Sound Detectives Teacher Guide
🔍
Tier 3 Intervention • Kindergarten
Sound Detectives Teacher Guide
Pacing: 30 Minutes
Group Size: 1-4 Students
Skill: Pre-Segmentation PA
Instructional Focus: Build foundational phonological awareness for students with no letter-sound knowledge. Heavy emphasis on auditory discrimination, motor reinforcement, mouth shapes, and zero print decoding burden.
1. Listening (5m) Animal & voice sounds
2. Words (6m) Sentence stepping stones
3. Syllables (7m) Clap, tap & chin drops
4. Rhyme & Sound (12m) Thumbs up & mouth gym
1
Sound Safari: Environmental & Voice Awareness (5 Min)
Warm-Up
Goal: Train ears to notice sound presence, volume, and mimicry before focusing on speech phonemes.
TEACHER SCRIPT (Verbatim):
"Put on your invisible detective glasses! (Cup hands around eyes). Detectives have super ears. Close your eyes and listen: what sound do you hear? (Tap pencil, then clap hands). Now copy my voice: 'Moooo' (deep). Now whisper: 'Moooo' (quiet). High pitch: 'Cheep cheep'! Excellent ears!"
Kinetic Cue: Cup hand behind ear when listening; touch chest when repeating back.
2
Word Hoppers: Sentence Boundaries (6 Min)
Concept of Word
Goal: Realize that spoken speech is made of distinct separate words, not one long continuous blur.
TEACHER SCRIPT (I Do / We Do / You Do):
"Look at our stepping stones on the mat. Watch me push one counter for every word: 'I... like... cats.' (Push 3 tokens smoothly). How many words? Let's count: 1, 2, 3! Now together: 'Birds can fly.' Tap a stone for each word! Push: 'Birds'... 'can'... 'fly'."
Practice Sentences: 1. "Dogs run fast." (3) • 2. "I see sunshine." (3) • 3. "We eat red apples." (4).
3
Syllable Beats: Chunking Big Sounds (7 Min)
Syllable Clapping
Goal: Hear that words have big rhythmic chunks without isolating individual difficult letters.
MULTI-SENSORY TECHNIQUE (The Chin Drop):
"Put your flat hand right under your chin! Whenever your mouth opens wide, your chin bumps your hand. Say: 'Mon-key'. How many bumps? Two bumps! Let's clap it: 'Mon-key' (2 claps). Now try: 'El-e-phant'. Count the chin bumps: 'El-e-phant'! Three bumps!"
Word Bank: 1-beat: "cat", "sun" • 2-beats: "ti-ger", "wa-ter", "pen-cil" • 3-beats: "di-no-saur", "ba-na-na".
Sound Detectives Intervention Series • Page 1 of 2 Tier 3 Kindergarten Early Literacy Foundation
👂
Sound Detectives Teacher Guide (Routines 4 & 5 + Diagnostic Guide)
Page 2
4
Rhyme Detective: Sound Matchers (6 Min)
Rhyme Recognition
Goal: Detect if two spoken words end with the exact same sound pattern (auditory recognition, not production).
TEACHER SCRIPT:
"Words rhyme when their tails sound the exact same! Listen: 'cat... hat'. Do they rhyme? Yes, tails match! Thumbs up! 👍 Now listen: 'cat... dog'. Do they rhyme? No! Different tails! Thumbs down! 👎 Let's test your ears: 'sun... run'? 'pig... wig'? 'bed... fish'?"
Kinesthetic Rule: Students give thumbs up or thumbs down on their desk mat. Never ask Tier 3 students to generate rhymes yet—only identify matches!
5
Mouth Gym: Anchor Sounds /m/ & /s/ (4 Min)
Sound-Feel Connection
Goal: Introduce tactile mouth positioning for two continuous, highly distinct sounds. Avoid letter name confusion.
👄 Sound Anchor 1: /m/ ("Yummy Sound")
Press both lips together firmly. Hum into your nose. Rub your belly: "Mmmmmm! Monkey! Milk! Moon!" Feel the tickle on your lips!
🐍 Sound Anchor 2: /s/ ("Hissing Snake")
Teeth lightly together, smile wide, blow cool air forward: "Sssssss! Sun! Snake! Sock!" Hold your hand out to feel the cool breeze!
Crucial Rule: Do not say letter names ("M" or "S") or add "uh" to the end (say /mmm/, not "muh"; say /sss/, not "suh").
