Every day, for the first few months, during whole group phonics we do these things:
Sing the ABC song, then—after a couple of weeks—transition into the Pop-Up Game while singing the song
Review the letters/sounds we’ve already learned
Learn a new letter/sound (every other day)
Look at/think about the letter formation for the new letter
Do phonemic awareness training with the new sound, consisting of a) hearing the first sound, b) after a few weeks, adding in blending, and c) after a few more weeks, adding in segmenting.
This video is from the third week of school, so you’ll see the Pop-Up game, reviewing the six letters/sounds previously introduced (Mm, Oo, Zz, Ii, Bb, Aa), see the practice of our new letter/sound (Ss), and see phonemic awareness training with emphasis on the new sound and an introduction to how to blend sounds during phonemic awareness training.
We’ll work on blending during phonemic awareness training for a couple of weeks and the next step will be to introduce segmenting. With phonemic awareness, blending is easier than segmenting so it comes first. With phonics, however, blending can be quite challenging and I think you’ll agree that segmenting three sounds is easier than blending three sounds. I say this so you’ll understand why blending comes before segmenting in phonemic awareness training even though blending is harder than segmenting when it comes to application with phonics.
As always, AMA (ask me anything).
Yours truly,
Randee
Video: Introducing Blending during Phonemic Awareness Training