Literacy News

Building Strong Readers and Writers at SKiPPS

Week 3: Phonemic Awareness – Hearing the Sounds in Words

Before children can read words on a page, they first need to understand the sounds that make up spoken language. This ability is called phonemic awareness, and it is a crucial foundation for learning to read and spell.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, recognise and manipulate the sounds in spoken words. Importantly, it does not involve looking at letters. It is about listening carefully to the sounds we hear when we speak.

Understanding the Language of Literacy

Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that includes several skills that develop over time:

Word awareness - Understanding that sentences are made up of individual words.

Syllable awareness - Recognising that words can be broken into parts or "beats". For example, computer can be clapped as com-pu-ter (three syllables).

Rhyme awareness - Recognising words that have the same ending sounds, such as cat, hat and mat.

Onset and rime - Hearing the parts within a syllable. For example, the word sun can be separated into /s/ and /un/.

Phonemic awareness - The ability to hear and work with the smallest individual sounds in words. For example, knowing that the word ship contains three sounds: /sh/ /i/ /p/.

Phonemic awareness is the most advanced level of phonological awareness and is particularly important because it prepares children to connect sounds with letters when they begin reading and spelling.

Why This Matters for Learning

Learning to read requires children to make connections between the sounds they hear in words and the letters that represent those sounds.

Children who develop strong phonemic and phonological awareness have a stronger foundation for decoding (reading unfamiliar words) and encoding (spelling words). These skills are not developed by chance - they are built through explicit teaching, modelling and regular practice.

Just like learning a new skill in sport or music, children become more successful when they have clear instruction and many opportunities to practise.

At SKiPPS

Phonemic awareness is intentionally developed as part of our Structured Literacy approach. Students engage in activities that help them hear, identify, blend and manipulate sounds in words.

Teachers explicitly model how to listen for sounds and provide regular opportunities for students to practise these skills. This might include oral blending activities, identifying sounds in words, segmenting words into their individual sounds and manipulating sounds to create new words.

These activities provide students with the strong sound foundation they need before and alongside learning about letters and spelling patterns.

Literacy Spotlight

Phonemic awareness is about sounds. Phonics is about connecting sounds to letters.

For example:

• Phonemic awareness: "What sounds do you hear in the word map?"
• Phonics: "The sound /m/ is represented by the letter m."

Both skills work together to support successful reading and writing.

How You Can Help at Home

Families can build phonological awareness through simple everyday activities:

• Play with rhyme: "What rhymes with cat?"
• Clap syllables in names and everyday words.
• Stretch out words slowly and ask your child what sounds they can hear.
• Play "I spy" using sounds rather than letters: "I spy something beginning with /s/."
• Read nursery rhymes and poems together.

These simple conversations and games help children become more aware of the sounds that make up our language.

Coming next week: Week 4 – Phonics: Connecting Sounds and Letters.

For the fourth year, St Kilda Park is entering the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee. The competition is open to all our students in Year 3/4/5 & 6. It is free to enter the online competition which Amy Salter, Literacy Leader and Year 5 teacher, will run with students on Tuesday 4th August. 

Entrants will be required to answer 30 random spelling words (timed) per round. Students are required to be signed up, so please talk to your child/children and see if they are interested in participating.  

Here is the link if you would like to read up a little more about the competition. You can also access the online consent form in this link which you will need to complete for your child to participate. 

If your child/children would like to participate, please send Amy an email on amy.salter@education.vic.gov.au. Please attach the consent form to your email.

Thank you to the students who participated in the Pen Pal program lasty year. For those that are interested in joinuing this local initiative, all students are invited to write a letter addressed 'Dear Pen Pal' and we deliver these to the residents at Sacred Heart community. The letters are so well receieved and bring great happiness to people in our community 

We warmly encourage all families to help their child write a short, cheerful letter addressed to “Dear Pen Pal,” to brighten someone’s day. Please hand completed letters to Amy Salter (Yr 5 teacher) or leave at the office for Jac.

If any families walk past Sacred Heart and would like to be our 'Postie', please let us know. Sacred Heart actually have a batch of letters that are ready to be picked up and delivered to us!

Thank you for helping us spread kindness and connection across generations.

Jac Morphy

Assistant Principal - Curriculum and Instruction