Segmenting words is one of the critical skills children use to spell correctly and read fluently. For example, when a child encounters an unfamiliar word, their segmenting skills can help them figure out its spelling or how to pronounce it.
In this article, we’ll offer tips on how to teach segmenting at home. We’ll also share some fun activities that you can use to help your young learner develop this essential skill.
But first, let’s start by understanding what segmenting actually means.
Table of Contents
- What Does It Mean to Segment Words?
- Why Is Segmenting Words Important?
- Tips for Introducing This Skill
- 15 Activities to Make Segmenting Words Fun
What Does It Mean to Segment Words?
Segmenting is a skill that focuses on breaking up words into their individual sounds. For example, when we spell the word dog, we separate it into its three separate sounds: /d/-/o/-/g/.
It’s important to note that the length of the word doesn’t matter. What matters are the individual sounds the word produces.
Here’s another example with a slightly longer word: right. This word has five letters but only three sounds: /r/-/igh/-/t/. This is because the igh phonogram represents the single sound of the long I.
Why Is Segmenting Words Important
We’ve already discussed that segmenting plays a significant role in reading development and spelling. But what does this actually look like?
When children learn to read and spell, they often use two key skills: segmenting (separating the sounds) and blending (combining the sounds).
For example, when a child reads the word hat, they may start by slowly saying each sound: /h/-/a/-/t/ (this is segmenting) and then quickly combine and say the sounds: hat (this is blending).
This is important because children can use this same skill when learning to spell unfamiliar words. A child who is unable to segment may struggle to read and spell words correctly.
Segmenting also helps develop a child’s phonemic awareness. Because of this, you’ll notice that some of our activities below focus on helping children become aware of the phonemes, the individual sounds in words.
When Are Kids Ready to Segment Words?
While segmenting words is important, it’s a more advanced phonological skill. Generally, children aren’t ready to break a word into sounds until they can blend sounds to make words and divide words into syllables.
Teachers often teach this skill in first grade. However, since all kids learn differently, some may be ready in kindergarten, while others won’t until second grade.
Tips For Introducing This Skill
There are many different ways to help kids learn how to segment. Here’s a summary of the most common strategies. We also share some tips for practicing this skill at home.
Segment Compound Words First
Start with segmenting compound words (e.g., /sail/-/boat/), and then separate sounds by focusing on syllables (e.g., /ti/-/ger/). Finally, move on to individual sounds, phonemes (e.g., /c/-/a/-/t/).
Starting with larger chunks of words is best and can help your child develop the phonemic skills needed to do the harder job of noticing all of the individual sounds in a given word.
Model Segmenting
Start by doing the segmenting yourself and encouraging your child to blend the sounds.
“Bathtub” has two words: bath and tub. Can you put them together? “Fox” has three sounds: /f/-/o/-/x/. Can you blend them?
Once you’ve practiced this way a few times, you can then ask your child to segment on their own.
“Sailboat” has two words. Can you separate them? “Tiger” has two syllables. Can you separate them? “Cat” has three sounds. Can you separate them?
You can even model the sounds physically by using an abacus—a device with colorful beads that slide left and right on a wire frame—to help them count the sounds. But most importantly, give them plenty of time to practice!
Use a Variety of Words
It’s easy to get stuck in a rut when thinking of words for your child to segment. You might be tempted to use only familiar words or simple three-letter words. But it’s important to mix things up a bit.
When segmenting, you want to pick:
- Words that vary in complexity
- A variety of word types (nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.)
- Words with different vowel sounds
- Words with different consonant blends
Working with a wide range of words will help your child practice different combinations and patterns, building their phonological awareness even further.
Integrate Technology
Technology can be your secret weapon for helping your child learn! The HOMER app by Begin is expertly designed to help young students with reading and phonics. In just 15 minutes a day, your child can strengthen their segmentation skills and boost their reading confidence.
Make It Engaging
Segmenting words doesn’t have to be boring, but it can quickly become boring if you’re drilling your child on sound after sound. Try incorporating games or fun activities into your segmenting practice to keep things interesting.
While we’ll jump into specific ideas later on, here are a few suggestions to get you started:
- Use toys or objects as visual aids (for example, hold up a toy car as your child segments the word /c/ /ar/)
- Draw pictures of the words
- Play charades so your child can guess the word you want them to segment
- Try a “rapid-fire” game to see how many words your child can segment in 2 minutes
The goal is to make segmenting enjoyable so your child looks forward to these practice sessions.
