Syllables activities for preschoolers

12 Sensational Syllable Activities for Preschool

Being able to learn the number of syllables in words is a crucial skill for beginning readers. Activities that focus on syllables provide opportunities to strengthen reading and spelling skills. These activities teach children how to break words into smaller chunks which makes words much easier to read, write, and spell. These 12 sensational syllable activities will help your preschooler master dividing words into syllables which will increase their reading skills.

Preschool syllable games are fun any day of the year, but this activity brings lots of fun for Valentine's Day. To play this syllable game, preschoolers will take turns choosing a card. Next, they will identify the picture and count the syllables in the word. Finally, they will place the card in the correct mailbox.

Learn more: Pre-K Pages

This is one of the cutest and most creative syllable activities! Preschoolers will enjoy this winter-themed snowman activity. Use some white poms or cotton balls for the body to represent the syllables in each word. Children will love building snowmen of different sizes.

Learn more: Fantastic Fun and Learning

The majority of children love a variety of bugs! Glue the bug picture cards on popsicle sticks that are painted green and make small grass cups filled with dried green peas for a cute syllable game. Preschoolers should count the syllables in each word and then stick the bug card in the correctly numbered cup.

Learn more: Pocket of Preschool

This cute clothespin clip activity is designed to help preschoolers practice syllable counting. Using clothespins encourages fine motor development; however, you can also use tokens or buttons to place on the correct syllable number.

Learn more: Pocketful of Centers

These syllable worksheets make a great marker activity! This simple activity provides syllable counting practice for preschoolers. They practice slowly saying each word while breaking the word into small chunks or syllables. Then, they place a marker dot on the correct number of syllables.

Learn more: This Reading Mama

This cute weather activity is a terrific rain cloud syllable sorting activity! It provides your preschooler with a fun way to practice syllable identification. Children will match the raindrops to the clouds based on the number of syllables identified in the words.

Learn more: From ABCs to ACTs

This hands-on activity focuses on syllables, and it is super easy and inexpensive to make. Show preschoolers picture cards of items that consist of 1 to 3 syllables. Once students have identified the picture, have them place the correct number of pool noodle pieces on the caterpillar’s body as they say the syllables in each word.

Learn more: Pre-K Pages

8. Syllable Station

Active children love this syllable station! Preschool students can look at pictures and read the words. Then, they use the hand clappers to clap the number of syllables in each word and circle the correct number. This is a fun and excellent strategy!

Learn more: Kickin' It In Kindergarten

Practice syllables with a pair of rhythm sticks! When children are allowed the opportunity to clap out syllables, it helps them in developing phonological awareness. It is crucial that they learn to hear, process, and understand the various sounds in words. This skill is needed before they can blend sounds. Let the children take a word and divide it into syllables as they clap the sticks together for each one!

Learn more: In the Playroom

This is one of the most playful activities for practicing syllable counting. All you need is a few plastic hammers, paint chip strips, and Play-Doh. Put a small ball of Play-Doh on each paint chip square and show your preschooler the item. Have them hit each ball of Play-Doh for each syllable in the word.

Learn more: Conversations in Literacy

This is one of the most fun syllable activities for preschoolers! They can race their cars down the racetrack by counting the syllables of each transportation word. This fun and engaging game will also increase your preschooler's vocabulary while they practice syllable counting.

Learn more: Turner Tots

Enjoy this free printable mat for syllable sorting! Provide your preschoolers with a basket of items that are 1 to 4 syllable words. Have your preschoolers sort the items and place them on the appropriately numbered area of the mat. Kids love this activity!

Learn more: You Clever Monkey

10 Playful Syllable Activities for Your Kids

Are you curious how syllable and phonological awareness can help young kids develop reading skills? Let’s take a look at what syllable awareness is and why it’s important for young learners. We’ll give you some ideas for teaching syllable awareness, and even provide a list of activities to help your kiddos learn to break words apart in a fun way.

So get ready to start exploring the world of syllables!

What is Syllable Awareness?

Phonological awareness involves recognizing and manipulating the spoken parts of sentences and words, and it is an important stepping stone to learning to read. Examples of phonological awareness include identifying words that rhyme, recognizing alliteration, segmenting a sentence into words, identifying the syllables in a word, and recognizing and blending phonemes.

Syllable awareness is a key part of developing phonological awareness as it involves understanding how oral language can be divided into smaller components or chunks.

Why is Syllable Awareness Important?

Syllable awareness is important because understanding that words are made up of sounds is essential for children as it helps them learn to read.

When Can I Start Teaching Syllable Awareness?

You can begin laying the foundations for phonological awareness and “playing” with words at an early age. During the preschool years, children’s phonological awareness begins to accelerate, and it’s totally appropriate to teach kids how to break words into syllables.

The best part is that dividing words into chunks is that it can be done in a very fun and playful way.

How Can I Teach Syllable Awareness?

Introduce syllable awareness to young kids in a fun and interactive way. One of the best ways is through clapping syllables or “beats” in words.

For more details, be sure to check out my article about clapping syllables.

