For this strategy, students will be divided into three teams; beginning sound(s), middle sound, and ending sound(s). Once students are divided into teams, the teacher will say a word aloud. This word may be one from the lesson or one from the phonics/ECRI lesson that is being taught for the day. Once the teacher has said the word, the students as a group are responsible for determining the letters and sound that corresponds with their given team (beginning, middle, or ending sounds). Continue this routine for a few words. After, rotate the teams so that each group now has a new responsibility. Continue to read words and rotate groups until each group has had the chance to isolate each segment of the words. Words may be repeated and reused, therefore building stronger bridges in the variations of words. As we have learned, “Phonological awareness is the understanding of different ways that oral language can be divided into smaller components and manipulated. Spoken language can be broken down in many different ways, including sentences into words and words into syllables…” (Chard & Dickson, 1999). This directly corresponds with this strategy. Students are breaking down the given word into smaller sections in order to make the determination of what letters are included in their given segment of the word. This activity is a fun and engaging way to include decoding and segmentation skills into the classroom while also giving students the ability to have friendly competitions within the classroom. This strategy/activity has been used in multiple classrooms that I have worked in, and the students thoroughly enjoy the friendly competition with their peers.