21 Activities for Teaching Phoneme Manipulation

Discover why we have to spend so much time teaching phoneme manipulation in kindergarten and get 21 engaging and effective classroom activities to help your students manipulate sounds with ease!

Phoneme manipulation is one of those phonemic awareness tasks we spend a lot of time teaching in kindergarten - but why?

Well it is an important foundational literacy skill!

Phoneme manipulation can be a bit tricky for some students, which is maybe why so much time is devoted to teaching it.

In this blog post, I’ll show you why this skill is soooo important and I’ve got 21 phoneme manipulation activities to help you teach it. Each activity is designed to be fun, interactive, and effective. With all these ideas, you'll have plenty to choose from. You’re sure to find a few that resonate with your students.

Phoneme manipulation is an important aspect of phonemic awareness. Developing this critical skill helps children to break down and construct words and paves the way for successful decoding and encoding.

Did you know strong phoneme manipulation skills are linked directly to literacy success?

As children become more proficient in manipulating phonemes, they build a solid foundation for future reading fluency and comprehension. It's a fundamental skill every young reader needs as they learn to read and write. 

The techniques explored in this blog post are all informed by the Science of Reading, a robust body of research that outlines effective literacy instruction strategies.

Key Takeaways

  • Phoneme manipulation is essential for literacy.

  • Proficiency in phoneme manipulation supports reading development.

  • Effective instruction strategies are based on sound educational research.

blog post with 21 activities for teaching phoneme manipulation

What is Phoneme Manipulation?

Phoneme manipulation is changing the individual phonemes or speech sounds in a word to create a new word. The new word is sometimes a nonsense word or a made-up word.

This skill falls under the phonological awareness umbrella.

Phonological awareness is about recognising and playing with the sounds in words. 

the phonological awareness umbrella

Phoneme manipulation is considered one of the more challenging aspects of phonological awareness. It involves adding, removing, or substituting sounds in words. For example, by changing the /a/ sound in cat to an /u/, we get the new word: cut.

Teaching this skill should start with simple words that have two or three different sounds and get more complex as children's language and literacy skills develop. 

At the foundational level, phonemic awareness includes

  • identifying individual sounds

  • breaking words into sounds

  • blending sounds together.

These 3 skills are critical for learning to read and write. 

Phoneme manipulation is a key component of phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is primarily about the spoken word. It is an oral and auditory exercise laying the groundwork for the more written-focused stages of learning in phonics. As children transition from phonemic awareness to phonics, they apply the oral skills of phoneme manipulation to written words when they start decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling).

Phoneme manipulation also helps children explore different sound combinations and introduces them to how spelling can represent various sounds. This ability to experiment with sounds enriches their reading and spelling skills by helping them tackle unfamiliar words with confidence.

The integration of phoneme manipulation from an oral-auditory exercise to a fundamental skill in decoding and encoding highlights how important this skill is in phonics and the broader literacy curriculum.

The 3 Types of Phoneme Manipulation

There are three primary forms of phoneme manipulation: phoneme addition, deletion and substitution. 

  • Adding Phonemes: making new words or sounds by adding a phoneme to an existing word or group of sounds.

  • Deleting Phonemes: making new words or sounds by removing a phoneme from an existing word or group of sounds.

  • Substituting Phonemes: making new words or sounds by changing out a phoneme in a word or group of sounds and replacing it with another one.

Phoneme substitution is the most difficult type of phoneme manipulation because it puts a higher demand on working memory. 

3 types of phoneme manipulation

Examples of Phoneme Manipulation

Here are some examples of the three different types of phoneme manipulation. Within each type, you can vary the specific phoneme that you’re manipulating. 

Phoneme Addition

  • Initial phoneme: Starting with the word ice, add /n/ to the beginning to make the word: nice.

  • Final phoneme: Starting with the word win, add /d/ to the end to make the word: wind.

  • Adding a phoneme to make a consonant blend. Starting with the word fat, add /l/ after the /f/ to make the word flat.

Phoneme Deletion

  • Initial phoneme: In the word flake, take away /f/ and you get the word lake.

  • Final phoneme: In the word belt, take away /t/ and the word you are left with is bell.

  • Deleting the second phoneme from a consonant blend. In the word stick, take away /t/ to leave the word sick.

Phoneme Substitution

  • Initial phoneme: In the word rat, change the /r/ to a /b/ and you have the word bat.

