Segmenting

What is it?

It is awareness that oral language has parts: words, syllables and sounds. It consists of segmenting sentences into
words, words into syllables, and syllables into individual sounds. Students can be exposed to segmenting through oral
word play, as well as through exploration and exposure to print.

Importance: Children need to be able to take a word and segment it into individual sounds. This will help children in
both spelling and decoding.

How do I teach it?

You can embed segmenting into your everyday routines: morning message, read alouds, snack time, dressing, math,
music, and transitions.

• Early in phonological awareness instruction, teach children to segment sentences with 3 to 4 words into
individual words. As students demonstrate awareness of words in sentences, gradually add more words to
make longer sentences. Use familiar short poems such as "I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream!"
and have children clap their hands for each word.
• When children have learned to segment sentences into words teach them to segment words into syllables.
Teach them to segment compound words into separate words then teach them to segment multisyllable
words. Have children segment by clapping, stepping, hopping, tapping or using objects such as blocks: e.g.,
popcorn= pop + corn, Ra-chel, Al-ex-an-der, and Rod-ney.
• When children have learned to segment words into syllables teach them to segment words into individual
phonemes. Start with short words and then move to longer words. e.g. s-u-n, p-a-t, s-t-o-p, p-i-ll-ow.

Resources for Segmenting

• Sing the song Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes

• Sing the song B-I-N-G-O
• Golden Gelman, Rita. More Spaghetti, I say!
• Lionni, Leo. Fish is Fish
• Numeroff, Laura. If You Give a Mouse a Cookie
• Wells, Rosemary. Noisy Nora