristina Harrill [00:32:47]:
Yeah, so I’m I have a Facebook group called Kindergarten Tips and Tricks. So I’m in there. And then also on Instagram, actually two Instagrams, I have a teaching one and then more of a mother parenthood one. But I also talk a lot about early development and childhood and all of that. So I have seat for kindergarten on Instagram and then also Kristina Harrell on Instagram as well. And then you’ll be able to find everything on my website which is just sleepforkindergarten.com awesome.
Zeba McGibbon [00:33:16]:
Well, thank you so much for coming on the podcast and teaching us all these great ideas.
Kristina Harrill [00:33:22]:
Thank you so much for having me.
Zeba McGibbon [00:33:33]:
Thanks so much for listening to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes for more information and resources or just head straight to kindergartencafe.org for all the goodies. If you liked this episode, the best ways to show your support are to subscribe, leave a review, or send it to a friend. I’ll be back next week with even more kindergarten tips. See you then.