⚠️ Tier 3 Quick Error Correction Pathways
If student counts syllables as individual words:
Place student's hand on your throat. Model one continuous voice buzz for one word, then model two distinct breaks for two words.
If student guesses "Yes" to every rhyme:
Exaggerate the ending sound: "Cat... b-AT! Both say -AT!" Contrast with a wildly different ending: "Cat... FISH! No way!"
If student adds a "schwa" (/muh/, /suh/):
Model the "pure sound" by humming /mmm/ continuously for 3 seconds without ever opening the mouth to say "uh".
If student has low focus or frustration:
Use high-energy physical motions: jump on floor dots, stand up and sit down, or use the finger-tap puppet routine.
Wrap-Up & High-Five Affirmation (2 Min):
Give each student their "Sound Detective Stamp" or sticker on their activity sheet. Have them whisper the /m/ sound as they high-five your hand, then whisper the /s/ sound as they tap their detective badge.
Sound Detectives Intervention Series • Page 2 of 2 Science of Reading Aligned (Pre-Phonemic Stage)
Sound Safari Slides
🔍 👂 🦁
Tier 3 Intervention • Kindergarten
Sound Detectives!
Put on your detective ears! Today we listen, hop, clap, and discover sounds.
👂
Detective Ears Warm-Up
Routine 1
🤫
Super Quiet
Close eyes & listen...
🐮
Low Voice
Deep like a cow: "Moooo!"
🐥
High Voice
Gentle chick: "Cheep!"
Detective Action: Cup your hands around your ears!
🐸
Word Hoppers
Routine 2
Listen to the whole sentence:
"Dogs run fast."
1
🐕
Dogs
2
💨
run
3
⚡
fast!
3 Stepping Stones = 3 Words!
🐾
Hop Each Word!
Routine 2
Touch a token for every word:
"We eat red apples."
1
We
2
eat
3
red
4
apples
How many words did you hop? 4 words!
🥁
Syllable Beats
Routine 3
🐵
Mon - key
1 2
2 Claps • 2 Chin Bumps
🐘
El - e - phant
1 2 3
3 Claps • 3 Chin Bumps
Hand under your chin: feel each drop!
🔎
Rhyme Detective
Routine 4
Do their tails sound the same?
🐱 & 👒
"Cat" and "Hat"
👍 Rhyme Match!
🐱 & 🐶
"Cat" and "Dog"
👎 No Match!
Show thumbs up 👍 if they match! Thumbs down 👎 if they don't!
👄
Mouth Gym: /m/
Routine 5
😋
/mmmmmm/
The "Yummy" Sound
Lips tight together. Rub your tummy!
🐒
Monkey
/m/ - Monkey
🌙
Moon
/m/ - Moon
🥛
Milk
Sound Detectives Progress Tracker
📋
RTI / MTSS Tier 3 Monitoring
Sound Detectives Progress Tracker
Session Date: ___________
Interventionist: ___________
Scoring Legend:
- Mastered (Independent) P Emerging (Prompted) - Not Yet Demonstrated
| Target Skill & Observable Criterion | Student 1
Name: ______ | Student 2
Name: ______ | Student 3
Name: ______ | Student 4
Name: ______ |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1. Sound & Voice Awareness Attends to sounds, mimics high/low/animal pitch without prompting | | | | |
| 2. Spoken Word Boundaries Pushes 1 token per spoken word for 3-4 word sentences (no skipping/blurring) | | | | |
| 3. Syllable Chunking & Clapping Identifies 1, 2, or 3 chin bumps/claps for spoken target words | | | | |
| 4. Rhyme Recognition Correctly signals 👍 or 👎 for matching vs non-matching ending sounds | | | | |
| 5. Tactile Sound Anchors (/m/, /s/) Demonstrates mouth shape & pure continuous sound without schwa ("muh"/"suh") | | | | |
Interventionist Qualitative Observations & Error Notes Record specific speech patterns or confusions
Student 1 Notes:
Student 2 Notes:
Student 3 Notes:
Student 4 Notes:
RTI Decision & Next Steps for Next Session
Repeat Routine:
Keep practicing word hops and chin drops with physical counters.
Ready to Advance:
Begin introducing onset-rime isolation (e.g., /m/ - ouse).
Speech / Hearing Referral:
Consult SLP if student cannot mimic pure continuous sounds.
Sound Detectives Intervention Series • Page 1 of 1 Confidential Tier 3 Student Record