  • Final phoneme: In the word pin, change the /n/ to a /k/ to make the word pick.

  • Medial phoneme: In the word hut, change the /u/ to an /o/ and you have the word hot.

To cater to the individual needs of your students, you can vary the level of difficulty within each of these skill sets

Phoneme manipulation can also evolve from simple to more complex words. Students begin with two- or three-sound words (e.g., VC or CVC words) and gradually move on to words with digraphs, blends, r-controlled vowels, etc. 

You might have many students ready to work on phoneme manipulation, but you will probably need to differentiate the types of words you use.

Most children master advanced techniques by the end of grade three. 

Why Are Phoneme Manipulation Skills Important?

When children understand phoneme manipulation, they will have advanced phonemic awareness. They’ll be able to pick up on sound patterns and be better equipped to learn how to decode words and phonetically write words. 

Phoneme Manipulation and the Science of Reading

As we have already discussed, phoneme manipulation is a crucial skill within phonological awareness and is directly tied to a child’s ability to read and write effectively.

Research indicates that being able to hear, identify, and alter phonemes (the smallest units of sound in speech), is foundational to literacy development.

Here’s what the research says:

The best predictor of reading difficulty in kindergarten or first grade is the inability to segment words and syllables into constituent sound units (phonemic awareness). (Lyon, 1995)

The ability to hear and manipulate phonemes plays a causal role in the acquisition of beginning reading skills. (Smith, Simmons, & Kame'enui, 1998)

The effects of training phonological awareness and learning to read are mutually supportive. "Reading and phonemic awareness are mutually reinforcing: Phonemic awareness is necessary for reading, and reading, in turn, improves phonemic awareness still further." (Shaywitz, 2003)

Research Insights

There's comprehensive research suggesting phoneme manipulation is a pre-requisite to blending and segmenting and also a predictor of word-level reading proficiency. 

However, there is some evidence to suggest that deletion and manipulation of phonemes are skills that develop as a result of learning to read and so can be seen as mutually advantageous to reading skills rather than prerequisites

Some children find deletion and manipulation of sounds easier when they use manipulatives like letter tiles. This supports the research showing that phonemic awareness training is most effective when combined with phonics.

There's no doubt focusing on exercises that reinforce phoneme manipulation strengthens the foundation for proficient reading. Ongoing practice and gradual increases in difficulty will yield the best literacy outcomes for your students.

How to Teach Phoneme Manipulation

When I teach phoneme manipulation, I follow the gradual release model. 

the gradual release model

Begin with oral exercises and phonemic awareness.

Use visual tools like Elkonin boxes to support student’s understanding of phoneme placement within words. Then, when you are ready to introduce graphemes and phonics, it’s an easy transition because students will already know how to use the Elkonin boxes.

Initially, work with simple CVC (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant) words, avoiding more complex structures like digraphs or diphthongs. 

Follow a Progression of Difficulty when tackling phoneme manipulation tasks:

  1. Start with the initial sound as it's generally easier for students to identify and manipulate.

  2. Move on to the final sound in the word, offering a new level of difficulty.

  3. Finally address the middle sound(s), which can be the trickiest for students to manipulate.

Also, progress through tasks methodically:

  1. Begin with deletion tasks to develop an initial understanding of how words can change.

  2. Transition to phoneme addition tasks, adding complexity to the student's abilities.

  3. Finally, progress to substitution tasks to synthesise the phonemic awareness skills learned.

It's vital to gradually increase the difficulty by moving to words with more phonemes as students show they are ready.

Prioritise student confidence and competence over speed or advancement. It’s not a race.

As children develop and their language and literacy abilities improve, they can be given more complex forms of phoneme manipulation tasks like working with more challenging phoneme sounds and even combining manipulation tasks together.

A SPECIAL NOTE: While young children need to understand sounds in words and develop their phonemic awareness skills, they don't have to fully grasp it before you start teaching about letters and phonics. 

Phonemic awareness continues to develop as children are exposed to language orally and in print.

It’s OK to start adding graphemes (letter symbols) once children are able to recognise the beginning sounds of words.

Phonological awareness skills involving phoneme manipulation and other literacy skills related to reading, writing, and spelling will all develop together. It’s a symbiotic relationship—they will all support each other's growth.

So Should You Teach Phoneme Manipulation?

Yes. Phoneme manipulation is critical in developing students' phonemic awareness and essential for learning to read and spell. 

