I love using books to practice building phonological and phonemic awareness skills. These books provide fun and engaging auditory practice in the form of an entertaining read aloud!
There are so many great opportunities to practice phonemic awareness skills during the school day, but we often pass by them because we are focused on other things.
You can use most books to practice a phonemic awareness skill or two but some are just perfect for adding that teachable moment into your day. 👩🏽🏫
These phonemic awareness books are fun for you to read, and engaging for your students! I have listed the skills I practice when we read them in my room but many of them lend themselves to more than one type of practice.
Have fun reading them and take advantage of all of those practice opportunities! #doubleduty
10 Inviting Phonemic Awareness Books Your Students Will Love
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Do you know the difference between phonological awareness and phonemic awareness? I used these terms interchangeably for years, but they’re actually quite different. Read this post to learn the difference phonological awareness VS phonemic awareness.
Phonological Awareness Books
Since phonological awareness and phonemic awareness activities build on each other, I like to practice a few phonological awareness skills first.
Even if some of your kiddos have mastered hearing and manipulating words, syllables, and onset and rime, it never hurts to use these phonological awareness books as extra practice!
Sound Discrimination
Many Marvelous Monsters
The marvelous monsters love to show off their skills in a silly talent show. For example, purple Pete wears a plaid pullover and performs a puppet show.
Kids will love listening to the silly alliterations in this book! They practice sound discrimination as they listen for each monster’s special beginning sound.
Fox in Socks
It’s important for readers to practice sound discrimination at the end of words, too. Fox in Socks is the perfect book to practice end of word sound discrimination.
Kids are captivated by the fun story and will get plenty of practice with this classic Dr. Seuss book.
Warning: these tongue twisters are no joke! Get ready for lots of giggles as you read them! ☺️
Rhyming
Sheep in a Jeep
These sheep in a jeep get into some deep (muddy) trouble as they travel. Simple rhymes finish each page in a pattern that is easy for students to anticipate.
This beloved book is a great option when practice rhyming because the story is engaging and the rhymes are easily completed by listeners.
Is Your Mama a Llama?
In this classic book, a baby llama walks around asking other animals about their mamas. Each page has a riddle that leads to the name of baby animal. The riddles are rhythmic and include wonderful vocabulary as well.
Kids love to “guess” the animal by completing the rhyme. There are a few tricky ones in there which makes it extra fun!
Don’t be Silly, Mrs. Millie
Mrs. Millie is always getting things mixed up. She mixes up similar sounding words by changing the sounds. It’s easy to figure out what she’s really trying to say if you can find the rhyme.
Kids love trying to figure out which word she’s trying to say. There is a ton of phoneme and syllable manipulation in this book which makes it perfect for practice phonemic awareness skills as well.
Note: This is a whole series so if your kids can’t get enough of Silly Mrs. Millie, don’t worry! There are more books! 👏
Syllables
The Word Collector
Some people collect stamps, but Jerome collects words. He likes all kinds: short and sweet words, two syllable treats and multisyllable words that sound like songs. That is why I love using this book to practice syllables.
We can categorize Jerome’s favorite words by the number of syllables and make our own list of favorite words that we have collected, too!
Tanka, Tanka, Skunk
This fun (and silly!) book is perfect for practicing syllables. It tells kids to keep a beat as they hear the different words in the book. There are all sorts of animals sounds to practice on. They will love counting the syllables.
The fun rhythm of this book will have kids begging to hear it again and again. (I can tell you this from experience. 😉) You probably won’t mind reading it, either, because it is such excellent practice!
Phonemic Awareness Books
Phoneme Manipulation
Runny Babbit
This billy sook…I mean SILLY BOOK switches around all sorts of sounds. Shel Silverstein uses common phrases and switches beginning phonemes and syllables around.
Kids will have fun catching the mix ups and correcting them. They also may get a kick out of watching you read it. It can be super tricky to get all of the words out! 😂
The Hungry Thing
The Hungry Thing is…you guessed it! HUNGRY! He points at a sign that says “Feed Me” and asks for shmanckases, but no one quite knows what those are. A little boy figures it out. He wants pancakes!
Kids will love telling you what Hungry Thing wants to eat next as they practice changing the phoneme in the word. It’s a win-win!
I like to extend this activity with a turn and talk activity. I ask the kids to change their favorite food into a “Hungry Thing” word. This gives them the chance to practice changing phonemes on their own, too!
Cock-A-Doodle-Moo
One day a rooster on a farm wakes up with laryngitis. He needs to find someone else to wake up the farm. He asks Cow for help. Cow tries to say cock-a-doodle-doo correctly but really has trouble with those phonemes!
This adorable book follows Cow as he switches around the phonemes in that tricky phrase. Kids have fun switching them back to help Cow wake the farm up in the morning. 🐄
These phonemic awareness books are not just my favorites. They’re my students’ favorite books, too! They love the engaging stories, fun rhythm and questions and answers. I love that they are loving books and we are getting extra practice in such important skills. You just can’t go wrong with these read alouds!
What other books are perfect to teach phonological and phonemic awareness? Let me know below! 👇
If you’re looking for more opportunities to practice phonemic awareness, check out these excellent phonemic awareness videos!
