Breaking Words into Sounds

🎯 What You'll Learn

You will learn to break a word into its individual sounds. Each small sound in a word is called a phoneme.

🌟 Let's Start

In Unit 1, you learned to break words into syllables (big parts). Now we will break words into even smaller parts — individual sounds! The word cat has three sounds: /k/ - /a/ - /t/. This skill is very important for learning to read.

📚 New Concept

Segmenting means breaking a word into its separate sounds.

Say the word slowly and stretch each sound:

• sun → /s/ - /u/ - /n/ (3 sounds)
• dog → /d/ - /o/ - /g/ (3 sounds)
• map → /m/ - /a/ - /p/ (3 sounds)
• fish → /f/ - /i/ - /sh/ (3 sounds — sh is one sound!)
• hand → /h/ - /a/ - /n/ - /d/ (4 sounds)

How to segment:

1. Say the word slowly.
2. Stretch out each sound.
3. Hold up one finger for each sound you hear.

Try it with red: rrr - eee - ddd. Three fingers up. Three sounds!

🎮 Let's Practice

1. Break pen into its sounds. How many sounds?
2. Break sit into its sounds. How many sounds?
3. Break lamp into its sounds. How many sounds?

Click to see answers

1. pen → /p/ - /e/ - /n/ = 3 sounds.
2. sit → /s/ - /i/ - /t/ = 3 sounds.
3. lamp → /l/ - /a/ - /m/ - /p/ = 4 sounds.

💡 Remember

Every word is made of small sounds called phonemes. Breaking words into sounds is called segmenting. This is a superpower for reading!