Make learning to read a joyful adventure! Start with sounds children know and love: gurgling baby talk, a cat’s meow or purr, balls bouncing, trucks roaring. By playing with these fun, everyday sounds, we can make phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, and writing completely natural and easy.
MAKING NONSENSE INTO WORDS
Begin with the freedom of nonsense. Ask your prereaders to make sounds they made as babies, like "Wah, Wah, Wah" or "Ma, Ma, Ma”. Type their sounds to appear on a large screen or print them on large paper. As you do so explore the question: "How do we show that sound in writing?" This shows the children how their sounds can be represented in text. It’s the perfect means to enable children to observe the sound-to-text connection. What better way to introduce and reinforce phonemic awareness and phonics. Be sure to repeat the sound at least 3 times.
Explain that this first repeating-sound-line is called the chant line. Next, ask them what the baby is trying to say with their chant. Are they hungry? Happy? Their answer becomes the second, or "explaining," line. Then explain that the two lines, the chant and the explaining line, together make a stanza. Yes, it makes sense to teach stanzas before paragraphs.
Wah, Wah, Wah
The baby is hungry
Once they grasp the pattern, write longer poems together, turning simple sounds into short poems.
Ma, ma, ma
Baby asks for a bottle
Foo, foo, foo
My diapers are full!
THE CALL OF THE WILD
Once baby talk as poetry play is mastered, apply the same process to the animal kingdom! Kids will enthusiastically share their best "Moo," "Woof," or "Meow" and they’ll love filling a barnyard with sunrise sounds. After chanting and choosing an animal sound, write it as the chant line, then ask what the animal is asking for or saying.
Woof, woof, woof
Is the dog afraid?
Woof, woof, woof
The dog is lonely
Woof, woof, woof
The dog is sad.
Thirdly, explore repetitive sounds connected to actions like the RRR of cars, the Rattle of trucks, and the Whoosh of the wind.
Bounce, Bounce, Bounce
The ball bounces on the floor
Bounce, Bounce, Bounce
The ball bounces out the door
Bounce, Bounce, Bounce
The dog pounces on the bouncing ball
WHY THIS WORKS
This blending of familiar sounds with the chant pattern helps children see that poetry can echo a sound or mirror an action. The repeating chant line builds confidence in speaking and decoding making this an ideal activity for beginning readers. Turning noises into structured poems builds a playful foundation and is the best way to introduce phonemic awareness, phonics, text, composition, and decoding!
The repetitive, rhythmic nature of chants engages early readers and builds confidence while children explore and create text-based word patterns.
Sound play into poetry: the magical beginning for reading
Jon Madian
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September 17, 2025
| Post Type: Short Posts
This post shows how baby talk, animal sounds, and action noises can become playful chants that naturally build phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, and early writing through joyful sound-to-text discovery.