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How to explain syllables


What is a syllable? | TheSchoolRun

Syllables explained for parents, including details of how primary-school children are taught to identify syllables to help them with spelling and reading and understanding poetry.

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What is a syllable?

A syllable is a single, unbroken sound of a spoken (or written) word. Syllables usually contain a vowel and accompanying consonants. Sometimes syllables are referred to as the ‘beats’ of spoken language.

Syllables differ from phonemes in that a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound; the number of syllables in a word is unrelated to the number of phonemes it contains. For example: /b/, /k/, /t/, /ch/, /sh/, /ee/, /ai/, /igh/, /ear/ are all phonemes. The word ‘chat’ is made up of three phonemes (/ch/ /a/ /t/). The word ‘light’ is made up of three phonemes (/l/ /igh/ /t/).  However, both the words ‘chat’ and ‘light’ have only one syllable each.

The number of times you hear a vowel (a, e, i , o, u) in a word is equal to the number of syllables a word has. A good way to identify syllables is to think about whether you need to change your mouth shape to say the next bit of the word / the new syllable.

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Learning about syllables in primary school

Learning about syllables is part of learning how to decode and spell words. It helps children understand the conventions of English spelling, including when to double letters and how to pronounce the vowels in words they might not have seen before.

Teachers will often get children to clap out the syllables of a word, to help them to understand the concept. (A good game to introduce syllables is to ask each child to stand up and say their name, while clapping out the syllables. )

For example:
 

  • Cat   has one syllable (words of one syllable are monosyllabic)
  • Water   has two syllables (wa / ter)
  • Computer   has three syllables (com / pu / ter)
  • Category   has four syllables (cat / e / gor / y)

Syllables in KS1 English

Children in Key Stage 1 will be expected to read words of two syllables. They may be shown how to split the words up into syllables, in order to help them sound them out. For example: if they are shown the word ‘thunder’ and get stuck, a teach may cover the second half of the word (‘der’) and ask them to just sound out the first syllable. Once they have managed this, they uncover the rest of the word and ask them to sound this out.

Children in Key Stage 1 will also learn to spell words with two syllables, at which point they will be encouraged to separate the two syllables themselves, in order to learn the spelling of the whole word.

Syllables in KS2 English

During Key Stage 2, children will progress to learning the spellings of words containing four syllables (or possibly more). They also learn about the use of syllables in poetry.

Children may learn about syllables through writing haikus. A haiku is a Japanese poem with three lines, the first containing 5 syllables, the second containing 7 syllables and the third containing 5 syllables.

This is a haiku about a frog:

Wet amphibian,
Gulps, blinks and flicks out his tongue
To snatch a black fly.

Writing haikus encourages children to think about syllables, but also to think very carefully about their word choices – it may be that one word has too many syllables and does not fit, so they have to think of a new, similar word that fits the given criteria.

Another poetic form based on syllable number is the limerick (the first, second and fifth lines rhyme and have the same number of syllables, usually eight or nine).

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  • Count the syllables in animal names

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Expert Tips And Activities For Helping Kids Understand Syllables

Do you remember when you first learned about syllables? Most people will answer “no” to this question, and that’s understandable — it was a very long time ago!

Regardless of how long ago it was, understanding syllables has played a significant role in helping you read and write more proficiently. And now that your child is on their journey of learning about syllables, you may want to know how you can help.

This article will share what you need to know about helping your child understand syllables so that they can master this simple yet effective learning curve.

What Is A Syllable?

The dictionary describes a syllable as “an uninterrupted segment of speech consisting of a vowel sound, a diphthong, or a syllabic consonant, with or without preceding or following consonant sounds.”

In much simpler terms, we can describe a syllable as always having one (and only one) vowel sound. Quite often, this vowel sound is accompanied by consonants.

For example, the word bat is a one-syllable word, as you would expect because of its length. But it’s important to note here that the length of a word has nothing to do with how many syllables it has.

The word straight, for instance, has only one syllable since aigh makes the long A sound and that is the only vowel sound in the word. On the other hand, a shorter word — such as over — can have more than one syllable.