Be Patient
Segmenting isn’t a skill your child will master overnight. It takes lots of practice and repetition.
During this time, it’s important to be patient and not get frustrated with your child if they struggle. Instead, offer encouragement and positive reinforcement to help them stay motivated.
15 Activities to Make Segmenting Words Fun
Here are some of our favorite activities for practicing segmenting.
1) Robot Talk
Since segmenting is about separating the sounds of a word, speaking like a robot can help your child grasp this concept.
For this fun activity, you can use a robot puppet or toy to grab your child’s attention. Encourage them to respond in a robot voice as well!
/Time/-/to/-/go/-/to/-/school/. /Are/-/you/-/rea/-/dy/?
Did you notice how we segmented using syllables, not phonemes? Using syllables is a beneficial tool to help your child decode words. It also helps them learn which parts of a word to stress and the different cadences and patterns in the English language.
With this in mind, don’t be afraid to say funny things or ask silly questions when using your robot voice.
/Show/-/me/-/your/-/sil/li/est/-/face/!
This will probably get lots of giggles, and there’s nothing wrong with a bit of fun while learning!
2) Dress Up Teddy
For this fun activity, all you need are a few doll clothes (e.g., a hat, top, pants, socks, etc.) and a teddy bear that’s willing to try on some outfits!
To get started, lay out the clothing items and then encourage your child to dress their teddy bear. Model segmenting the word hat by saying, “It’s hot outside. I think Mr. Teddy needs a /h/-/a/-/t/.”
Instead of just grabbing the hat and putting it on, your child will need to first copy you and say the word out loud in segments: /h/-/a/-/t/. This activity allows your child to practice the individual phonemes of each word.
Modeling is crucial at the beginning of your child’s segmenting journey. The good news is you can model segmenting any time as you go about your day. For example, you might say, “I think I will wear the /r/-/e/-/d/ shirt today.”
3) Change One Letter
Once your child has had some practice with phonemes, it’s time to switch things up a bit by swapping letter sounds in words. It’s best to start with changing the first sound of a word.
For example, you can say the word cat and ask your child what happens if you switch the /k/ sound to a /b/ sound. What does the word then become? Keep in mind that this activity focuses on sounds rather than letters.
After playing for a bit, you can then have your child repeat the game using magnetic letters to make the switches. Once your child is comfortable with first-sound switches, move on to last sounds. For example, cat becomes can and then becomes cap.
While this activity is very effective, it can also be a little challenging for young children to grasp, especially when they’re just beginning to work on segmenting. Students often learn phoneme manipulation in second grade, so don’t push this one too much if your child isn’t quite getting it.
To guide your child, be sure to really emphasize whichever letter is being replaced. For example, in the pattern mat—map—mad, emphasize the t, p, and d when modeling it for your child.
4) Find The Letters
For this activity, you’ll need a few index cards (or alphabet cutouts) and a marker. Start by writing one letter on each index card (if you don’t have alphabet cutouts). Then shuffle the cards so they are in no particular order.
Next, say a word and then ask your child to find the letters and place them in the correct order. For example, you can say bat. Your child would look through the cards to find b, a, and t and place them in the right order.
Choose simple CVC words in the beginning. As your child gets more comfortable with the concept, you can move on to more complicated word patterns.
This is an excellent activity to focus on the phonemes of each word, a key skill in segmenting.
Note: If your child is just starting out, they may spell out /b/-/e/-/t/ instead of /b/-/a/-/t/. That’s OK! In fact, take this as a step in the right direction because it shows that they are noticing a vowel sound in the middle. With a little more time and practice, they’ll soon get it right.
5) Hop The Sounds
We love this activity because, while it may sound simple, it’s very effective when learning to segment. All you need is some open space (preferably outside) and an energetic youngster.
Start by saying a word, and then have your child hop the same amount of times as there are phonemes in that word. For example, if you say cat, your child will give you three hops forward as they say the sounds /c/-/a/-/t/.
The goal is for them to reach you in the end!
6) Sensory Sounds
Combine segmenting words with sensory play in this fun activity. You’ll need a bottle of foam shaving cream, a flat surface, and some baby wipes for cleanup.
Spray an egg-sized blob of shaving cream on a flat surface (like a tabletop) and have your child smooth it out. Then call out a word for your child to segment.
For example, if you say “bug,” they’d use a finger to write b u g in the shaving cream. If this is too hard, call out the individual letter sounds instead of the whole word (so you’d say “/b/ /u/ /g/” and they’d write b u g.)
