Teaching ideas for classroom and home to help young children correctly learn to count syllables.
Being able to break words into syllables and correctly count the number of syllables is one of the first phonological awareness skills young children master.
It is a early literacy skill earmarked as a preschool milestone. Beyond preschool, it's a skill children will use to help them spell unfamiliar words correctly. An importance that is sometimes not emphasized enough.
How do children master counting syllables? Like most things, through practice, practice and more practice.
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It can be more challenging as you don't have many children who are reading at this age so visuals become key.
Games are perfect way to engage children of this age and BINGO is always a popular centre activity so I created this simple syllable BINGO game for our class.
Using a mix of 1-4 syllable words, this BINGO game is designed for small group work and is something children can play independently once familiar with the rules.
With over 170 different picture cards included, it's also works to build vocabulary as well and allow for the game to be played frequently without the children always seeing the same cards.
Each card has a clear coloured picture of an object, person, place or thing for those pre-readers to interpret.
We've also paired these cards with our FREE syllable sorting mats for another centre activity.
Tractor = 2 syllables 👉 they can then cover the number 2 on their BINGO mat then the next child can have their turn. They keep playing until all their numbers are covered.
Children need frequent practice at counting syllables throughout preschool and kindergarten. Even in first and second grade I will add some of our syllable counting resources to our literacy rotations to revise the concept and check that everyone has indeed mastered it in preschool as expected.
FIND ALL OUR SYLLABLE RESOURCES HERE