It’s also important to note that there are six types of syllables: open, closed, silent E, vowel pair, R-controlled, and final stable. Your child will start learning more about the different types of syllables in elementary school.

For now, understanding the basic elements of a syllable is what matters. This comprehension will help children as they get older and come across more complex words.

Why Is Understanding Syllables Important?

Now that we’re on the same page about what syllables are, let’s focus on why they are so important.

In a nutshell, learning syllables:

  • Helps speed the process of decoding words
  • Helps with accurate and fluent reading
  • Helps with spelling

As children move from learning basic words to compound words with two syllables (e.g., railroad, pancake, etc.), understanding syllables can help them decode and blend them more quickly.

After all, it’s much easier to read an unfamiliar word in chunks than to read it as one continuous string.

Additionally, breaking a long word down into pieces makes it much easier to spell it correctly, rather than trying to remember each and every letter in the word and the correct sequence.

How To Help Kids Understand Syllables

Before we get into the activities that can help you teach your child about counting syllables, there are a few points we’d like to mention. Let’s take a look!

1) Think Of Syllables As “Chunks” Of A Word

With multi-syllable words, helping your child focus on the “chunks” rather than every letter of a long word will make grasping syllables much easier.

Breaking a longer word into pieces is an effective reading strategy that can help your child improve their reading speed and comprehension. It’s a strategy you likely use without even thinking about it anymore.

For example, if you see a long word, such as uncomplicated, your brain automatically applies what you know about syllables to make reading it a breeze.

You know that there’s a prefix (un) and a suffix (ed). Once you remove those chunks, you can easily break the remaining letters down into even smaller pieces: comp, li, cat. And you know that the A in that final syllable is long even though it looks like the word cat.

Then, your brain puts everything together again like this: un-comp-li-cat-ed. While it sounds like a hard process when you see it written out, all of this goes on behind the scenes in your mind. You no longer have to stop and decode every single word. It’s automatic.

And that’s the goal of this process: to help kids learn how to automatically break words down into pieces that are easier to read.

Of course, it won’t happen overnight. It’ll take years of learning and practicing. But each time you work on it together, you’re helping build a solid reading foundation.

2) Focus On The Vowel Sounds

A syllable only has one vowel sound. This means it doesn’t matter how many letters there are in the syllable. It also doesn’t matter how many vowels a syllable may have. The vowel sound produced is the real focus.

The first words your child reads will likely be short-vowel, one-syllable words, such as:

  • Cat
  • Fan
  • Map
  • Flag
  • Clap

These words have only one vowel sound — often in the middle of the word — and are taught early on.

However, it won’t be long before your child will be reading words with multiple vowel sounds, such as:

  • Paper
  • Freedom

You have the letter A in the word paper, making the long A sound. Then, at the end, you find the vowel E being bossed around by the letter R to make the er sound. That means there are two different vowel sounds in this word.

If you count the vowels in the word freedom, you’ll find three vowels — two E’s and an O. However, since the two E’s work together to make a single vowel team, there are only two vowel sounds in this word.

Having a better understanding of how vowel sounds work will give your child the decoding skills they need to tackle multisyllabic words confidently in the future.

3) Continue Helping Them Develop Their Reading Skills

Reading is one of the core subjects in Homer’s early learning program. Why is that?

Early childhood reading provides lots of benefits, including improved vocabulary, better communication, and brain development.

In addition, the more a child reads, the more they’ll come across unfamiliar words and the more chances they’ll get to practice their syllable skills.

At this early-reading stage, it’s not important for your child to thoroughly understand the concept of syllables. They may not be able to correctly define the word or know the differences between the types of syllables.

And that’s OK! Your goal right now is to simply introduce the concept.

Then, when they’re learning even more about syllables later, they’ll have the background knowledge they need to anchor their learning. They’ll think back to these fun activities you used to do together and have an “ah-ha” moment when everything clicks.

So, don’t worry if this concept seems challenging for your child right now. Just keep talking about syllables and doing these activities. Over time, you’ll help your child strengthen their reading skills.