With a little practice, your kids will be able to recognize that words can be broken down into syllables.

Syllable Activities for Kids

Now that you understand what syllable awareness is, why it’s an important skill, and how to teach it, let’s look at some fun syllable activities for kids.

These fun activities provide a great way to practice syllable awareness by breaking words apart, emphasizing syllables, and counting syllables

Clapping Syllable Activities

As I mentioned above, one of the easiest ways to emphasize and count syllables is to clap them.  Once your kids get the hang of clapping syllables, you can find all kinds of opportunities for syllable clapping and counting activities. Here are some syllable clapping activity ideas.

Syllable Clapping Activities with Names

It’s no secret that name activities are incredibly motivating for kids. So, be sure to clap out and count the syllables in your kids’ names.

Say a child’s name slowly while emphasizing the different syllables.  Show children how to clap their hands for each syllable.  Soon, they will understand that Collin is a two-clap name and Joanna is a three-clap name.

Syllable Clapping Activities with Books

As you read books to kids, stop and clap the syllables of the characters in the story.  This multi-sensory activity is also a great way to emphasize unusual or new words in books.

Syllable Clapping Activities with Clip Cards

Kids can also clap the words that they find on word or picture cards or environmental print.

The Syllable Counting Clip Cards above are from my TPT store. Kids can select the number of syllables (claps) in the word on each card.  You can use name cards, picture cards, or even a basket of objects.  Ask kids to clap the syllables for each object or picture and sort them by the number of claps.

Emphasizing Syllables with Dancing Ribbons

While clapping syllables is fun, there are many other ways to segment words. Get out a dancing ribbons so your children can wave or shake them as they say different words. If you don’t have dancing ribbons, a piece of crepe paper will work too.

Dividing Words Into Syllables by drumming

Small drums can be used to break words apart.  If you don’t have an actual drum….no problem.  Use an upside-down bucket with a stick, a wood block with a stick, or use two rhythm sticks.

Your students will have fun experimenting with different kinds of drums.  I love the idea of using a pumpkin as a drum while counting the syllables in fall and Halloween-themed words.  Now my wheels are turning as I start thinking about other items children can drum.

Use Shakers & Instruments to Teach Syllable Awareness

Tambourines, bells, and shaky eggs are a fun way to break words apart.  Show your kiddos how to shake their instruments with every syllable in a word.

Make DIY Shakers for Syllable Practice

Fill plastic containers with different materials.  Kids can shake the containers to see how they each sound and weigh differently.  They can also use the containers to emphasize syllables.

Make a DIY Instrument to use for syllable activities

Use the bells in your instrument basket or make your own jingle bell sticks to use for wordplay.

Pounding Syllables

This is a good reason to gather hammers from the toy toolbox or the Whack-a-mole game.  Children can pound their hammers for each syllable in a word.

Pool Noodles for Phonological Awareness Activities

Another great idea for counting syllables is to use two pool noodles.  Cut the pool noodles into smaller sections and let kids pound them together.

Use Puppets to Teach Syllable Segmentation

Use puppets to help read a book.  Pick out a few words from the book to see how many claps the words have. Tell your kids to focus on the puppet’s mouth as it says the word. They will see the mouth open and close with each segment of the word.

Syllable Action Activities

When you use movement to emphasize syllables, kids can learn AND get their wiggles out at the same time.  Ask kids to do the following as they emphasize or count syllables in words:

• jump up and down
• tap their toes, march
• do jumping jacks
• give a high five to their friend
• touch their elbow to their knee
• tap their head

You can make a game of it by letting kids select the action and/or the word.

The action spinner above is a great way to select an action.  It can be found in my Seasonal Syllable Counting Activity Set in my TPT store.

I hope this gave you some great ideas for dividing words into syllables.  Now, you and your kids can go out and have fun playing with words.

Purchase The Printables Today

Are you ready to work on developing phonological awareness with your kids? You can purchase printable syllable activities the store. Click on the pictures below to purchase them today 

Purchase on TPT

Do you prefer to shop at Teachers Pay Teachers? You can also purchase the syllable activity printables in my TPT Store.

More Phonological Awareness ideas

Dividing words into syllables for preschoolers

07/26/2022

The method of teaching kids to read is based on dividing words into separate syllables. First, the child learns letters and combines them into syllables, and then begins to learn to read words by syllables. When this skill is fully developed, the child will be able to master the next stage - reading the words in their entirety, in one breath.

Contents:

• How to properly and easily teach a preschooler to divide a word into syllables? nine0014
• What a baby should know in advance
• What is a syllable
• Open and closed syllables
• How to teach to divide words into syllables
• Game exercises

How to properly and easily teach a preschooler to divide a word into syllables?

This question worries parents of future first graders who want to prepare their child for school. After all, the sooner the kid masters this skill, the less difficulties schooling will cause for him. nine0003

There are many ways to teach syllable division that you can use at home. You can choose the option that best suits your child.

The main condition for success is the game format of classes. Do not set rigid time limits and do not push the child, do not compare him with other children. Each kid is an individual, he learns new knowledge at his own pace.