Just remember to keep the sessions engaging and support students patiently until the concept 'clicks'.

I find working with small groups to be the most effective. A small group ensures I can monitor everyone carefully and also allows for individualised support should the need arise.

teaching phoneme manipulation to a small intervention group

Phonemic awareness activities involving phoneme manipulation exercises, while oral in nature, are preparing students for the essential task of transferring these auditory discrimination skills to reading and spelling.

Remember as students develop their phonemic awareness, it's okay to start phonics lessons. This will give you an opportunity to link the specific phonemes the students are working with to their corresponding letters and spelling patterns. This balanced literacy approach reinforces the interplay between phonemic awareness and phonics.

In essence, phoneme manipulation should not be seen as an isolated skill. It is part of a much bigger proficiency.

Your role is to guide your students with clear instruction and practice with a gradual increase in complexity.

7 Phoneme Manipulation Activities & Games for Adding Phonemes

Phoneme addition means that you are adding on a sound to create a new word. I’ve found it difficult to find phonemic awareness activities that practice phoneme addition so if you have any ideas to add to my list, please let me know. 

Here are seven phoneme manipulation activities where kindergarten kids can practice adding phonemes. 

1. Making Word Families 

This is my go-to activity to help children develop their understanding of sounds in words. As the name suggests, they need to add a phoneme (onset) at the beginning of a rime in order to create a new word. For example, adding /s/ to at to make the new word sat

Here's how I introduce this strategy to my students: 

  1. Select a word family: Choose a word family, such as the -at family, which includes words like cat, hat, and mat.

  2. Say the word family: Pronounce several words from the chosen word family and place an emphasis on the ending letter sounds, _at.

  3. Introduce the new sound: Explain to the children that you will add a new sound to the beginning of the word and create a new word. For example, add the sound /s/ to -at to make the word sat.

  4. Blend the sounds: Help the children blend the new sound /s/ with the rest of the word. When you say the new word sat, make sure to emphasise the added sound /s/. Have the children repeat the word, focusing on both the new sound and the original word family sound.

  5. Practice with other word families: Repeat the process with different word families. Add a variety of sounds at the beginning to create new words. Encourage the children to listen carefully to the new sound and blend it with the existing word family sound to form the new word. 

Adding phonemes is one of the easier phoneme manipulation skills.

Want a comprehensive set of word families you can use for this activity?

Check out my 55 Rhyming Word Family Posters. I use these rhyming word family posters as both a classroom reference and as a teaching resource to teach, practise and revise rhyming words.

2. It’s a Secret

For this fun game, display a small set of classroom objects or toys. My picture cards work well for this activity. The teacher decides which object is going to be the secret object and says the word but takes off the initial sound.

using picture cards for a phoneme manipulation activity

So if your secret word is lizard, you would say -izard. The children must think of suitable beginning sounds to add in order to discover the secret object.

For an easier version, give the students both the onset and the rime of the unknown words. So for the lizard example, you would say "My secret object is -izard and it starts with /l/." Then, have them find the picture of the lizard.

I’ve got heaps of picture card sets in my store so if you want to play this game with your students, grab a set of picture cards already done for you HERE

3. Sticky Notes Word Builder

This is a tactile approach for students learning to manipulate phonemes by adding sounds. The sounds in the words are represented by sticky notes. By placing the sticky notes on a whiteboard divided into segments, children can have fun physically manipulating sounds at the initial, medial, or final positions.

What is it about sticky notes that little kids love so much! 

4. Sound Step

In this movement game, children add an initial or final sound to a base word. Each time an initial sound is added, they take a step forward, and if a final sound is added, they take a step back.

This game is also an excellent way to practice phoneme segmentation and to build longer words progressively. 

5. Silly Words

Children have a lot of fun with nonsense words.

This activity is quick and easy, so you can easily squeeze it into your daily routine.

Just say a base word, and the students add any sound to make a new nonsense word. It can be tricky for them to think of sounds on the spot so I usually suggest they refer to our sound wall to get ideas for sounds to add. You can practise adding sounds to the beginning, middle, or end. 

6. Story Rewind

This is another activity that easily fits into your school day.

When you are reading a story to the children, occasionally stop and delete a phoneme from one of the words in the story. Challenge the children to suggest the correct missing phoneme and reread the sentence to see if they are correct. 

teacher reading to students learning to add a phoneme

7. Add Manipulatives

While phonemic awareness activities are oral, I find that manipulatives help make them more concrete.