And, since you’re doing it through play, they won’t even realize they’re learning.



8 Simple Syllable Activities

No matter what you’re working on with your child, it’s important to keep things light and fun! This helps your child stay engaged and eager to learn.

A great tactic you can use for teaching syllables in an engaging way is to start with words that already interest your child. These can be the names of the family pets, their friends, their favorite foods, and so on.

Here are some activities to help your young learner understand syllables while also having fun!

1) Clap Time

Associating the syllables of a word with “beats” is one of the most effective (and fun!) ways for children to grasp the concept of syllables. In this activity, your child will clap the beats of a word.

Start with simple words that your young learner will already be familiar with (mommy, daddy, apple, pizza, etc.).

When you begin, show your child how to clap the syllable: /pi/ (clap) /zza/ (clap). After demonstrating, ask them to join you as you clap the beats of other common words.

We recommend holding your hands wide apart and then making a big clap to help your child hear and see the number of syllables. Try to also have your child clap and say the syllable at the same time.

Don’t feel limited to two-syllable words for this activity. Instead, throw in some shorter, one-syllable words and longer, three or four-syllable ones. This way, your child understands that words come in all different lengths.

To help you mix things up, here are a few common words you can clap with your child, broken down by the number of syllables.

Single-Syllable Words:

  • Tree
  • Sign
  • Book
  • Shirt
  • Shoe

Two-Syllable Words:

  • Toybox
  • Mountain
  • Freeway
  • Sweatshirt
  • Toenails

Three-Syllable Words:

  • Vacation
  • Celebrate
  • Afternoon
  • Computer

Four-Syllable Words:

  • Calculator
  • Avocado
  • Television
  • Cauliflower
  • California

Throughout the day, pick a couple of words to clap the beats of. This way, it becomes second nature for your child to think about the syllables in a variety of words.

2) Syllable Stomp

Sometimes we all make the mistake of thinking that learning should only take place with a child seated formally in front of a desk and listening attentively to your instructions. But that’s not always the case, especially with younger children.

Most kids love to get up and move. So why not use their endless energy to help them learn more about syllables?

This game works similarly to the previously mentioned one. However, instead of clapping each syllable, your young learner will be stomping the ground for each syllable they say in a word. The louder the stomp, the better!

3) Mark The Paper

For this activity, all you need is a marker (or pencil or crayon, whatever you prefer!) and a sheet of paper.

Hand your child the marker and place the sheet of paper on a table in front of them. Choose a word, and then encourage your young learner to press the marker on the paper every time they hear a syllable.

When they are done, they can count the number of marks on the paper to see how many syllables are in the word.

4) Hum The Word

Humming is a simple yet fun and effective way to teach your child about syllables. To get started, ask your child to close their mouth and hum a word. After that, have them count the distinct hums they made.

If your child has trouble with this, have them say the word aloud before they try humming it. You can also hum the word first and ask them to copy you. This modeling can give them the confidence they need to hum words on their own.

5) Robot Talk

“Speaking robot” is more than just fun and games. It can also help your young learner count the syllables of a word!

Have your child pretend to be a robot while talking. This will mean speaking in a very unnaturally stiff and stilted manner. As they say a word in “robot talk,” it is easy to count the syllables.

Really get into it by making a robot costume out of cardboard boxes for the occasion. Pretend play and learning time combined? Yes, please!

6) Hunt And Hop

Look around your home for a few simple items you can hide for your child to find. Try to pick objects with a different number of syllables.

Here are a few ideas:

  • Key
  • Jacket
  • Potato
  • Calculator

Once you hide them, ask your child to find one. For example, you can say, “Can you find the potato?” Let your child look around the room, hunting for the object you name.

Ask your child to say the word when the hidden item is found. Then, have them hop the number of syllables. For example, if your child found a potato, they’d jump three times.

Next, ask them to find another object. Continue until everything you’ve hidden has been found. Then, review the syllables once more. Have your child hop the right number of times for each object that you hid.

