At Primary Tutor Project, we know that as parents you play a vital role in helping your child learn to read. Phonics is a crucial aspect of early reading development that your child will need to master in order to become a confident reader. Segmenting is one of the key phonics skills that your child will learn, which involves breaking words down into individual sounds or phonemes. By practicing segmenting at home, you can help your child build their phonics skills and become a more confident reader. Here are 10 fun and easy activities that you can do at home to practice segmenting with your child.
- I Spy
“I Spy” is a classic game that is perfect for practicing segmenting. To play, simply choose an object in the room and say “I spy with my little eye, something that begins with the sound (insert sound here).” For example, you could say, “I spy with my little eye, something that begins with the sound /b/.” Your child will then need to identify all the objects in the room that begin with that sound.
- Rhyming
Rhyming is another important phonics skill that helps with segmenting. Practice rhyming with your child by saying a word and having them come up with as many words as they can that rhyme with it. For example, if you say “cat,” your child might come up with “hat,” “rat,” “sat,” and so on.
- Word Hunt
Go on a word hunt with your child around the house. Choose a letter sound and challenge your child to find objects that contain that sound. For example, if you choose the sound /s/, your child might find objects like a sock, a spoon, and a soap.
- Clapping
Clapping is a simple but effective way to practice segmenting. Say a word out loud and have your child clap out the number of sounds they hear in the word. For example, if you say “cat,” your child would clap twice to represent the two sounds in the word (/c/ and /a/).
- Word Building
Use letter tiles or magnetic letters to practice building words with your child. Say a word out loud and have your child build the word using the letters. Then, challenge them to break the word down into its individual sounds.
- Segmenting with Actions
Make segmenting fun by adding actions to it. Choose a word and have your child act out each sound in the word. For example, if you choose the word “jump,” your child might jump once to represent the /j/ sound, then jump twice to represent the /u/ and /m/ sounds.
- Singing
Singing is a great way to help children practice segmenting. Choose a simple song that your child knows and sing it together. Then, challenge them to break down the words in the song into their individual sounds.
- Story Time
Reading books together is an excellent way to help your child build their phonics skills. Choose a book with simple words and point out the individual sounds in each word as you read. Then, challenge your child to identify the sounds in each word as you read together.
- Sorting Sounds
Make sorting sounds fun by using a set of pictures or objects that contain different sounds. Choose a sound and challenge your child to sort the pictures or objects according to whether they contain that sound or not.
- Word Families
Word families are groups of words that contain the same ending sound. For example, words like cat, hat, and sat are all part of the “-at” word family. Practice segmenting with word families by choosing a word family and having your child come up with as many words as they can that belong to that family.
Practicing segmenting with your child is a fun and effective way to help them build their phonics skills and become confident readers. By using these 10 activities at home, you can create a supportive and engaging learning environment for your child. If you have any questions or concerns about your child’s reading development, the team at Primary Tutor Project is always here to help. Don’t hesitate to contact us for advice and support. For further tips from the tean at Primary Tutor Project subscribe here. Together, we can help your child achieve their full potential in reading and beyond.