What your child should know in advance

Before learning syllable division, make sure your child:

• learned basic letters;
• can recognize vowels and consonants;
• can fluently count to at least five;
• is oriented in the directions "to the left" and "to the right".

When learning letters, do not say their alphabetical pronunciation. If he learns the letter as "es", then it will be difficult to explain why in the word "Bag" it is pronounced differently.

Speech defects can add to learning difficulties. They must be eliminated together with a speech therapist. nine0003

What is a syllable

The first step is to explain to the child what a syllable is. But this must be done at the level that is available to the baby - in a simple and understandable language, without complex theory and terms.

Tell your child that words can be divided into syllables in the same way that we divide pizza or chocolate into parts. And a syllable is such a piece, whole words are made up of these separate pieces.

Be sure to talk about the difference between letters and sounds. Explain that we pronounce sounds, and we see letters in books and write in notebooks. nine0003

Explain to your child that each syllable has exactly one vowel and one or more consonants. And it is the number of vowels that determines how many syllables are in a word.

Open and closed syllables

The next stage is a story about closed and open syllables. The easiest way to explain the difference to the baby is as follows:

• an open syllable ends in a vowel, you can sing it;
• in a closed syllable there is a consonant at the end, it cannot be sung. nine0014

Practice singing different types of syllables with your child so that he can actually feel the difference between them. Ask him to put his hand to his chin and ask him to say a word. It will have as many syllables as the number of times its lower jaw twitches.

How to teach to divide words into syllables

It is important to know that the rules of syllable division are periodically reviewed. And some modern approaches are different from those taught 20-30 years ago. nine0003

• Consonants after a vowel go to the next syllable: “ve-sna”, “ko-shka”.
• Two identical consonants are not separated into different syllables: “classy”.
• A syllable in the middle of a word can only be closed by sonorant consonants p, l, n, m.
• Y, b, b go to the previous syllable: “layer-ka”, “pol-ka”.
• If two consonants denote one sound, then they cannot be separated: “u-e-squeeze”, “we-ss”, “a-kku-rat-ness”. At the same time, in the transfer, the rules remained the same - “leave-reap”. nine0014

An adult who teaches a child must know these phonetic rules in order not to make mistakes, but one should not try to explain them to a child. The preschooler will not understand the theory of phonetics, it will simply discourage him from learning.

Use syllable cards and magnetic alphabet to explain. As practice shows, children learn new knowledge much faster if they are presented in a visual format and they can be touched with their hands. To interest the child, involve the heroes of his favorite fairy tales and cartoons in the educational process. nine0003

Show your child how to divide words into syllables with simple examples using short familiar words.

• Use flashcards or elements of the magnetic alphabet to make simple words like "fir-ka", "cat", "house", and others. Ask them to show the vowels and count the number of syllables.
• Complicate the task by making words of three syllables: “ko-ro-va”, “las-toch-ka”, “zhe-le-zo”, “ka-bi-na”.
• Make up words that differ by one vowel, for example, "forests - fox." This will help explain the difference between the sounds to the child. nine0014
• Arrange the letters so that they form a word. Ask the student to divide it into syllables.

Game exercises

There are many games that will help the child learn the rules of dividing words into separate syllables faster. You will need special cards. You can buy them ready-made, download from the Internet and print them yourself or do it yourself.

Magic Ride

Draw a map of the magical town using your child's favorite characters and place stops around it with space for a syllable. Lay out the cards and ask the baby to travel around the map so that the given word is obtained. For the successful completion of tasks, give stickers or other small gifts. nine0003

Complete the word

Choose two-syllable words for this purpose and give the child the first syllables. Name the word and show the child the second part at random, asking him to determine if this syllable is suitable to complete the word.

Clap your hands

Show the child a picture and name what is drawn on it. Ask him to clap his hands as many times as there are syllables in the word. This game is fun to play with a group of two to five children.

CHILD DEVELOPMENT: Syllables. Compose words from syllables

Syllables. We compose words from syllables.
Download free cards with letters and syllables.
There are 20 cards in total. Letters and syllables for children.
Cut the large cards into individual small cards. And a wonderful material for teaching reading is ready.
How to teach a child to read by syllables? This question interests all parents.
To do this, these cards with syllables will help you.
And now let's talk about games that will help the child get acquainted with letters, learn the alphabet, learn syllables, learn to read by syllables. nine0003

SLOSS WITH WITH IS B and B

SLOSS WITH THE letters G and D

SLOSS WITH WITH IS

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SLOWS WITH MU and

SLOSS WITH THE letters P and P

SLOWS CLS 9000 9000

9000 9000 9000 9000 9000

SLOSS WITH THE letters F and X

SLOSS WITH THE letters C and h

SLOSS WITH WIS and SH

9000

Games with cards with cards with cards with cards with cards with cards with cards with cards How to teach a child to read in syllables. To begin with, study the syllables with the letter "a" with your child. Then with the letter "y", "o", "and", etc.