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The Adventures of Ti and Mo
Phonemic Awareness Activities Set 1

Otto O Story Phonemic Awareness Activities

Introducing the "thumb game"

Tell your child that you are going to play a listening game, called the "thumb game."  If you say the "ah" sound, your child puts his or her thumb up.  But if you say any other sound, your child puts  thumbs down.   Say the following sounds:

/ah/                        /r/                                         
/m/                         /f/
/ah/                        /ah/
/ah/                        /k/
/s/                          /ah/
/t/                          /sh/
/ah/                       /ah/

Thumb game with words

Explain to your child that now you are going to play the thumb up game with words.  Explain that you are going to say some words, and you want him or her to listen to the beginning of the word for the "ah" sound like Otto O makes.  If the word has an "ah" sound, put thumbs up, if not, put thumbs down. 

Practice together listening for the "ah" sound in these words:  Otto, on and octopus.  (Over-emphasize the beginning sound, saying it much louder than the rest of the word.)   Make this task as easy as possible at first until your child gets the idea of what to do.  During the game correct wrong answers quickly but cheerfully).  Now, play the game with the following words:

off                      fun
October              olive
sand                   ostrich
odd                     path
silly                     object

Syllable Sillies Story Phonemic Awareness Activities

Understanding the Syllable Sillies

The story, "The Syllable Sillies," introduces the first sound awareness creature.  This story teaches children to "clap out" syllables in long words.  This kind of activity helps children to attend to the structure of spoken words and realize that they can be broken apart.  This skill is very useful to children later on, particularly as they try to write lengthy words.

In this next activity ask your child to play the part of either Ti or Mo, while you take the part of the Syllable Sillies saying words in their silly way.  After you say a word (clapping out each part separately) your child says the word put together the way it is normally spoken (the way Ti or Mo would say it).  Start with the easier list below, then go on to the harder list.

Easy List             Harder List

sun-shine           fun-ny
see-saw             sil-ly
shoe-box            stor-y
rain-coat             hap-py
house-top           lit-tle
some-one            pa-per
rain-bow              chil-dren
door-step            o-pen
day-time              won-der
air-plane              ap-ple
sales-man            be-fore

Thumb game with /oh/ sound

Now tell the your child that you will be playing the beginning sound game again, but this time you will be listening for the /oh/ sound at the start of words.  Tell your child that the following words start with the /oh/ sound:  open, only and oats.  Remember to overemphasize the beginning sound.  Now play the game  for the words on the list below:

ocean                  see
can                      obey
walk                     she
oval                     old
oak                      bump
much                   over


Tommy T-Shirt Story Phonemic Awareness Activities

Beginning sound game

Play the beginning sound game, listening for the /t/ sound at the beginning of words.  Tell your child the following words start with /t/:  tree, tooth and tape.  Play the game for the words below:

tap                      Ti
telephone            feather
moose                 time
table                    bubble
tiger                     terrible
sunshine              tickle

Syllable Sillies

Remind your child about the Syllable Sillies and say the words on the list below by "clapping out" each part.  Have your child play the part of Ti or Mo and say the word as normally spoken. 

Easy List             Harder List

hand-some          flow-er
good-bye            spot-ted
night-time            fol-low
road-way             let-ters
rain-drop             sil-lies
some-where        crea-tures
base-ball             Ot-to
fire-man               Tom-my

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All Ti and Mo stories and activities © 2002 by Andrew T. Andersen