7) Jaw-Dropping Fun

By now, we’ve established that each syllable has one vowel sound. Our mouths need to open to help us make that vowel sound. This makes counting “jaw drops” the perfect opportunity to count syllables.

Have your child place their hand under their chin and then count the number of times their jaw drops as they say a word. Those are the syllables!

If your child is having trouble with this, have them look in a mirror while they play. First, ask them to watch their mouth carefully while they say a word. Then, gently put your finger on their jaw. Finally, ask them to say a word.

As their mouth opens and closes, count each jaw drop aloud. Next, have your child put their hand where yours is. Once they understand what action they’re counting, they’ll be able to do this activity more independently.

8) Syllable Mix-Up

This fun game will help your child concentrate on unmixing syllables to make a word.

All you need to do is mix up the syllable order of a word and then encourage your child to unmix it. For instance, you can say /corn/pop. Then ask them what word you’re trying to make. They would answer “popcorn.”

As your child gets older and more comfortable with syllables, you can introduce harder words with three or more syllables. For example, /phant/e/el — elephant!

Once your child understands how to unmix the syllables, this is a fun, educational game to play in the car. Since it doesn’t require any materials, you can play it wherever you are.

You can give your child a mixed-up word, and then they can give you one to figure out. Take turns mixing and unmixing words until you arrive at your destination or you both get tired of the game.

Use the things around you in the car and on the road as ideas for words to mix up.

9) What’s My Word?

Say a word with three, four, or more syllables but leave gaps in between each syllable. For example, you can say /com/ /pu/ /ter. Your child would then put the syllables together to form the word.

You can also extend this game by beginning a word and having your child try to complete it. For instance, /re/ /frig/ /er/…and your child would add “/a/tor!”

If you notice your child missing a syllable when they complete your word, don’t worry. Sometimes, they’re so busy focusing on syllables they don’t have enough mental energy left to think about the word.

Simply repeat the word and add the correct syllables to the end if this happens. Then, ask your child to say what you said. You can try it again later with a more familiar word to see if that helps.

10) Syllable I Spy

You can also incorporate syllables into familiar childhood games, such as “I Spy.”

To play this game, look around the room and pick an object you’d like your child to find. Then say, “I spy with my little eye something with two syllables.”

As your child guesses, you can reinforce their syllable knowledge. For instance, if they name something with only one syllable, you can say, “That is a good guess, but that word only has one syllable. I’m thinking of something with two syllables. ”

If they pick something with two syllables that isn’t the item you’ve selected, you can say, “That’s a great guess. You picked a word with two syllables. But it wasn’t the word I was thinking about. Can you find another item with two syllables?”

Because there can be a lot of things in a single room, it may be helpful to give your child a hint or two after they make an incorrect guess. Is the item brown, or is it made of wood, etc.?

Once they’ve correctly guessed your item, switch roles. Have them pick something and tell you how many syllables the item they’re thinking of has. Then, you try to guess.

11) Syllable Sort

Ask your child to go around the house and gather several small items. Have them place the items on a table or another flat, level surface.

While your child is off collecting things, gather two pieces of printer paper. On one of them, write “1 Syllable.” On the other piece, write “2 Syllables.”

Once your child returns, show them the papers you prepared. Point to the number on each so your child can see the difference between them. Ask your child to select one item they found and say what it is. Then, repeat the word. Ask, “How many syllables is in this word?”

Next, have them place the item on the corresponding piece of paper. So, if it’s a one-syllable word, it would go on the “1 Syllable” paper.

Continue talking about each object and sorting them. When everything is sorted, ask your child to name the objects with one syllable and then those with two syllables. Keep going until everything has been named.

Once you’re done playing, you can ask your child to put the objects away by syllable count, too. For example, have them take all of the one-syllable items and put them where they belong. Repeat this process until everything is put away.

Make Learning Syllables Fun With HOMER

There are plenty of ways to help your child understand syllables. Whichever activity you choose, remember to make it fun and have patience as your child continues learning new concepts.

