Before children can learn to read, they need to understand that words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes.
Phonemes are the smallest parts of a word. By changing a phoneme you can change the meaning of a word. For example, by changing the first phoneme in the word pat you can make the word cat, bat, or mat.
The Library recently added to its Readiness Kit collection. Included in the new kits are three phonemic awareness kits. They are a beginning sound kit, an ending word sound kit, and a rhyming word kit. These kits feature manipulatives and colorful activity mats that provide practice with beginning sounds, ending sounds, and rhyming words. For example, kids search for three objects with the same sound pictured on the mat…like matching a ring, a rose, and a radio to a rainbow picture!
Stop in and check out one of these kits or one of the other great Readiness Kits that we have at the Library!