About this activity
Twelve words sorted by how many sounds they contain: me and up have two; cat, ship, tree, sun and chin have three; stop, flag, desk and hand have four; plant has five. Several of them are designed to catch letter-counting — ship has four letters and three sounds, tree has four letters and three sounds, and chin has four letters and three sounds.
How to use it in a session
Have the student tap or use counters rather than saying a number. A physical marker per sound makes the counting checkable and stops a guess passing as an answer. Do the two- and three-sound words first, and use the digraph words to make the letters-against-sounds point explicitly — it will come up anyway, and naming it is faster than letting it confuse them.
What to listen for
Watch the digraph words specifically. A student who says ship has four sounds is counting letters, which is a reasonable inference and the exact confusion this board surfaces. Notice tree, where the two consonants at the start are separate sounds even though they run together, and plant, where four consonants around one vowel is the hardest count in the set.
Carrying it home
Counting sounds in a name is a good place to start, because children find their own name interesting. Tapping it out takes five seconds and the answer is often surprising.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten through second grade, alongside segmenting work.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all twelve words play free in the browser.
- Why does 'ship' have three sounds and four letters?
- Because sh is a digraph — two letters making one sound. Sounds and letters do not correspond one to one in English, and counting sounds is the skill reading depends on.