For more at-home activities to help your child learn to read, check out the HOMER Learn & Grow app, which is perfect for kids two to eight years old and makes learning fun, convenient, and effective. Just 15 minutes a day is proven to increase early reading scores by 74%!

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Simple ways to teach your child to divide words into syllables

Dividing words into syllables is a very important stage in the process of teaching a child to read and write. How to teach a child to divide words into syllables - this question is asked by most parents whose children are going to go to school. To organize this process as correctly and efficiently as possible, an adult must find the most optimal approach and correctly select a set of exercises. To date, a lot of interesting methods have been developed that allow such training to be carried out at home. The decision to start introducing the child to the division of words into syllables as early as possible is the right one, because in the future it will be much easier and easier for him to study at school.

What is a syllable?

Before starting to solve the problem of how to explain the division into syllables to a child, first of all, it is necessary to give him the very concept of a syllable in an accessible form. It must be said that it is desirable to organize the entire learning process in a game format, and at the same time, initially, the duration of classes should not exceed 10 minutes. Later, they can be gradually increased, bringing to a half-hour period.

A syllable is the smallest unit of pronunciation in a language. It may consist of one or more sounds. Explaining to the baby what a syllable is, ask him if it is possible to divide a cookie or a chocolate bar into pieces. Say that words can also be divided into small pieces, separating them with small pauses. And from this it follows that a syllable is a piece of a word, adding which you can easily learn to read.

For clarity, the child can be offered to practice dividing words into parts using one simple exercise called “Palm under the chin”. Speaking loudly and clearly words, they will quickly master the skills of fluent division into syllables.

What a child needs to know for learning

Entering the 1st grade, children should already have a certain amount of knowledge. The ability to divide words into syllables in this baggage is completely useful, and therefore many parents try to teach their children this at home on their own. This should be done even before the start of mastering reading skills. But before that, the baby must demonstrate the following level of preparedness:

  • be able to conduct a dialogue, speak in whole sentences, accurately and correctly forming one's own desire;
  • know at least a few letters and recognize vowels and consonants;
  • fluently count within 5 or even more;
  • have a spatial concept about "left" and "right".

When teaching children, you can use all kinds of didactic material, use cartoon characters and fairy-tale characters.

The basic rules of the syllable division

After the baby has mastered the concept of a syllable at least at the initial level, he needs to explain the principle by which the division is carried out. To do this, it is necessary to explain that each piece of a word contains letters denoting vowels and consonants. Moreover, in any syllable one vowel sound necessarily “lives”, and it is by their number in a word that the number of syllables themselves is determined. using the palm exercise mentioned above, you can teach them to count the total number of syllables in a particular word.

The general rules for correct syllable division are as follows:

  • vowels are always syllabic;
  • a syllable cannot contain more than one vowel;
  • a syllable may consist of a single vowel or a combination of vowels and consonants; consisting of two or more sounds, the syllable always begins with a consonant.

It is absolutely necessary to focus on the fact that letters and sounds are not the same thing, otherwise in the future the preschooler will have problems in the lessons in the phonetics section. It is necessary to explain that the letters are what he sees in the primer and writes in a notebook, and the sounds are what he says out loud.

Open and closed syllables

The next stage of learning is explaining the types of syllables. They can be open and closed, and in the first case, the “pieces” of words end with a vowel, in the second - with a consonant. It is easier to tell this as follows:

  • an open syllable can be sung, we pronounce it on the exhale;
  • in a closed syllable, the outgoing air encounters obstacles - lips, tongue, palate, and it is impossible to sing it.

Algorithm for dividing words into syllables

Starting practical exercises, you should teach your child to act according to a certain pattern. Offer him: “We divide the words into syllables in order”:

  • first you need to read - say the word aloud;
  • underline letters denoting vowel sounds;
  • count how many vowels there are in a word and determine how many syllables it consists of;
  • determine the type of syllable - open or closed.

How to teach a child to divide words into syllables?

When teaching syllable division, the baby needs to be reminded of the basic rules. He must clearly understand that a syllable can consist of one or more sounds, but each necessarily includes a vowel. Then you can proceed to the process itself, using the game moment and cards specially selected for this with words and syllables.