Have your students put out cubes or counters for each sound they hear in the root word. Then, they can add a cube or counter to represent the new sound added.

Get them to blend the sounds together when they say the new word. This is a good time to use Elkonin boxes to consolidate the position of the different phonemes in the words. 

Teaching Tip: When beginning phoneme addition, start with 2-sound words (vowel-consonant or consonant-vowel) to create new 3-sound words (consonant-vowel-consonant). Then, you can try starting with CVC words and adding a new sound to create a word with a blend (CCVC or CVCC). 

Download my free phoneme word list so you don’t have to think up words on the spot. It has a comprehensive list of words with 2, 3, 4, and 5 phonemes. It's perfect for these types of activities.

7 Phoneme Manipulation Activities & Games for Deleting Phonemes

Phoneme deletion means that you start with a word and then ask students to delete a sound to make a new word. Being able to delete or add sounds in words is an important skill to develop as it helps students test alternatives for reading and spelling.

Sound deletion tasks are more difficult than other types of phoneme awareness tasks.  

Cole and Mengler (1994) stated that it is not until the mental age of approximately 7 years that children are able to perform phoneme deletion tasks adequately. Lewkowicz (1980) suggested that sound deletion activities should be left until children exhibit some skill in segmentation and after letter names have been introduced. 

Keep in mind phoneme deletion of the middle sounds in words tends to put an unnecessary burden on young children's memory too. These types of activities should target only initial or final sounds in words. 

Before introducing the more difficult strategy of phoneme deletion, try introducing deleting parts of a word instead. Display pictures of objects that are compound words and demonstrate to your students how each word can be said with a part missing. For example, when you say seesaw without the see, it says saw

Deleting a sound from a word becomes easier if you can build on previous phoneme segmenting practice. When your students are ready, here are some fun phoneme deletion activities to try:

1. Simon Says

To introduce the idea of deleting parts of a word, you can start by showing pictures of compound words to demonstrate how each word can be said with a part missing.

For example, "This is a raincoat. If I say raincoat without the rain, I would say coat. Now you try it." Show another compound word picture card. "This is a basketball. Say basketball without the ball."

When children get the idea, you can add a bit of fun and turn it into a game of Simon Says. For example, "Simon says, say football without the ball."

If you need a set of compound word picture cards, my Segment and Blend Compound Words with Pictures - Flip Cards are perfect for this activity. They are also great for independent practice once students are familiar with the idea of deleting parts of words.

2. What's Missing?

This is a fun guessing game that can be played for both phoneme addition or deletion.

The teacher says two words for comparison and asks the children to identify the missing phoneme. For example, "Listen to these two words: eat and meat. What sound is missing in eat that you can hear in meat?"

Identifying the missing phoneme is the first skill children need to master before they can delete phonemes independently.

3. Slip or Slide

Say a word, and children get a manipulative (like a counter or a block) for each sound they hear in the word. Then, they slip or slide out the manipulative that represents the deleted sound and blend what’s left together.

Children who have difficulty with deleting sounds will benefit from using the visual clues of manipulatives.

By placing two coloured blocks side-by-side, the teacher can designate one to represent the target sound and the other to represent the remainder of the word. For example, you can say, "I'm going to use these blocks to say moon. This (red block) says moo and this (yellow block) says /n/." The child is then asked what the first block says when the second block is removed.

4. Picture Match

You will need two related pictures for this activity. The first picture represents the original word, like block, and the second represents the word after a sound has been removed, in this case, lock. You can use these types of picture cards to play a few different phoneme deletion games. 

  • Show the students the first picture and tell them the phoneme that needs to be deleted. Check their accuracy by revealing the second picture.

  • Show both pictures and challenge children to work out the phoneme that has been deleted. 

  • Show a group of three or four pictures and ask students to pick the one that matches the word you’ve created by removing a sound.

​5. Sound Take-away

In this activity, you demonstrate how to segment a word and then take away a part. For example, segment the word cup into /c/ and up. Then delete the initial /k/ sound from the word. “Say cup. Take away the /k/, and what is left?"

Start with simple CVC words and progress to words that have 4 or 5 sounds (CVCC, CCVC, CCVCC, CVCCC, CCCVC, etc.). For example, "Say flow without the /f/." You can also move on to removing sounds either in the middle of the word or at the end of the word. For example, "Say clump without the /l/"  

Children must first be able to isolate a sound before they can delete it.

