Counting Syllables: Fun Activities + Teaching Tips

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Are you looking for fun ways to work on pre-reading skills? Maybe you are wondering how in the world to teach counting syllables. Or why we need to teach counting syllables in the first place!?

Wondering how to teach syllable division or identifying syllables to your kindergartener or preschooler?

Well, then you are in the right place!

Counting syllables is another great tool to teach your child that can help improve their spelling and reading skills. It is also sometimes a largely overlooked skill since it doesn’t directly involve spelling or reading.

In this post we’ll discuss

• what exactly a syllable is
• why being able to count syllables is so important
• different ways to identify syllables in words
• a few rules for counting how many syllables are in a word
• tips and ideas for teaching counting syllables
• a few fun (and free!) syllable games and activities

I’ve got some great activities and ideas for learning and practicing counting syllables, so be sure to sign up at the bottom of the post to get access to them in my freebie library!

Ok, let’s get started!

What is a Syllable?

Syllables can be tricky to define. Merriam Webster defines a syllable as

“a unit of spoken language that is next bigger than a speech sound and consists of one or more vowel sounds alone or of a syllabic consonant alone or of either with one or more consonant sounds preceding or following”

Merriam-Webster.com

What?! I’m not sure I even got that, so I can’t expect my kindergartner or first grader to understand that definition.

Most elementary teachers teach syllables as being a part of a word or a word chunk. This is much easier for young learners to understand.

There are several rules for dividing words into syllables. We’ll get into them later on in the post. Words can have 1, 2, 3, 4 syllables, or more! Here are some examples:

• 1-syllable words: at, bat, pan, sat, big, look, make
• 2-syllable words: oven, tiger, locker, bigger
• 3-syllable words: beautiful, coloring, butterfly

Why is counting Syllables so Important?

Syllable counting is a pre-reading skill. Learning syllable counting increases a child’s phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate distinct phonemes, or distinct sounds.

As children pay attention to the different syllables in words and sound them out, they will become more aware of the individual sounds in words. When they get to reading, sounding out words usually comes easier to children who are well-versed in counting syllables. Counting syllables helps them learn to decode, which is essential to reading fluency later.

If your young learner is having trouble with pronunciation, syllable counting can help. We tend to slow down our speech when we are counting syllables. This can really help children struggling with pronunciation because now they can really hear each sound they should be saying. Maybe they just weren’t hearing a sound before, but slowing down has made it more clear to them.

Finding Syllables in a Word

There are closed-syllables, which end in a consonant. These most often have a short vowel sound in them. For example, pig.

There are open-syllables, which end in a vowel sound and most often contain a long vowel sound.

Many syllables have the pattern -vce (vowel-consonant-e), as in game. The e on the end creates the long vowel sound.

The word ending -cle (consonant followed by le) is another very common syllable that young readers and spellers will encounter. This can be found in words like pur-ple, ta-ble, or fiz-zle.

Vowel teams are very common in early word lists, too. Words like street, sheep, beach, or juice.

Syllables are also split at compound words. For example, my-self, down-town, or rail-way are all split this way.

The last type of common syllable that I’ll mention is double letter. Words like mat-ter, pud-dle, and sum-mer get divided into syllables this way.

There has to be one vowel sound per syllable, so if your child is a bit older and knows all their vowels, you could have them look at the word and divide it that way, too.

Be sure they are looking for vowel sounds and not just vowels. Syllables are done by sound, not spelling.

How to Teach Syllables to Children

There are a few ways that most teachers (or parents!) teach counting syllables.

Clapping

The most common way, I think, is clapping. For example,

“Let’s count the syllables in drummer. Drum-mer (clap clap).” (There’s one of those double consonant syllable divisions I was talking about earlier!)

Children love to work with their name, so one of the first words I use when I work with my kids is their name. Then their siblings’ names, then my name, our pets’ names…anything they get excited about. If they have a favorite cartoon or cook then use character names from that!

Chin Drop

Another common, yet I think, trickier way to count syllables is by feeling the “chin drops” when you speak the word. If your child holds their hand just under his or her chin, they will count a syllable each time their chin touches their hand. Personally, I think this way to be tricky and require very big movements with my mouth, but it works for some.

Robot Speak

Another fun way I like to teach counting syllables is with “robot speak”. If you talk like a robot (or your kids do), you will naturally break the words into syllables.

Think “How-are-you-do-ing-this-morn-ing?” (read to yourself in your best robot voice!)

Robot talking can be a fun and silly way for kids to work on their syllables.

Listen for Vowel Sounds

Since each syllable contains just one vowel sounds, you can also listen for the sounds as you and your child say the words. This does tend to work better for older children, but younger ones can pick it up well, too.

For example, the word “tractor” has a short a vowel sound in the “trac” syllable and an r-controlled o sound in the “or” syllable. So, two vowel sounds, two syllables.

The Hum Method

This one can get fun! Instead of speaking words to count the number of syllables, try humming them. When we “hum-speak”, we naturally break the words into their syllables. For example, “tractor” becomes “hmm-mmm”….see, 2 syllables! You can do single words or hum whole phrases or sentences and try to guess what you and your child is saying!

Jump Method

If your kiddo is really active, then “jumping” syllables could be right up his or her alley. I know right now we are “jumping” to our sight words and Miss T loves it! As you say each syllable just jump in the air. You usually say just one syllable per jump naturally, so it helps children become familiar with breaking words into syllables. You can just jump in place, stomp your feet, or you can hop around the house like bunnies or frogs! Make it fun and your little learner will be a syllable master in no time.

Fun Activities for Counting Syllables

Syllable Count and Clip Cards

My girls love everything princess and fairy tale. So, when it was time to work on counting syllables, I created these Fairy Tale Themed Count and Clip Syllable Cards!

Students look at the picture and say the word, broken down by syllables. The pictures are easy to name, too. My four-year-old, who cannot read, was able to catch on very quickly and start participating, too. This is a beginner set, so there are mostly one- and two-syllable words, with a few threes sprinkled in.

Here is a quick peek at one page of the cards. There are three pages in the download, for a total of 18 cards.

Syllable Picture Cards

This pack of 40 picture cards has pictures that range from one syllable all the way up to five syllables. Your child can count the syllables in each word and then sort them. I’ve also included cards with the numbers 1-5 on them to make the sorting a bit easier. My girls love sorting activities of all types and this was so exception! They loved looking at the real-life photos, too. Sometimes I go with cutesy pictures like I did in the fairy-tale clip cards above, but I think including real-life photos is important. This activity is also great if your child is not a fairy-tail princess fan!

You can grab these syllable sorting picture cards for free simply by signing up at the bottom of this post.

Counting syllables can be a really fun activity and will come in handy when students are trying to sound out words and spell them on their own later. So, have fun with it.

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