Clapping syllables

Ages 6 to 8 Read together, then try alone · about 15 minutes

Read together

Words are made of beats called syllables. You can clap them.

Butterfly has three claps: but, ter, fly. Sun has one clap.

Hearing syllables helps you read and spell long words.

Do it

1. Clap your name. How many syllables does it have?
2. Write ten words on cards: cat, apple, banana, elephant, computer, hippopotamus, sun, family, umbrella, school.
3. Say each word, clap its syllables and put it in a column: one, two, three or more.
4. Find the longest word you can. Then make a new word of five syllables, silly or real.

Talk about it

• Which word had the most syllables?
• How can syllables help you spell?

For the grown-up

Breaking words into syllables is a key skill for reading and spelling. It works in every language. Filipino and Spanish words are built from clear syllables, which makes this game easy to play in those languages too.

Mark as done

Next lesson →

Where this comes from

• National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000)
• Linnea C. Ehri et al., “Phonemic Awareness Instruction Helps Children Learn to Read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel's Meta-Analysis”, Reading Research Quarterly 36 (2001): 250 to 287

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.