If you have students struggling with isolating the initial sound in a word, my initial sound picture sorts are just what you need. 

For young children or those who haven’t had much practice, you need to start by deleting the initial sound in words.

You can develop your students' phonemic awareness skills with these engaging Initial Sounds Picture Sorts.  

Based on the Science of Reading, these phonetic picture sorts teach sound recognition and develop strong alphabet letter-sound correspondence. They have been designed for beginning and emergent readers.

A great hands-on phonemic awareness activity like this one is a must-have for kindergarten and preschool teachers seeking to practice isolating phonemes and strengthening alphabet letter sounds.

6. Sound Shaker

This is a fun way to practice phoneme deletion.

Give each child a small container with objects or pictures representing different words. Have them shake the container, take out an object, and say the new word without the initial or final sound.

The new word will more than likely be a nonsense word, but that just adds to the fun. 

7. Story Rewind

This is similar to the Story Rewind activity I shared for phoneme addition. It works the same.

Read a short story to the children and occasionally stop on a word. Repeat the word and ask the children to change it into a new word by deleting a phoneme.

Reread the story sentence, replacing the old word with the new word. My kids think this is hilarious. 

7 Phoneme Manipulation Activities & Games for Substituting Phonemes

Phoneme substitution is one of the last and most difficult phonemic awareness manipulation skills.

In phoneme substitution exercises, students switch sounds out to make new words. When children have learned how to delete a phoneme, it isn’t that much more difficult for them to substitute the deleted sound with another new phoneme. 

Ask the children to tell you what would happen if you took away one sound and swapped it for another one. “Say, bat. Take away the /b/ and put in a /f/ to make the new word…?" fat 

use word family charts to teach phoneme manipulation

Once again, it would be handy to have these word family charts on hand. It will save you time trying to think of suitable words that allow you to swap out sounds and make new words that make sense. Of course, children love a bit of nonsense, so swapping out sounds to make nonsense words is always a good idea! 

Here are six phoneme manipulation activities where kindergarten kids can practice substituting phonemes: 

1. Push and Pull

Once again, we will use manipulatives. They are a great way to make the concept of phoneme substitution concrete. I like using magnetic counters on magnetic whiteboards for this activity.

The students put a counter on the board for each individual sound they hear in a given word. Then, they can push up the counter representing where the sound changes, and push in a new one to represent the new sound. 

2. Where Did the Sound Change?

Another way to develop phoneme substitution skills is by teaching students to identify where the sound changes in two words.

Say or show picture cards of two different words, like cat and cab. The students have to identify where the sounds in the words changed.

It can be time-consuming searching for suitable picture cards to use for this activity, so I have created a done-for-you set. These downloadable resources will save you heaps of prep time and you can use them year after year. 

3. Picture Swap

I use the picture cards from my Initial Sounds Picture Sorts for this activity because you need a set of pictures that represent words that all have the same initial sound.

Ask the children to substitute one sound in a picture-word with another sound to create a new word.

For instance, they can change the /d/ sound in dog to /f/ to make the new word fog. I like to get them to make a new picture card for me too. Sometimes, the new words we make are nonsense words, and it’s a fun creative activity illustrating nonsense words. 

4. Draw It

This is a fun phoneme substitution activity my students really enjoy.

The teacher gives the students any word, let's use hop as an example. The students must draw a picture representing the new word they have created by substituting any of the phonemes in my given word.

Some examples of the pictures they could draw would include shop, hip or hot. Highly skilled students could draw pictures that represent words with two of the phonemes substituted. Their pictures could include dog, sap, or hat.   

drawing new words made in a phoneme substitution activity

5. Rhyme Time Swap

Use the picture cards in my Word Family Card Games Pack to play this game.

Give the children a card and ask them to substitute one sound to create a new rhyming word from the set. For example, if given the word man, they can replace the /m/ sound with /f/ to create the word fan

6. Sound Board Game

Create a blank board game (or download a free one from my Freebies Resource Library).

You’ll also need a set of picture cards.

To play, the children roll a dice, move their game piece to a space, and pick up a picture card. They have to substitute the initial, medial or final sound in the word (picture) to be able to stay in that space. You can make this game extra challenging by not accepting nonsense words. 

7. Sound Transformation

This final activity is a great one for a literacy warm-up or as a transition activity.

The teacher starts off by saying one word, such as shop. The children take turns gradually substituting one sound at a time until they transform the word into an entirely new word.

