First Sound…

Last week, we began some phoneme awareness assessments with our kindergarteners. We did a little probing to see if they could isolate initial sounds, segment, and blend. The kids were sweet. Most had clearly never done any work like this before, while others could complete the tasks easily. When I asked one little girl what the first sound she heard in “made” was, she thought for a moment and then said, “monkey.” I could see her little wheels turning.

The best response of the day came from a little guy who happened to be wearing a hat. I heard his teacher refer to it as his thinking cap. He was thinking all right. I asked him to tell me the first sound he heard in words like name, keep, and sun. He giggled, telling me that the words I was saying were silly. I was ready to throw in the towel, give this five year old some time to learn and practice the skills I was asking him to complete. But I decided to finish the assessment section first, for fun. “What’s the first sound you hear in farm?” I asked, waiting for the giggles to come. Instead, I heard him reply, “Cock-a-doodle do….or…maybe moo?”

Now, it was my turn to giggle.

11 thoughts on “First Sound…

  1. Just love this piece! It shows the innocence and joy of our youngest learners. We ask a similar question- what is the first sound you hear in cow? They often answer moo. That is the treasure of working with these youngsters. Your piece made me smile,

    Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment