Syllable Counting

Syllable Counting
 Objective:
The students will indicate the number of syllables they hear in a word. The students will also
visualize the movement of syllables in words to create nonsense words.
Materials:
•  Plastic counter chips or any other appropriate counters such as pennies, colored
discs, or small manipulatives
•  A flat surface on which the students can move their counters
•  Word list for the teacher
Lesson:
The students each have a set of chips and a flat surface in front of them. Place a set of chips in front of yourself. Review syllables and syllable counting. Then,
1.  Say, “I am going to call out a word and I want you to show me how many syllables
are in the word by selecting a chip for each syllable. Move the chips up and place
them in a line from left to right.”
2.  Call out the word today, pushing two chips to the line to represent the syllables,
to-day. Have the students move their chips in the same manner.
3.  Ask the students to place a finger on the first chip and say to. Then ask them to
place a finger on the second chip and say day.
4.  Instruct the students to move the first chip to the other side of the second chip
and call out the silly word they have created, dayto.
5.  Continue the lesson using different words.
Adaptations:
Adapt for identifying and manipulating multisyllabic words (e.g., hopefully: hope-ful-ly), as well
as for the identification and manipulation of individual phonemes (e.g., cat: /k/, /a/, /t/).