Segmenting Words

Segmenting words can be a tough skill to master, but it is an essential skill for beginning readers and writers. I'm always looking for ways to give them practice. I love giving them something to move while they segment sounds. Often I would give them a little circle (math counters) to "push" the sounds as they segment. I've also seen people use a car on a track. I'm always looking for more ways to pretty much do the same thing so it feels new and different to my students. For spring, I made two different segmenting activities that I wanted to share with you today.

 I'm putting my bug math manipulatives to good use here. :) As students segment the word, they are pushing the bugs onto the leaf. 

And here you can hop the little frogs onto a lily pad.  The picture card is a fish, so you would push the frogs as you say this: f-i-sh

You can get both of these "segmenting mats" for free by clicking here or on the picture below.

I included a bunch of picture cards to use with the mats, too. 

If you like this, you might also like some of my kindergarten spring literacy hands-on activities.  You can check these out here: