Ally Talk - fun daily phonemic awareness!

Ally the alligator is a colourful hand puppet with a huge mouth which opens and shuts as she speaks. But Ally only talks in sounds (phonemes), so she needs her clever helpers to blend the sounds together to hear/say her words.

Why does Ally only talk in sounds?

To read and write successfully children need to be able to hear and manipulate sounds in words. This is called phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness builds a strong foundation for teaching phonics for reading and spelling.

We first meet Ally in the book Milo’s Birthday Surprise:

When can I do Ally Talk in my classroom?

The Little Learners Love Literacy® sample plans and professional learning suggest doing Ally Talk around 3 times per week during Foundation terms 1 & 2, and 1-2 times per weeks in terms 3 & 4. Phonemic and phonological awareness warm-ups are scheduled at the start of every Little Learners Love Literacy ® lesson, and Ally Talk is one of these activities. 

Ally Talk activities do not involve any written letters or text - it's is purely oral.  Letter names should not be used. As students learn more of the alphabetic code, Little Learners Love Literacy® introduces more activities that practise phonemic awareness and phonics skills together. You can find these in the Teacher Activity Resource books under 'Phonemic and Phonics Fun'.

What ways can I vary Ally Talk?

Initial and final sound segmenting using names

Ally says a sound, and the student/s whose name begins with the sound stands up. Ally continues until every child is standing. Repeat in a different order until all children are sat down again. Try with the last sound in children's names as a more challenging variation.

What does Ally eat?

Display pictures of food e.g. types of fruit, on cards. Discuss each food item with students. Ally says a sound and children find food beginning with that sound and turn the card over. A student could be given the Ally puppet to do Ally Talk for their classmates to find the food Ally wants to eat.

What is it?

Ally sounds out different words and the teacher provides a clue. Children must identify the word.

• It is a pet. Listen to Ally say it: /d/o/g/.
• It is a colour. Listen to Ally say it: /r/e/d/.
• You read it. Listen to Ally say it: /b/oo/k/.
• You eat it. Listen to Ally say it: /j/a/m/.
• It is a number. Listen to Ally say it: /s/i/x/.

Ally spies with her little eye something beginning with .... (Ally says a sound). Use objects in the classroom like door, book, chair, window etc. Let students have a turn using Ally.

Where is it?

Children must identify if Ally's sound is at the beginning, middle or end of a word.

Ask children to draw three boxes on their mini whiteboards (or provide them with a card). Show a picture on the board, e.g. sun and discuss it with students. You say the word and children repeat it. Ally says a sound from the word e.g. /s/. Children repeat the word and point to the first, second or third box - if using mini whiteboards they could draw a dot in the right box and chin it to show their answers. Pick 2 or 3 nonvolunteers to tell you where they heard Ally's sound in the word. 

Repeat using other words using the same sound e.g. sock,  sand, skip, yes, bus. 

Start with the first sound as this is the easiest to segment followed by final sound. Then the medial vowel sound, which is the trickiest to hear.

Have fun with Ally in your classroom - contact the Little Learners team if you have any questions.