Emergent Literacy
by: Ruth Scroggins
"Words In A Sentence"

larger units of sound-words. "They must be able to differentiate words from syllables, and eventually they must become able to hear phonemes in both words and syllables (Eldredge, pg. 51)."  This will help children begin to learn to differentiate between words and syllables by taking that first step toward understanding units of sound.

For the first lesson you will need the following:
Index cards or sentence strip cards with sentences written on them, one word on each card.  Example sentence:  We had fun at school.  Be sure not to make them too long or confusing.
You will also need an assessment sheet with a selected number of sentences from the book, You Are Special by Max Lucado (you will also need a copy of the book).
1.  First read the book, You Are Special to the class.  Be sure to allow the class time to discuss the book.
2.  "Today we are going to play a game with sentences.  A sentence is not only made up of words we say, but they are also made up of words we write.  For every word you say, there is a way to write it.  For example, the sentence 'I love you.' has three words: I, love, and you (write these on the board as you say them.  Here, you can use a sentence from the book as your example)."
3.  Tell students:  "Now I am going to pick five of you to stand in front of the class and help me with something.  I will give each of you a card to hold with one of the words I say on it."  Sentence:  We had fun at school.
4.  Start the game.  I will read the sentence aloud, pointing at each word as I say it.
5.  I will then tell the students "I will read the sentence again and when I say the word that you are holding, raise it above your head like this."
6.  We will then move to the next part of the game.  "Class, I want everyone in their seats to close your eyes.  I am going to take one of the words away (turn one of the cards around or take one away).  Now everyone can open your eyes.  Who can tell me what word is missing?"  Let the class guess.
7.  Continue this with other words in the sentence.
8.  Assessment: Give them a sheet with around five sentences on it.  Ask children to count how many words are in each sentence.
J. Lloyd Eldredge, 1995.  Teaching Decoding In Holistic Classrooms:  Developing Phonemic Awareness Through Stories, Games, and Songs.  Pp. 61-62.