RTI in Kindergarten: ABC and Phonemic Awareness to Phonics

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your three day weekend. :)


Now that we're back from Christmas break, I'm switching gears with my kindergarten groups. Earlier in the year, I was focusing on alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness. At this point in the year, most are ready to take that next step and use these two skills to move on to phonics. Yay! I thought this was the perfect time to look back on what I did earlier in the year to get them to this point. Keep in mind, that I work with students who are identified as needing some level of intervention. What I love about working with kindergarteners is that early intervention really makes a difference.


The first step in September is determining who will be in my groups. We do a basic alphabet assessment (how many letters and sounds they know) and a phonemic awareness assessment. My first two goals with my students are to accurately identify letter names and sounds and to be able to hear and identify rhyming words.  For some kids, learning all the letters in the alphabet can be difficult and time consuming. I've had students who took all year to truly master all the letters, even with consistent intervention efforts. When a 5 year old has trouble learning the letters and their sounds, this could be a sign of bigger issues, like dyslexia. That's why early intervention is so important!

Here is what my lesson plans look like early in the school year with these kiddos.  As you can see, I focus on two main areas: alphabet and phonemic awareness. I add my goals for that week under each section.

Click on the picture to download an editable copy.

1. Alphabet Recognition
I think alphabet recognition is the hardest thing to teach. Let's be honest, it can get boring. I mean, how many ways can you say and show, "This is an A." I look for different ways to practice so I don't get too bored. ;) Because if I'm bored, they are bored. Depending on the student, we may need to practice one letter for a week or even two. Sometimes they just don't stick right away.

I've looked into it and I haven't found one sequence that is the right way. It seems like there are some conflicting things out there, so I will share with you what has worked for me so far. If you have a sequence that you think works best, let me know! :)

Here are a few things that I've learned over the years:
1. Try not to introduce two letters in a row that look alike. Lowercase b, d, and p are very similar. I try to put a few weeks between these letters to make sure that they really know one before introducing another.
2. Use the letters that have sounds that are easier to stretch (m, s, a, l, r)
3. I begin the year with 3-4 letters, not just one. I started with a, m, s, and t. Week one I just did a and t, then I added in two more the next week. After that, I actually only added one at a time because we were reviewing the old ones. Some weeks I did not introduce any new letters because we needed more time to get them to stick. Some weeks I was able to add two or three because they were starting to stick. My point is that I was totally basing it on my students and how well they were picking up on these letters.
4. Choose the letters that mean something to them: For kids who really struggle to remember the letters, making the letters meaningful does help. Start with the letters in their name or  the letters that start their friends' names. I did this with one student who was having a particularly hard time remembering them. This seemed to help get some momentum going!

When I'm teaching alphabet recognition early in the year, I want them to be seeing it, feeling it, building it, writing it, and hearing the corresponding sounds. Every day, we are reviewing the previous letters we have learned. I remember at one point in the year, we had gone over around 10 letters, but when we reviewed them together, they were not quite automatic with recognizing and identifying their name and sound. So, I spent that week reviewing those letters, redoing some of the activities from earlier in the year.  

Here are some ideas for each part of the Alphabet section.

For every letter, I start with Simply Kinders Alphabet posters. I looooove them. They give a great visual and a fun poem for the kids to learn that helps them remember the shape of the letter. I highly recommend picking up this pack! 

I always have magnetic letters and boards ready to go. On their boards, they have the newest 6-8 letters. I'll say, pull down the letter that says /a/ or pull down the letter A. (I want them to be able to do both so I go back and forth.) After they pull it down, we always say it and trace it again (run fingers along the magnetic letter while saying the letter name and sound) before putting it back to the top. 

For the "Find it" part, you can use sentence strips as shown above or search in a book, or use one of the many products on TPT . I really like this part and always include some form or "searching" for the letter to give them opportunities to see it over and over.  Here, they are looking for all the S circles in the picture. You really don't need to get this fancy. You could just write or type the letter S (mixed with other letters) on a page and have your students highlight or cover them. Easy peasy!

