早期聲音音系意識圈：K、G、L、TH、S、R、SH、CH

The research has shown, phonological awareness is not only important for sound development in speech, but also critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system (Ehri, 2004; Rath, 2001; Troia, 2004). Exposing children to emerging sounds in games and play and providing models can help their sound and reading development! This weekly class is all about phonological awareness with a special focus on how to say sounds that are most common speech errors in children like /k, g, s, l, th, r, sh, ch/ and more. 

Class will generally look like this:
- Welcome to class and check in
- Easy breathing exercise (with breathing ball or fun visualization) to fuel our brains with oxygen and a brief review of anatomy and physiology 
- Riddle or ice breaker question 
- Instruction for sound awareness activities (see below)
- Practice with sound awareness activities 
- Play online game 
- Close with a sharing circle where each student can share one thing (in my experience many children love, love, love to share so I make it a part of our class!)

(Please note depending on the flow of the class and learners, all of these tasks may not be completed.)

During this ongoing weekly class, I will review how to make different sounds and we will work on phonological (sound) awareness activities with that sound, like:
-count how many words are in a sentence
-how many syllables are in a word
-how many sounds are in a word
-identify where sounds are in the word (ex. /g/ is at the end of the word dog).
-play with sounds in words (like what would happen if you took the "d" sound away in the word dog?
-rhyming words
-blending words (ex. "b" "a" "t" makes the word "bat)
-sound-related activities, like thinking of words that start with the /m/ or /ch/ sound
-make up silly sentences with words that begin with the same sound, such as “Nobody was nice to Nancy’s neighbor.”
- look at pictures or stories from books to find sounds in words 

No experience is required. This class is not intended to be or replace speech therapy. This class is meant to provide exposure and practice opportunities for students who want to build awareness of sounds.

Every week, we will cover all the sounds depending on learner needs. Each week there will be a highlight on a particular phonological awareness skill (see schedule below). No prior experience needed and learners can join and exit at any time. 

Week of 
October 2: Counting words, syllables and sounds
October 9: Manipulate sounds in words
October 16: Rhyming Words
October 23: Identifying words that start with sound.