Sound Games

Recommended Age: 3y+

Level of Parent Involvement: High

Preparation

To become effective readers and writers, children need a strong awareness of the sounds that make up words. These skills of hearing, identifying, and working with the sounds in words are called phonemic awareness.
We do lots of games and activities in the classroom to build phonemic awareness, and these games are perfect to practice at home – or anywhere, because they do not require any materials. They are totally spoken, so you could even play them in the dark.
We start with the simplest skills and keep increasing the challenge as the children’s skills advance. At each level, we provide as much support as they need to feel successful – the key is that they stay engaged and motivated so that they can get the amount of repetition and practice that they need to strengthen each skill.
Montessori deliberately introduces phonetics first – the SOUND the letter makes, not its “name”. Please note that encouraging phonetics does not mean ignoring the existence of the names of the letters (that is, the ‘names’ that are sung in the ABC song). If your child discusses the names of the letters rather than the sounds (such as “b” pronounced “bee” rather than the phonetic “b” as in “ball”) then you can simply explain to your child “that is the name of the letter but the sound that the letter makes is….”. This redirects your child’s focus to the phonetic language without making them feel as though they were wrong.

Rhyming games

Pick a category (fruits, vegetables, colours, furniture, clothes, vehicles, etc.) and explain to your child, “I’m going to think of different fruits. See if you can guess which fruit I am thinking of, it rhymes with nare (say a real/nonsense word that rhymes with the fruit that you have chosen). What fruit is it?”
Help your child with the answer if necessary. “It’s a pear!” Say the rhyming pair a few times, “Nare, pear. Nare, pear – they rhyme.”
Choose another fruit and repeat the game for as long as your child is interested or choose another category to maintain your child’s interest.

Say to your child, “Let’s think of words that rhyme with ____” (e.g. bat). Help your child to provide rhyming words (for example, “cat, mat, sat, fat, hat”, etc.). At first, you may be the only one thinking of rhyming words, this is alright. Repeat the rhyming words a few times, encouraging your child to say them with you.
Soon your child will be making up her own.
Variation = invite your child to name something that she sees (bread, plate, car, tree, etc.) and you come up with some rhyming words.

Explain to your child that you are going to say two words. For example, “Blue, shoe.” Invite your child to say the words back to you. Ask her, “Do they rhyme?” and she should answer “Yes!”
Repeat with two more words, for example, “Rug, cat.” and your child should answer “No!”
Try to do a random mix of rhyming and non-rhyming words, but not alternating – children are smart and will figure out the pattern instead of listening for the rhyme!
Variation = instead of saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’, your child can give a thumbs up or thumbs down to indicate whether or not the words rhyme.

Beginning Sound Games

Explain to your child, “I’m going to say two words to you. You say them back to me. If they have the SAME beginning sound, give me a thumbs up. If they are NOT the same, give me a thumbs down.”
For example, “rrrrun, rrrabbit”. Your child repeats the words and gives a thumbs up. You explain that “run and rabbit both start with the sound ‘rrr’”.
Tips:
Always start with a few pairs that have the same beginning sound to prepare the child’s ears
Try to do a random mix of matching sounds and non-matching sounds, but not alternating – children are smart and will figure out the pattern instead of listening for the beginning sounds!
Exaggerate the beginning sounds (“mmmmouse”, “bbbball”, “ssssink”, “aaaapple”) until your child is confidently and consistently identifying the beginning sounds correctly.

You say the beginning sound of an object and the child identifies the object.
Start simple! For example, “I spy something that you are holding that starts with ‘fff’”. “Fork” when a fork is the only thing in their hand.
Gradually make it more challenging. For example, “I spy something on your face that starts with ‘nnn’”. “Nose”, etc.
Watch this short video on how to play the “I spy” game Montessori style – https://youtu.be/UfHvYuE2QOM
For more details about how to play and the next levels of challenge (ending sounds, middle sounds, and segmenting all the sounds), we recommend this post by Maitri Learning – https://www.maitrilearning.com/blogs/montessori-pedagogy/100404679-montessori-sound-games-teaching-phonemic-awareness

Advanced Phonemic Awareness Games

To become effective readers and writers, children need a strong awareness of the sounds that make up words. This game is a pre-reading skill that you can practice at home.
Say a word in “slow-motion”. For example, “ssssiiiiittt”. Ask your child if she can tell you what the word is. Your child should answer “Sit”.
If this seems easy for your child, increase the challenge by adding a pause between the sounds in the word – this is more difficult for your child as she needs to blend the sounds together to identify the word. For example, “mmmm-ou-ssss”, which your child should identify as “Mouse”.
Remember to keep it fun and give as much support/help as your child needs to feel successful.

This is another phonemic awareness skill to practice at home that will help to prepare your child to become an effective reader and writer.
Explain to your child that you are going to say a word and then segment it by identifying all of the sounds that make up the word. For example, “cat, c-a-t” or “sheep, sh-ee-p”, etc.)
To help your child keep track of the sounds, use “finger spelling” – make a fist and starting with the thumb, put up one finger for each sound you say.
This is a challenging skill – it is alright if you model segmenting a word and then have the child repeat it with you.
Watch a short video showing how to teach sound segmenting – https://youtu.be/Q35Exe1m98k

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