This is always a big hit. I use my projector and quickly type up some letters we've practiced. Kids magical pick up the letter we are focusing on. 

There are many ways to practice forming the shapes of these letters. Every day, I choose one or two. My favorite is to use WikkiStix but the kids love the sand.  Any chance to use the sand makes them happy. 

This year I made these alphabet mats with  a place to feel the letters, build the letters, trace the letters and write them. You can read more about them here. 

   

Homemade gel boards are always fun too. You need cheap hair gel, gallon plastic bags, and food coloring. :)

After introducing the new letter, searching for it, building it, and writing it, we put all the letters together that we've worked on previously. This can be as simple as flashcards. Like I said, I only use the letters we've work on. I also like to use sentence strips. I simply write the letters we've worked on in random order (and more than once) on a sentence strip. Each student gets their own sentence strip. Then they "whisper read" their letters on their own for practice. After  they've practiced, they "read" their letters to the group. The goal here is automaticity and fluency with identifying the letter. The same can be done with the letter beads. I put the letters we've worked on in mixed order. Each child gets a pipe cleaner with their letters in different order. Practice first by moving the letters as they say the names or sounds. Then they "read" to the group. 

We created this game on the spot. I had sentence strips with a few letters we have gone over. They wanted to play with dice and I wanted to spice it up. So, throw in some dice and a witch's finger and you have a "game" that makes them read the letters over and over and over. 

My kinders loved this simple warmup activity. I have a few still working on learning their letters. I wrote the upper case on one side and the lower case on the other. I gave each a handful of circles. They shook and spilled the circles. Then they lined them up and had their finger puppet read them. Great for rapid naming fluency. :) next day we did he same with sounds. #learningalphabet #rti #alphabet #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers 

A photo posted by @snippetsbysarah on Nov 21, 2015 at 10:06am PST

2. Phonemic Awareness

There is so much research out there supporting the use of music. I would start with Heidi Songs because she uses music with movement. My students love those songs! There is also a lot out there on youtube. Just type in "letter T song" and a bunch will pop up. 

Another side to "hearing" sounds is listening for the initial sounds in words. You can teach this as a skill separate from the alphabet or you can merge the two. Two ways to merge the two are:

1. Picture cards: If you are teaching the letter B, gather several  picture cards that start with the /b/ sound. Mix in several that do not start with that sound. Have students say the word, listen for the first sound, and give a thumbs up or down if it makes that sound. Between each card, remind kids, B says /b/. If a picture card does start with /b/, have your students trace the letter in the air while saying the sound. You can find a ton of picture cards in my Phonemic Awareness Pack. There are cards for every letter.  

As part of my ABC mats, I have this section for every letter. They say the picture and determine if it makes the sound you are focusing on. They don't need to identify any other sound. They are simply listening for that one initial sound, so it's a simple yes or no. 

 

My son loves this activity! 

2. Orally say two words and have kids determine which starts with the sound you are focusing on.

3. For more resources on finding initial sounds and listening for rhyming, check out this phonemic awareness post. 

By November or December, the phonemic awareness portion of my lesson plans had changed a bit. I was still teaching the alphabet to my students. They knew several letters but still had several more to go. To assure they are ready to sound out words once they have mastered these letters, I keep chugging along with the phonemic awareness skills. By now, they can rhyme and identify the initial consonant. After this, I start listening for the final sounds in words. Then we can move on to segmenting and blending sounds. I've blogged a lot about this already and I swear by it! My students only knew half their letters, but they were ready to move forward with their phonemic awareness skills. So.. I keep on keeping on with those letters and make progress with phonemic awareness. The result? They are ready to sound out words once they master those letters! Yay! What often happens if you only focus on letters and forget the phonemic awareness? You spend months trying to figure out why they can't sound out words! Some may pick it up, but why not give them a little boost where they need it?

