Teaching phoneme substitution in Kindergarten is so fun. I love to see how excited kids get when they realize by changing 1 letter, they can make a whole new word. Here are a few activities I’ve used to work on sound substitution.
Phoneme Substitution Sound Spinners
I had some word family word wheels my mom had used back when she taught 1st grade. I liked the idea of them, but wanted to create a set that would work on substituting the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. This idea turned into this new bundle of sound spinners!
I made all of these sound spinners work the same way. Students simply spin the wheel to show a new sound. They read the word, then lift the flap to see if the picture matches the word they read. Next, students will spin a new sound to make a new word!
I did leave the bottom spinner black/white to make it printer friendly! Each set of sound spinners comes with a recording sheet for students to provide their answers. You can grab these sound spinners in my website shop or on TPT.!
CVC Flip Books
To use these, students flip over 3 letters and read the word. I then tell them to switch the beginning, middle, or ending sound and make me a whole new word. This shows them how to make new words, but it shows me who can read simple words. I can also see who knows what a beginning, middle, or ending sound is. Sometimes students have to find the word I tell them, put the word in a sentence, tell if it is real/nonsense, etc. These flip books can work on so many skills!
Incorporating Technology
You know how much I love to incorporate technology and add some FUN into learning at the same time! I just had to make a phoneme substitution game for Fluency & Fitness and Fluency Find It!
The Fluency and Fitness videos have students reading a word, then a letter disappears, and another letter “flies” in. Students then read the new word. Whenever they see the exercises, they have to do those until they see the next word.
My Fluency Find It games are a great way to work on skills, while building in some teamwork. I love watching the kids work together to say the answers and find the answer on the worksheet.
Lastly, another way we work on phoneme substitution is by using the game Lanolin’s Greenhouse on the Professor Garfield website. This whole section called “Orson’s Farm” works on a ton of phonics skills and the kids love it!