One should train, first taking as an example short words that differ by only one letter - “soap is cute”, “house is smoke”. So he can understand the difference in sounds. Then you can move on to more complex words, but at each lesson you must definitely go back, repeating the previous material.

Don't expect quick results from children - these skills come gradually, but their clear learning can lead to many benefits in the future.

Exercises and examples

The science of how to syllable words will be much easier for children if you apply methods that have been specially developed by specialists for this purpose, and have already proven themselves successfully. As examples, we can point out some of them, which are very effective:

Adventure game

It doesn't make any sense for small children to explain combinations of sonorants in syllables and the rules for hyphenation of syllables. In this period, it is best to focus on memorizing specific syllables, choosing initially extremely simple words - “car, Misha, summer”, etc. Make a map of the fabulous city with bus stations whose names will be syllables. Give your child a car or a bus and invite them to travel along the "scheme" of a certain word. For a correctly laid route, give a medal or other gift.

"House-Man"

Glue several houses to a sheet of paper, give them the names of the syllable, for example, TA and LI. Make paper men whose names will have the first syllable identical to the names of the houses. Invite the children to “settle” the pupae correctly in the houses.

“Following the trail”

On sheets A-4, write the syllables of the words and spread them on the floor throughout the apartment. Invite the child to walk along these “footprints”, making up different words.

Animal Russell

Make 4 houses with different number of windows (from 1 to 4). Explain that the windows are syllables, and offer to indicate the number of syllables in different animals in order to “settle” it in the appropriate house.

"Clock"

Instead of numbers on the clock face, put a painted image of different pictures. Children should move the arrows so that the small one points to short names of the pictures, and the big one to long ones. (Small ones are one syllable, large ones are two or more).

"Let's go to school."

Gather items on the table that the child will need for school. Invite him to arrange them in two briefcases or bags so that the first contains things that name words of 1 - 2 syllables, and the second - from 3 or more.

A child who learns the basic rules for dividing words into syllables learns to read much faster, does better at school, and does not experience any special difficulties in mastering certain topics in linguistics. Every parent who wants the successful development of their child should know about this.

Dividing into syllables for preschoolers ✅ Blog IQsha.ru

Why divide words into syllables?


There are different methods of teaching reading. Most of them suggest going from simple to complex: first learn the letters, and then sequentially combine them into words, sentences and texts. How to teach a child to divide words into syllables is the main issue for the successful formation of reading and writing skills.

Why is this so important?

  • division into syllables makes it easier to read long words;

  • helps with phonetic analysis;

  • trains the correct transfer from one line to another.

If this skill is successfully mastered, you can proceed to the next stage - reading whole words in one breath.

Why is it difficult to teach preschoolers to divide words into syllables?

It may seem to an adult that this is a very simple skill that can be taught even to a non-reading child. But not everything is so simple: often preschoolers do not have the skill of pure speech. Children confuse voiced and deaf sounds and cannot pronounce them clearly.


It is a big mistake to get acquainted with the letters in their alphabetical pronunciation. If you call the letters “em”, “sha”, “en”, then it will be very difficult for the baby to explain later why they sound differently in the word “ma-shi-na”.

What difficulties can you encounter when learning:

  • ignorance of letters;

  • speech defects;

  • not understanding the difference between a sound and a letter;

  • inability to count to five;

  • no sense of rhythm;

  • misunderstanding what the word means, the inability to recognize it in the picture.

First you need to eliminate all the difficulties and only then proceed to the formation of a skill.

How to explain the division of words into syllables to a preschooler?


Clearly plan the process and the entire sequence of actions. It is not necessary to set a specific time frame, because each child masters the skill at an individual pace.

Prepare in advance games and additional materials in the form of flashcards and magnetic alphabet. Children perceive new knowledge visually much better, and they also like to touch three-dimensional letters and make phrases out of them.