For example, they could transform shop into hop, then hip, and finally hill.

Of course, you can keep going. Hill can turn into pill, then pick, and lick. This is such a fun activity but it does require advanced skills.

Phoneme Manipulation Bingo

Phoneme Manipulation word lists

Overcoming Phonemic Manipulation Difficulties in Kids

Learning these skills takes time. Patience and repetition will be key. When kids struggle with phoneme manipulation, targeted interventions and extra support can make a significant difference.

Some children seem to grasp the skill of phoneme manipulation easily while others need some extra help and practice.

Some children may face difficulties even after they have learned all the 44 Phonics Sounds in English. 

One common reason for this difficulty is that these children might have been taught incorrect pronunciations of the sounds.

In English, the 44 sounds are usually categorised into two groups: voiced versus unvoiced sounds and continuous versus stop sounds. Unfortunately, it is a common mistake to teach unvoiced sounds as voiced sounds, and continuous sounds as stop sounds, and vice versa.

When children learn to pronounce sounds incorrectly, it becomes challenging for them to hear and manipulate sounds.

Here are some examples to illustrate what I mean:

  • The sound represented by the letter s is /s/, not /suh/. The sound /s/ is a continuous sound, meaning it should be said for a couple of seconds. However, when the schwa sound /uh/ is added at the end, the sound /s/ no longer remains continuous but instead sounds more like a stop sound /suh/.

  • Another example is the sound represented by the letter h, which is /h/, not /huh/. The sound /h/ is unvoiced, which means only the sound of air pushing through the mouth should be heard. But when the schwa sound /uh/ is added at the end, it becomes a voiced sound /huh/.

Understanding these distinctions and teaching them accurately will greatly support children in blending sounds correctly and improving their reading skills.

It doesn’t stop there though.

Here are 6 more phoneme manipulation teaching tips:

  1. Explicit Modelling: Provide clear and explicit modelling. Ensure you are pronouncing the individual sounds correctly and demonstrate how to manipulate them. Place an emphasis on the smooth transition between sounds. Using visual aids like hand gestures can go a long way to helping struggling children.

  2. Use a Multi-Sensory Approach: Engage multiple senses during manipulation activities. Use visual, auditory, and kinesthetic elements to help reinforce the process. For example, use manipulatives, sound cards, songs, and movement to make phoneme manipulation more interactive and memorable.

  3. Focus on Sounds: Have students close their eyes and focus only on the sounds, using only their hearing senses.

  4. Gradual Progression: Start with simple and familiar single sounds and gradually introduce more complex blends. Scaffold your students' learning by providing ample opportunities to practice and heaps of opportunities for repetition at each stage before even thinking about moving on to more challenging blends.

  5. Chunking Strategies: Go right back to basics by manipulating word chunks or syllables. Teach your students to identify syllables or word parts and manipulate them first. For example, start with compound words like snowman where children can add snow to man, delete snow from the snowman and change man to ball to make snowball. Then move on to syllables like mon and key for monkey and Tues and day for Tuesday. You’ll usually be working with nonsense words because there are not enough examples of proper words for these types of activities. My kids love nonsense words – the funny words we make keeps them engaged.

  6. Use Visuals and Manipulatives: See if pictures or other visuals, like Elkonin boxes, help. I have also found hands-on manipulatives like little blocks, counters, or even small toys helpful.

Remember to provide ample opportunities for extra practice, reinforce positive efforts, and create a supportive learning environment where students feel comfortable taking risks and seeking help when needed. Patience, repetition, and targeted instruction are all effective interventions in their own right. 

Conclusion

In this blog post, we explored phoneme manipulation and the specific skills of adding, deleting and substituting phonemes.

We've also explored a variety of engaging activities that can be integrated into the classroom to both teach and hone this skill, and I've offered insights into strategies that can help overcome the typical challenges associated with phoneme manipulation.

Phoneme manipulation is a key component of phonemic awareness, playing a significant role in developing reading abilities. It lays the groundwork for future literacy achievements. We need to allow children to play with sounds and understand how words are formed and transformed.

Want to learn more about phonemic awareness? Explore the essential strategies for teaching phonological and phonemic awareness in early childhood education here in this blog post: Teaching Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness

If you've found this post on phoneme manipulation activities helpful and believe it has given you fresh ideas for fostering phonemic awareness in your students, it's likely that other early years educators will find it beneficial too. 

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