According to the authors I used as a reference, the 5th level in the phonemic awareness process would be 'Recognition and production of initial sounds'.
It's not difficult to produce nice activities for this level. I create my own one, called it 'Going shopping'.
Going shopping
I created this activity for the whiteboard, but I actually think it'd be nicer to carry it out using flashcards and boxes. Probably you already have the flashcards - everyone has done flashcard for food; in fact, I've got them from the last year.
The point of this activity is to be able to distinguish initial sounds. We'll tell the children to go shopping with the little pig. The activity is planned to choose two children or two teams. Every team have to gather different food starting with a sound. It's important to remember we are working on phonemes, not letters. So, for example, if the children is buying things starting with the sound /k/ such as carrots, he/she can't take the cherries. Remember that these activities are aimed at children who are not still writing.
This is the slide of my activity. You can add or delete food, or make your own activity and/or flashcards.
The picture below shows how my activity works. For example, with my slide, ideally we would ask the children to buy things starting with the sound /p/ and the sound /k/. It goes without saying that children must know the names of the food beforehand.
In the example above we can see the solutions:
Food starting with the sound /p/:
- Pineapple
- Potatoes
- Pumpkin
- Pepper
- Pear
- Peach
- Peas
And, in the other cart, food starting with the sound /k/:
- Cranberries
- Cauliflower
- Cabbage
- Carrots
As you can see, the activity is also thought to work on classification of food (science): fruit and vegetables. Children can work putting the food back to the correct stall or even sorting them at the beginning, before starting the activity. In that way, we make sure they know the names of everything in advance.
You can download my activity HERE.