Phonemic Awareness skills after Initial sounds and rhyming:

Once my students can rhyme and identify initial sounds and final sounds, I'm ready to move on to the next steps in phonemic awareness: blending and segmenting. This usually happens around November or December. 

I start out with mostly modeling blending and segmenting before asking the kids to do it.  I like to start by showing them a picture and cutting it up into parts to show how many sounds. I model how to say it as one whole word, then how to break it up. This visual really seems to help.

That moment when a student realizes that words are made up of individual sounds. Some kids need that visual to help make that connection. ❤️ This was a good day. ☺️ #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #iteachtoo #iteachk #rti #phonemicawareness

A photo posted by @snippetsbysarah on Nov 11, 2015 at 10:00am PST

This is from my printable Phonemic Awareness pack.

When your kids aren't quite ready to sound out words, try a phonemic awareness activity like this. I say a word's phonemes (segmenting the word) and call on one person to guess my word. Then they cover the picture that matches. Last, the whole groups listens for the vowel and writes it on their whiteboards. Perfect transition for my kinders right now! #phonemicawareness #tpt #rti #kindergarten #iteachtoo #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers

A photo posted by @snippetsbysarah on Dec 10, 2015 at 8:18pm PST

You could do this without a picture card. Just think of words with 2-4 phonemes. Grab pennies, pom-poms, or circular counters. Say the word, model how to segment it.

Filling up our snow globes with "snow sounds". For a challenge, I pointed to a snowball and asked which sound it made. For example, "which snowball says /i/?" Or "what sound does this snowball make?" This activity is getting them ready to read and spell! #teachersofinstagram #teachersfollowteachers #iteachk #phonemicawareness

A video posted by @snippetsbysarah on Jan 6, 2016 at 5:47pm PST

I only spend 5-10 minutes on these activities. It really doesn't take much, but it is SO valuable.

Here is a peek at my plans now:

I'm happy to say that all the hard work with phonemic awareness and alphabet recognition has paid off. We are now ready to sound out words! Here are my plans now:

Click on the picture to download pdf and get hyperlinks to these products. 

Okay, I know that looks a little overwhelming, so here' s a blank one. :)

To download this blank editable template, click here.

Notice I still have alphabet practice in my plans. My students still have just a few letters that aren't quite sticking. I want them to  master all letters. They should be able to go through flashcards with automaticity and ease. The more I review, the better. :) We only spend about 5 minutes on alphabet recognition now. I just choose one of the pictures in that section each day. I do continue to practice writing those letters, forming them correctly.

We are very slowly introducing sight words now as well. Notice how I have both phonemic awareness and phonics in my plans.

At this point, my kiddos can blend and segment three phonemes pretty well. I'm keeping them in my plans because I want them to continue to practice without the letters to further strengthen their phonemic awareness. Sounding out the words with the letters takes a lot more work for them. Blending and segmenting still doesn't come with ease for my kiddos so I want to continue to model and give them opportunities to practice. Right now the phonics that I'm doing has picture clues with them. I lay out the pictures for them to see as they are sounding out words. Each day we also spend a few minutes building words. I control the letters that are used here. We build different words using the letter tiles and start to manipulate the letters as well (change one letter to turn mat into cat.)  I always have some time in there for kids to practice writing the words as well (spelling.)

Around December, I introduce Build a Sentence. I  started with the words I see a.  At this point, I used this more for the last picture card. I wanted them to practice using the picture and the initial sounds. They would read, I see a bear. I picked cards with only the letters I knew they knew. Very controlled :) Later in the year, we introduce more sight words and this activity becomes more about the sight words then about the initial consonants. At this point (January) with Build a Sentence, I am switching sight words to change the sentences. I see a bear becomes We like the bear. You can read more about how to use this here.  

Once my students are ready for guided reading, this is what my lesson plans look like:

I do a quick review of alphabet, followed by some sight word practice. Then I do phonics activities for about 5-7 minutes followed by guided reading. 

You can download this editable lesson plan template here. 

I hope this post helps you think about about how to plan out your small group intervention time. I've found this works well for me. :)