Use diverse holiday books and phonemic awareness activities to make learning interactive and fun. Each activity incorporates seasonal themes and specific sounds to engage young readers in phonemic play.
Lights of Winter: Winter Celebrations Around the World by Heather Conrad
Sound Scavenger Hunt
As you read, ask students to listen for specific sounds (e.g., the /l/ sound in “lights” or /w/ in “winter”) and raise a finger when they hear it.
Rhyming Rings
Choose words from each winter celebration and help students find or make up rhymes.
Syllable Count
Clap and count the syllables of celebration names like “Hanukkah” or “Diwali.”
Beginning Sound Sort
Use words from the book and ask students to sort them by beginning sound.
Onset and Rime Match
Split words like “light” into onsets (/l/) and rimes (/ight/) and mix them up for students to match.
The Shortest Day by Susan Cooper
Rhyme Time
This book’s lyrical text is filled with rhymes. Have students point out or predict rhyming words on each page.
Final Sound Focus
Choose words ending in sounds like /t/ or /d/ and ask students to repeat the word, emphasizing the final sound.
Sound Match Up
Use words like “sun,” “day,” and “light,” and ask students to match other words with the same initial sounds.
Middle Sound Spotlight
Highlight words with different middle vowel sounds, such as “sun” and “day,” and sort them accordingly.
Alliteration Fun
Point out phrases in the book with alliteration and have students create their own winter alliteration.
Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard
Sound Segmenting – Break down multisyllabic words like “fry bread” or “gathering,” and have students segment each sound.
First Sound Relay – Use a relay activity where students take turns identifying the first sound in a chosen word, such as /f/ in “fry” or /b/ in “bread.”
Word Stretching – Practice stretching out words from the story, focusing on each sound to practice blending.
Syllable Scavenger Hunt – Find and clap syllables in family member names, food, and cultural terms from the book.
Creating Rhymes – After hearing words in the story, ask students to create their own rhyming words, even if they are nonsense words!
Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story by Angela Shelf Medearis
Word Blending – Choose words like “spool” and “thread” for students to blend sounds together.
Initial Sound Sorting – Use words from the book, like the seven principles, and ask students to sort by initial sounds.
Rhyme and Match – Identify rhyming pairs within the story, and have students draw matching pairs.
Sound Manipulation – Start with a word, like “red,” and have students substitute the beginning or ending sounds to make new words.
Counting Phonemes – Pick simple words (e.g., “red,” “black”) and have students count the individual sounds.
These books and activities offer a variety of ways for students to build their phonemic awareness, using seasonal stories that engage and inspire language play.