Phonemic Awareness: Using Songs... Apples and Bananas

Here is a fun song to sing with kids that allows children to play with sounds. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear sounds in words.  Teaching this can be tricky, but here is one fun song that can be used.  

I like to put the words on a chart so I can point to the words as we sing.  This helps children to learn that the letters on the paper make words that we can read or sing.  

It will also help your child learn common sight words they will later read in books.  In this song, the sight words include: I, like, to, and the word and.  

Sight words are words that are frequently found in books or text that children need to learn to read on sight.  They should not stop to sound out these words.  Here is a list of sight words your child will need to learn to read.

Apples and Bananas

 http://www.songsforteaching.com/

      Listen to this song.

This song is available, along with extension activities, is available on
Music Mania: A Complete Early Childhood Curriculum

 This traditional song is a classic for drawing children's attention to awareness.

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas 

I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas 

A

I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays

I like to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays

E

I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees

I like to eat, eat, eat ee-ples and bee-nee-nees

I

I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys

I like to ite, ite, ite i-ples and by-ny-nys

O

I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos

I like to ote, ote, ote oh-ples and bo-no-nos

U

I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noos

I like to oot, oot, oot oo-ples and boo-noo-noos