Phoneme Segmenting Teaching Resources
Browse phoneme segmenting activities, printable worksheets and more Australian Curriculum-aligned resources to teach this important literacy skill in your primary classroom.
This collection of teaching resources has been carefully reviewed by members of our expert teaching team to ensure every teacher-created resource is ready to use in your classroom. That means you can save hours on your lesson planning!
New to teaching this section of the curriculum, or just looking for some fresh ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!
What Is Segmenting?
Phoneme segmenting is the process of breaking down a word into its individual phonemes, aka the smallest units of sound that distinguish one word from another in a particular language. This helps learners understand the relationships between written letters and the sounds they represent.
Why Is Phoneme Segmenting Important?
Being able to segment sounds is important for students to develop phonemic awareness – the ability to hear and manipulate individual sounds in spoken language — and this foundational literacy skill sets the stage for being able to read and write.
Letter-sound correspondence
Also known as grapheme-phoneme correspondence, letter-sound correspondence is the relationship between letters or graphemes and the sounds or phonemes they represent in spoken language.
Phoneme segmentation helps students understand the crucial relationship between letters and sounds. For example, if a student learns the letter 'c' and its corresponding sound /k/, they can then break down words like 'cat' into individual sounds /k/ /a/ /t/ and understand that the letter 'c' represents the sound /k/.
Decoding and encoding words
When students read a word, they need to break it down into individual sounds or phonemic chunks in order to understand it. When they write a word, they need to segment the word into individual sounds to know which graphemes to use. Phoneme segmentation helps with both.
For example, when spelling the word 'fish,' students need to segment the word into individual sounds /f/ /i/ /sh/, then use the appropriate graphemes to represent each sound.
Reading fluency
Phoneme segmentation can also improve reading fluency. When a young reader can quickly break down words into individual sounds, they can read more smoothly and accurately. For example, let's use the 'cat' example from before.
If that child can easily segment the word 'cat' into individual sounds, they can quickly recognise and read the word without stumbling, understanding that the text is about a furry four-legged animal.
Vocabulary development
This is yet another building block of early literacy that ties back to phonemes and segmentation. When students can break down words into individual sounds, they can more easily understand the meanings of new words.
Let's say a student encounters the word 'reptile.' They can segment it into individual sounds /r/ /e/ /p/ /t/ /i/ /l/ and then use their knowledge of phonemes to understand that the word relates to cold-blooded animals with scales.
How to Teach Phoneme Segmentation
Use Manipulatives
Starting off with manipulatives is a great way to help students begin to understand segmentation. Assign phonemes to blocks or counters, and have students move them around as they segment the word.
Bring Out the Elkonin Boxes
If you're not familiar already, Elkonin boxes are grids that represent the number of phonemes in a word. Students can place a counter in each box as they segment the word.
Use Word Families
Word families can help students identify the common phonemes in a group of words.
For example, we'll talk about 'cat' again! The -at family includes words like cat, hat and mat. Students can practice segmenting these words and identifying the common phoneme.
Turn to Rhyming Words
In the way that word families help students identify common phonemes, rhyming words can do the same. If a student knows that 'cat' rhymes with 'hat,' they can identify that both words have the same ending sound (-at).
Map Sounds
Create a sound map for a word by writing it out and drawing a line between each phoneme. This helps students visualise the sounds in a word and identify where each sound occurs.
Make It Fun
This isn't exactly a strategy, but let's face it — it's an important part of engaging our students, and we've filled this collection with many of our favourite segmenting games!
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Phoneme Segmentation Worksheets - CVC Words
Use this worksheet pack to give students practice at segmenting words into phonemes.
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Letter Sound Worksheets - Initial, Medial, and Final Positions
Practise isolating initial, medial, and final letter sounds with a fun set of Letter Sound Worksheets for Year 1.
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CVC/CCVC/CVCC Word Flashcards
A comprehensive set of flashcards for CVC, CCVC, and CVCC words.
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Phoneme Segmentation Task Cards - CVC Words
Segment initial, middle and end sounds with this set of 20 CVC word task cards.
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Phoneme Segmentation Worksheets - CVCC/CCVC Words
Use this worksheet pack to give students practice at segmenting words into phonemes.
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Decodable Text Worksheets - Single Graphemes (Set 1)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
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Short and Long Vowels Activity Pack
Segment and sort these words into their short or long vowel sounds.
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Onset and Rime Match-Up Activity
Practise building words by matching the onset and the rime using this match up activity.
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Pop Phonemes - Segmenting Short Vowel Words
Review phoneme segmentation by popping each phoneme using these task cards.
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Onset and Rime Roll-a-Word Game
Build real and nonsense words by blending onsets and rimes with this hands-on literacy game.
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Introducing Phoneme Segmentation Teaching PowerPoint
Learn how to segment simple CVC words into their phonemes with this teacher-directed PowerPoint.
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SPLAT! Phoneme Segmentation Game
Practise segmenting one-syllable words into their phonemes with this fun game!
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Count and Colour Sounds - Phoneme Counting Worksheets
Count and colour the images that have 3 phonemes, 4 phonemes and 5 phonemes in this worksheet set.
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Stomp the Sounds - Phoneme Segmentation Activity
Stomp the sounds in words with this multi-sensory phoneme segmentation activity.
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TAP IT! Phoneme Segmentation Mats
Break down words into either 2, 3, or 4 phonemes with this set of 18 picture cards.
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Segmenting 4 Phonemes Activity - Smash It!
Practise segmenting words into four phonemes with this set of playdough smash task cards.
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Sorting 3 to 5 Phoneme Words - Segmentation Activity
Practise segmenting 3 - 5 phonemes in words in this sorting activity
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Phoneme Segmentation and Sorting Cut-and-Paste Worksheets
Count, cut and paste to practise segmenting words into their phonemes with this worksheet pack.
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Word Mapping Recording Sheets
Practise mapping out words and segmenting their phonemes using these word mapping templates.
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Counting Phonemes Interactive Activity
Help students segment 2-, 3- and 4-phoneme words into their distinct sounds with this engaging interactive resource.
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Beginning Sound Sort - Apple Edition
Practise letter-sound correspondence with this apple-themed letter/sound match-up center activity.
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Segmenting 3 Phonemes Activity - Smash It!
Practise segmenting 3-phoneme words with this set of playdough smash task cards.
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Count and Sort the Sounds Worksheet Pack
Sort words based on their number of phonemes in these fun ice-cream themed cut-and-paste worksheets.
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How Many Phonemes? Interactive Activity
Practise breaking words into their phonemes with this fun forrest-themed interactive activity.