7) Count the Sounds
This activity helps your child see that the number of letters in a word doesn’t always match its number of sounds.
Start by writing several words on index cards (one word on each). Here are some to get you started:
- Bee
- Hat
- Sight
- Log
- Fetch
- Hen
- Break
- Hind
- Hive
Show one card to your child and ask them to count how many letters it has. Then ask them to count the sounds. For example, the word bee has three letters but only two sounds /b/ /ē/.
Repeat with the rest of the cards. Then have your child sort the cards into two piles: one for the words with the same number of letters and sounds and one for the others.
8) Squish the Playdough
Ask your child to create several small balls of playdough and set them out in front of them. Then say a word.
Direct your child to squish one ball of play dough for every sound they hear in the word. So if you say, “shop” they’d smash three balls. One for the /sh/, one for the /ŏ/, and one for the /p/.
They can then reroll the balls for the next word.
9) Segmenting Sock Toss
Roll up some socks and grab the laundry basket for this hands-on activity. Have your child stand by a pile of rolled socks, and set the basket on the ground about four feet away.
Say a word and have them segment it for you. As they say each sound, they should try to toss a pair of socks into the laundry basket.
For the word “fox,” it’d look like this:
- /f/ (toss a pair of socks)
- /ŏ/ (toss a pair of socks)
- /x/ (toss a pair of socks)
10) Popping Sounds
If your child has a popper fidget toy, let them play with it while you segment. Start with all of the bubbles showing on one side.
Say a word and ask your learner to pop one bubble for every sound they hear. Once you verify their answer, have them pop the bubbles back the other way so it’s ready for the next word.
11) Egg Carton Sounds
Schools often use Elkonin Boxes to help students learn how to segment words. These are simply outlined boxes that represent each sound in a word.
While you can print or draw your own Elkonin Boxes at home, an egg carton is a simple, ready-made replacement. With an empty egg carton and a pile of chocolate chips, small pebbles, or other small manipulatives, you have what you need for this activity.
Say a word, and have your child segment it. As they repeat each sound, let them drop one manipulative into the first empty spot on the egg carton. When they’re done, they can count these small objects to see how many sounds the word has.
12) Segmenting Family Names
Bring out the family photo album and ask your child to name each person they recognize. As they do, take turns segmenting the names.
For example:
- Steve would be /st/ /ē/ /v/
- Ada would be /ā/ /d/ /ă/
Encourage your child to write down how many sounds are in each person’s name. Then you can ask them questions like these:
- Who has the most sounds?
- Who has the least sounds?
- Does anyone have two of the same sounds in their name?
- Do any names rhyme?
13) Find the Word
Write several words on index cards that start with the same initial sound. Ask your child to find the card with the word you’re thinking of.
To help them pick the right card, slowly segment the word. As they listen, they can eliminate certain cards based on the sounds they hear.
14) Slinky Stretches
An inexpensive slinky toy from the dollar store can give your child a visual representation of the sounds in a word. Simply stretch out the slinky as you say each sound. Then let go of one end and let the toy snap back together as you say the whole word.
As they practice segmenting and blending, your child will be building their phonemic awareness skills in a fun and interactive way.
15) Mystery Sounds
For this activity, your child will reach into a box of items and try to identify the thing you’re thinking of without using their eyes.
Collect 10 household items to prepare for this game, and put them into a box. Create a list of each thing you add so you can easily remember what words to use later.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Mug
- Can
- Spoon
- Whisk
- Hat
- Book
- Paper
- Pen
- Apple
Once your collection is complete, it’s time to play. Ask your child to reach into the box and find the /wh/ /ĭ/ /sk/. If they pull out the whisk, they get a point.
See if they can get 10 points. If not, that’s OK! Cheer on their progress and try again with a new set of objects another day.
Let’s Get Segmenting!
When a child learns to read, it opens up a whole new world for them! And when they spell correctly, it gives them the confidence to continue learning and growing in their literacy journey.
Segmenting words can help your child achieve these important early literacy skills.
Whether you try out some or all of the above activities, remember to exercise patience with your child. Some days, they may quickly grasp the concepts, while other days might be a little more challenging.
No matter where they are on their journey, continue working on segmenting. When your child finally starts reading fluently and spelling correctly, you’ll see that the effort was worthwhile.
To help your child have fun while learning, check out the HOMER app by Begin. It’s one of our play-based learning programs to help your child succeed in school and life.
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