- One-inch cubes are perfect.
- Use four or five different colors.
- You’ll need three or four blocks of each color.
- Play these at a table, or on the floor.
- Put the blocks back into the pile after each round.
- You don’t need to remember the colors from round to round. If the child chooses green to
show ‘sh,’ she can choose a different color for ‘sh’ on another round.
Learn to pronounce the sounds correctly.
Can your child play one or more Phonemic Awareness Games to Go? Then we’re ready for:
Basic Training for Blocks
How Many Sounds? (All the same) 1, 2 or 3
Same or Different Sounds? 2 sounds
Same or Different Sounds? 2 sounds: Line Them Up
All Same or All Different? 1, 2 or 3 sounds
What’s the Pattern? 1, 2 or 3 sounds
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How Many Sounds? (All the same) 1, 2 or 3
Teach your child to use blocks to stand for sounds.
- One sound will need one block.
- Two sounds will need two blocks (both the same color to show that the two sounds were the same).
- Three sounds will need three blocks (all the same color to show that the sounds were the same).
Ask your child to show you, with blocks, from one to three sounds. For example:
- You say ‘sss, sss, sss’ -- and the child selects three colored blocks (all the same color) to show that there were three sounds, all the same.
- You say ‘p, p’--and the child selects two blocks (both the same color) to show that there were two sounds, both the same.
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Same or Different Sounds? 2 sounds
Ask your child to show you, with blocks, whether the two sounds you say are the same or different. For
example:
- You say ‘t, t’ --and the child selects two blocks of the same color to show that the sounds were the same.
- You say ‘mmm, k’--and the child selects two blocks of different colors to show that the sounds were different.
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Same or Different Sounds? 2 sounds: Line Them Up
Teach your child to line up blocks from left-to-right, the way we read.
Ask your child to show you, with blocks, how many sounds you make--and whether the sounds are the same or different. For example:
- You say ‘shh, shh’ --and the child lines up two blocks of the same color to show that there were two sounds, and they were the same.
- You say ‘p, l-l-l’ --and the child lines up two blocks of different colors to show that there were two sounds, and they were different.
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All Same or All Different? 1, 2 or 3 sounds
1. Ask the child to show you, with blocks, how many sounds you make and whether they are all the same, or all different.
2. Say one to three sounds, making them all identical or all different. For example:
| You say . . . |
Child lines up blocks: |
| k . . . k |
two blocks, the same color |
| n-n-n |
one block |
| r-r-r . . . r-r-r . . . r-r-r |
three blocks, the same color |
| b . . . r-r-r . . . l-l-l |
three blocks, all different colors |
3. The child lines up the correct number of blocks from left to right (the way we read), using one color if they are all the same, and different colors if they are all different.
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What’s the Pattern? 1, 2 or 3 sounds.
1. Say any combination of from one to three sounds.
2. Ask the child to show you, with blocks, whether you make one, two, or three sounds, and to show the pattern. For example:
- All the same sound (all blocks of the same color)
- Three different sounds (three blocks of different colors)
- Two different sounds (two blocks of different colors)
- Two the same sound, and one a different sound (two of the same color, and one of a different color
| You say . . . |
Child lines up blocks: |
| ch-h-h, m-m-m |
two different colors |
| g, g, h-h-h |
same, same, different colors |
| z-z-z, z-z-z, z-z-z |
three of the same color |
| f-f-f, b, f-f-f |
same, different, same colors |
More on this topic: The Reading Treehouse -> THE FLOOR: Phonemic Awareness
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