Add and Delete Phonemes Worksheets

Related ELA Standard: RF.K.3

Core Standard
Answer Keys Here

Phonemes are small units of sound that when perceived by the listener has the same affect. You can combine several phonemes to create words. As you will see in the worksheets, many different words that have a completely different premise use the same phonemes. You will begin to recognize the relationships between words by inserting and removing these units of sound.

Using Phonemes Worksheets To Print:

Adding Phonemes – Part sound scheduler and part spelling activity. Place the phoneme represented in the picture in the blanks to form a new word. Record the new word in the box.

Adding Phonemes 2 – Use the sound(s) and picture to determine the word. Place a new phoneme to the beginning, middle or end to form a new word.

Phonemes In Pictures – Apes, ice, and first aid kits.

Put It All Together – Box it all together to see what will stick.

Phoneme Boxes 2 – These are difficult for beginning readers.

/st/, /pl/, /sl, /sw/ Blends – Add the /st/ blend to phoneme represented in the picture to form a new word.

Correct Phonemes – Choose from the correct phonemes, represented, in the pictures to boxes to form new words.

Delete Common Letters – Delete the common letter from the words to form new words.

Phoneme Deletion – Perform phoneme deletion to form new words by removing the letter(s) indicated by the shading.

Where Did The Phoneme Go? – Shade in the correct box to indicate which phoneme (s) has or have been deleted.

Common Sounds – Delete the common sound from the words to form new words.

Form New Words – Delete the common sound from the words to form new words. When you take away the /v/ sound from the following words, what do you get?

/r/, /t/, and /h/ Deletion – Delete the /r/ sound from the following words, what do you get?

/n/, /d/, and /p/ Deletion – " Delete the /n/ sound from the following words, what do you get? See how it makes a difference in everyday words.

Vowel Deletion Delete the common vowel to form a new word. When I first saw this strategy I wish simply blown away by how cool it was. Hopefully students share my thoughts on this.

Breaking Words Down Into Sounds

The worksheets above help you understand the nature of different sounds by breaking the words into parts (segmenting). Students with great literacy skills often are ability to identify and chunk phonemes into new and creative ways. This is a vital skill to have when expressing your thoughts in the form of the written word. Phonemic awareness is the key to acquiring the ability to spell words well. It also helps students sound out words that are foreign to them.


A great way to learn to use phonemes is to hear a sound spoken orally and come up with examples of that sound used in words. This can be helped along with the use of pictures as prompts. The end goal is to be able to hear a phoneme and though the use of straight memory, have students identify a word that use the sound. We suggest to start working with words that contain phonemes towards the front-end of the word. Students usually pick up the skill quickly, when presented in this fashion.