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5 fun syllable activities

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Looking for fun syllable activities? You’ve hit the jackpot!

My preschooler had so much fun with these free syllable sorting cards. The other syllable activities are great too - especially the jumping one!

(This post contains affiliate links.)

Hamburger.  Ham-bur-ger.

Macaroni. Mac-a-ro-ni.

Motorcycle. Mo-tor-cy-cle.

Did you know that the ability to break words into syllables is an important part of phonological awareness? Phonological awareness.  That’s a big teacher-y word, but it’s easy to define.

Phonological awareness = the awareness of sounds within words

Kids need phonological awareness before they learn to read. That’s why I’m sharing six fun ways to teach kids how to count syllables as part of our Get Ready for Kindergarten series. And here’s some great news – counting syllables is fun!

My preschooler had so much fun with these free syllable sorting cards. The other syllable activities are great too - especially the jumping one!

1. Jump.

First, I used painter’s tape to make a numbered ladder on the floor.  My Four stood behind the first line. Then I held up a picture card (get them at the end of this post), and he jumped once for each syllable.

“Ham-bur-ger.”  He looked down to see what number he was standing on.  That’s how many syllables the word had.

He loved this and breezed through 24 cards in no time!

My preschooler had so much fun with these free syllable sorting cards. The other syllable activities are great too - especially the jumping one!

2. Sort pictures.

Next, I put the 1,2,3 and 4 syllable headers on our pocket chart.  My Two handed her older brother one card at at time. He named the picture, breaking it into syllables as he did so. Finally, he filed the picture under the proper header.

I showed him how to clap the syllables, but he only needed to do that once. By saying each word slowly, he easily counted the syllables. “Cal-cu-la-tor.  Four!”

My preschooler had so much fun with these free syllable sorting cards. The other syllable activities are great too - especially the jumping one!

3. Sort objects.

My Seven and Nine gathered toys for me that were one, two, three, or four syllables. Then I provided some sorting containers for my preschooler to sort them.

My preschooler had so much fun with these free syllable sorting cards. The other syllable activities are great too - especially the jumping one!

4. Manipulate.

Print these free cards from This Reading Mama. Then give your child small counters to move, one at a time, as he says each syllable. Have him count the manipulatives to see how many syllables are in each word.

My preschooler had so much fun with these free syllable sorting cards. The other syllable activities are great too - especially the jumping one!

5. Build.

Check out This Reading Mama’s post about counting syllables with duplo bricks – you’ll also get a set of free picture cards.

My preschooler had so much fun with these free syllable sorting cards. The other syllable activities are great too - especially the jumping one!

6. Clip it!

Just grab our free syllable clip cards, and have your child clip the correct number of syllables with a clothespin.

And there you have it – six hands-on ways to teach syllables!

Get the free sorting cards below.  You’ll find a total of 48 cards, in three different formats – depending on how much ink you want to use. 😉  Make sure you select the pages you want instead of printing the whole document.

Get your free syllable activities!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD

YOU’LL LOVE OUR NO-PRINT BUNDLE!

Early Reading No-Print Bundle

$12.00

Your students can complete these activities in Google Slides on a computer or tablet – no printing necessary! The resource includes activities for rhyming, syllable counting, beginning sounds, and upper/lowercase matching.

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52 Comments

  4. Marianthi Arvanitidou

    Hello, I am Marianthi ,a primary school teacher from Greece, Your idea with cards is excellent. I loved it. Fortunately , greek language has words with many syllabels and your idea hels students to learn easier.I wanted to use them , but I cant print them. Anyway you are very clever and excellent teacher. My best wishes let follow you!

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      Hi Marianthi! Underneath the post is a link that says “is the file not downloading? or is it not printing correctly?” If you click there you’ll probably find the solution to your printing problem.

      Reply to this comment

  9. Ann V.

    I love these cards, thank you! If you are teaching on a carpet, you can use chalk to make the jumping lines instead of painter’s tape. I use it all the time! Another chalk activity is to make letter boxes and sort objects by their first, last or middle sound.

    Reply to this comment

  10. SALEH MUHAMMAD

    YOUR WORK AND CREATION’S ARE VERY HELPFUL FOR MY SCHOOL TEACHER AND STUDENTS.
    MY SCHOOL IS LOCATED IN VERY BACKWARD AREA OF PAKISTAN (QUETTA NAWA KILLI BALOCHISTAN) .WE ARE ALL VERY THANKFUL TO YOU WITH THE CORE OF OUR HEARTS AND WE ALL PRAY FOR THAT GOD GIVE ALL WHAT YOU WANT TO ACHIVE . THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.
    YOUR BEST WISHER’S
    ALL STAF AND STUDENTS OF IQRA ISLAMI PRIMARY SCHOOL NAWA KILLI BALOCHISTAN , PAKISTAN.

    Reply to this comment

  16. Emily

    Hello! I would love the cards that first appear on the page- the ones that are in the pocket chart with the clapping hands and numbered heading 1-4, then the picture cards with words. I have scoured the page for the link to the them, but have only found links to the other card sets.
    Thank you!
    Emily

    Reply to this comment

  21. Ruth Scicluna

    Hi thanks for sharing these lovely ideas. It`s very nice of you. You are an inspiration to me and many others, I work as a learning support educator in Malta and I can`t wait to use these beautiful ideas with the students I support. thanks so much xx

    Reply to this comment

Trackbacks

  8. […] Show them that although REACT and SPEAK have the same letters EA, they are pronounced very differently so re-act has 2 syllables while speak has only one.  HAT and HATE have a different number of written vowels but they both only have one syllable because the E at the end of hate doesn’t have a sound but rather changes the sound of the preceding A.  For some fun games for learning syllable stress check out this blog by the Measured Mom: Tools for Teaching. […]

    Reply to this comment

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