Look at a simple algorithm and you will understand how to explain syllable division to a child without nerves and special education:

1. Show what a syllable is
Draw two letters using cubes, magnetic alphabet or cards , and connect them. To make it more interesting, come up with a fascinating story: two sounds met and sang a song together: "maaaaa." This song turned out because there is a vowel sound “a”. Without it, it would not have been possible to sing, so the vowel sound is an important participant in the meeting.

2. Show what syllables are
Put a vowel and a consonant next to each other and, rearranging them, begin to introduce the child to the types of syllables: open, closed, reverse and complex.

3. Make a disyllabic word
Ask how many vowels are there? Count them by touching each with your finger. How many vowels, so many syllables.

4. Move on to games.

Subsequent sessions begin with a brief repetition, gradually complicating the material. For training, we do not recommend giving preschoolers incomprehensible and long words that cannot be supported by a picture.

Do Aikyusha's developmental exercises

Syllable rules

To stimulate cognitive interest and keep the desire to learn, do not use incomprehensible and difficult rules in the lessons. An adult should know them in order to prevent mistakes and explain new material in an accessible way.


The question of how to correctly divide words into syllables in Russian is periodically reviewed in scientific circles. The current approach is:

1. The syllable begins with a consonant: so-ba-ka. An exception is the consonant sound Y (lay-ka).

2. Deaf, hissing and voiced sounds belong to the next syllable. This rule is surprising in adults, because they used to teach differently. Now the division looks like this: sha-shka, mi-shka.

3. That's not all: from now on, double consonants are not separated when pronouncing: leaf-ve-ny, a-kku-rat-ny. On the letter, the hyphenation rule remained unchanged.

4. Each syllable has room for only one vowel.

5. Unpaired voiced consonants (p, l, n, m) close syllables in the middle of a word.

Games for dividing words into syllables

Teachers have simplified the learning of this important skill and developed many effective tasks in a playful way that can be easily used both at home and at lessons in a developing studio or kindergarten.


Clap the word game


The facilitator shows a picture and says in one breath what is shown on it. Players must clap their hands as many times as there are syllables. To consolidate and maintain interest, give the participants words with a different number of syllables. Such a game will help you remember the division into complex syllables, and you can also organize it for 2-5 people or arrange a competition with collecting chips for the correct answers.

Game "How many syllables - so many steps"

An adult asks players to name words on a certain topic, for example, birds. The queue members call them and take as many steps forward as there are syllables in their word. The one with the longest word wins. If the number of steps is the same, then the game continues. An additional bonus can be given for the ability to correctly stress. As a result of such entertainment, children dynamically and effectively work out the skill of dividing into syllables and expand their vocabulary.

The game "Who will collect the most pictures"

You show pictures and name words of one or two syllables, and the players in response raise the number 1 or 2 or one or two hands. The one who completed the task correctly the fastest gets the picture. Then the game is complicated by the inclusion of three- and four-syllable words. This lesson perfectly trains the ability to quickly and mentally divide words into syllables, and also develops auditory perception.

Game "Add a syllable"

The facilitator gives the children cards with the first parts of two-syllable words. The participants lay them out in front of them, and the adult reads the second part aloud. The task of the child is to understand whether the named syllable is suitable to complete the word. If yes, then the kid takes the card. The winner is the one who collects all the words faster. Please note: syllables must be only open and consist of two letters. Such a game helps to master the skill of reading and will clearly show the division into syllables.

How to train the division of words into syllables with a preschooler?


Oral explanation must be constantly reinforced with practice through games and fun activities. Regular lessons will bring this skill to automatism. The most effective teaching method is considered to be a combination of simple written and oral exercises.

Oral exercises to reinforce the skill of dividing words into syllables

  • "Pick the word"
    Place cards with letters in front of the child so that they form a word. Now ask the kid to correctly divide it into syllables.
  • Feel It
    To learn to hear the syllables, ask your child to place their palm horizontally on their throat. Then say the word together and count how many times the chin dropped. Each downward movement means one syllable.
  • "Create a Melody"
    Give the children crayons and have them pretend they are drumsticks. Say the word and have the young musicians knock on the table as many times as they hear the syllables.


Syllable Writing Exercises