Teaching Sound Substitution

The Task

Children identify the beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words. For example, "What is the ending sound in pig?" What sound do you hear in the middle of cat?"

Activities

1. Tricky Rhyming Riddles Using Onset and Rime
   Ask children riddles that require them to manipulate sounds in their heads.

   The easiest are the ones that ask for endings.

   The next easiest are the ones that ask for a single consonant substitution at the beginning.

   The most difficult are the ones that ask for a consonant blend or digraph at the beginning.

   What rhymes with pig and starts with /d/?	dig
   What rhymes with book and starts with /c/?	cook
   What rhymes with sing and starts with /r/?	dig
   What rhymes with dog and starts with /fr/?	frog

   Songs that Teach Sound Substitution

   Choose a song your students all know and substitute a consonant sound for the beginning of each word in the song.

   One song that works well is from "I've Been Working on the Railroad: (Yopp, 1992)

   "Fee-Fi-Fiddle-ee-I-Oh"

   "Bee-Bi-Biddle-ee-I-Oh"

   "Dee-Di-Diddle-ee-I-Oh"

   "Hee-Hi-Hiddle-ee-I-Oh"

   Try Old Mac Donald Had a Farm making substitutions when singing about each new animal. (Yopp, 1992)

   For a cow, sing, "kee-high,kee-kigh, koh!"

   For a sheep, sing, "shee-shigh, shee-shigh, shoh!"