Looking for letter sound activity pages? Try these!
My Three (three months shy of four years) loves doing learning activities with me, and asks for them nearly every day. She loved our year of letter of the week, and so did I.
Playful activities are a lot of fun!
Now that she is close to four, I’m working at helping her master the letter sounds. Because while she recognizes almost any letter (upper or lowercase) by sight, the sounds haven’t come as easily.
All of her four older siblings knew their sounds inside and out by this age, so it’s a new challenge for me.
I’ve learned that it’s not just a memory issue; it’s a phonemic awareness challenge. She has a hard time separating a beginning sound from a word.
For example:
If I ask her if car starts with /m/, she might say, “/m/, /m/, car! Yes!”
(Note: When you see a letter in brackets, such as /m/, I’m referring to the sound. So when you see /m/, think “mmmmm.”)
I created these beginning sounds activity pages a few months ago in the hopes that they would help.
They didn’t!
So I pulled them out again today, in the hopes that she’d be ready for them.
The answer?
Well, yes and no.
First, let me explain my reasoning behind the activity pages. I kept them super simple. Each page focuses on hearing just one letter sound. There are eight pictures. Learners glue the four pictures that begin wtih the focus letter’s sound under the smiley face. They glue the four letters that don’t begin with the letter’s sound under the sad face.
Today I chose two activity sheets – letters M and T, because M is the first letter of my daughter’s name, and because T has a pretty easy sound to hear.
I asked her to name the letter at the top of the page. “M!”
“Show me the lowercase letter m.”
“What sound does letter M make?” “Mmmm!”
So far so good.
I was surprised that she wanted to cut out the pictures, and not so surprised when she cut out one and asked me to cut the rest. 🙂
For each picture, I helped her say the name and stretch or isolate that beginning sound. “Mirror! Mmmmmirror! Does that start with /m/?”
“What’s this one?”
“Bunny. /b/ /b/ bunny.” (She shook her head).
“Okay, so that one goes on the sad face side.”
“It’s not a sad face. It’s a worried face.”
She did okay with a few pictures.
But it wasn’t long before the activity kind of fell apart.
“Octopus!”
“That’s a jellyfish. /j/ /j/ jellyfish. Does that start with mmmm?”
“Yes!”
“No, let’s try again …”
And it kind of went on like that. I tried different ways of isolating the sound. I tried a pat, pat, clap motion (patting my thighs and clapping my hands): “Two! /t/ (pat) /t/ (pat) two (clap)!”
But she didn’t catch on.
So … what’s my conclusion?
She’s not developmentally ready.
So it’s a good thing I recently started a phonological awareness series. I think we need to back up and really work at the more basic skills – like syllables, rhyming, and awareness of word – before pushing those letter sounds.
But – I didn’t want to wait another six months before sharing these with you!
A caution
Please promise me you won’t photocopy one of the worksheets and pass one out to each of the students in your preschool class. Use them one-on-one if students are ready for them OR with older student who are developmentally ready for worksheets.
They might work great as a small group activity at the end of a guided reading lesson. It’s really essential that you’re helping students with these pages. I didn’t create them to be done independently, although I can’t stop you if you decide to use them that way. 🙂
More free resources!
© 2017 – 2020, Anna G. All rights reserved.
Bernice says
Thank you! These are great.
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Bernice!
Rupali says
Thank you so much!
This activity is perfect for my 4 year old student..
Anna G says
I’m glad to hear that, Rupali!
Monique says
Thank you so much! It’s so valuable and helpful.
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Monique!
Anita says
These are adorable!! I also really appreciate the choice of printing in color or black and white. I so enjoy your materials. They are so very frequently esactly what I need. Thanks!!
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Anita! I hope you find many helpful resources on my site.
Debbie says
A million thanks! I have a few in K that are a very young 5. This will help tremendously.
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Debbie! I hope you find many helpful resources on my site.
alma says
Thank you so much! You are AWESOME! You are making our teaching/learning easier. We don’t have to worry about where to get these materials. It is so accessible, it is at our fingertips. Again I say THANK YOU!!!!!!!
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Alma! Thank you so much for the kind words!
Lisa says
Thank you. I totally get what ur talking about; when it’s time to move on, you’ll know it. If not it’s just frustrating for the both of you.
Anna G says
Truth!
Pat says
Anna, this activity will be perfect for my Kindergarten students that I tutor! I love the pictures with bright colors! I use it as a game to sort and help reinforce the letters and sounds. Thanks for such great skill activities and offering them free! You are the best!
Anna G says
I’m so glad you can use these, Pat!
Sheila says
This will be a great resource for intervention with some of my grade 1 students who still need practice hearing beginning sounds.
Anna G says
I’m glad this is working for you, Sheila!
Anna G says
Thanks for your concern, Jennifer! We don’t have any dyslexia in the family that I know of. I would say my daughter CAN isolate beginning sounds, but not with consistency (she quits early). I will certainly keep my eyes open, but I think that it’s too soon to say. Per your request, I’ll delete this message, but I wanted you to see my reply. 🙂
Shakila Athar says
Thanks a lot, you’re brilliant teacher, this activity perfect for JK and Sk. 🌹❤️
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Shakila!
Valery says
Thank you. I will definitely use it.
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Valery!
Sarah says
Thank you very much. These activity sheets will be perfect for my Prep students (Australia) at the beginning of our school year when we focus on 2 letters/sounds each week.
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Sarah! I hope my resources work well for you and your students.
Emily Norton says
Your emails and comments are so commonsense and applicable to teaching littles. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your ideas and insight.
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Emily! Thank you so much for the kind words!
Kim says
This is a great tool to use in small group instruction especially with my ESL students…THX 😀
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Kim!
Marie Spencer says
Many thanks for your kindness in providing these free downloads, I currently use them with adult learners with complex learning needs and they love them 😊!
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Marie! I’m glad you like them!
May says
Anna !
Thank you so much for these works and my students love it .
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, May!
Coco says
Thank you so much! Happy holidays!
Anna G says
You’re welcome, Coco!
Rumeysa Zeynep says
Thank you so much for your generosity. Each day I study letters with my 40 months old daughter, and she likes different activities. I use what ever I can use from your site, I am very appreciate you.
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Rumeysa! I’m glad they work for you!
Hrefna says
Thank you so much – This is great 👍
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Hrefna!
jason says
I would like to thank you very much for sharing this stuff. It’s very helpful for me and my students. I have been searching something like that for long time and get tried for it.
I think you are so kind and super great person.
Thank you agian
Anna G says
Thank you for the kind words, Jason!
Marcy says
Thank you so much. I just love your creativity.
Anna G says
Thank you, Marcy!
Carol says
I can really use these for my Spanish-speaking students. Thanks so much!
Anna G says
You’re welcome, Carol!
Kari Stinton says
Hey there. Thank you so much for wonderful, free worksheets that you have so willingly shared. As a one wage household (due to our choice to homeschool), we are so thankful for quality resources that make learning fun.
Anna G says
You’re welcome, Kari!
Mary Westerlind says
These are perfect as part of our classwork or as a homework, thank you!
Anna G says
You’re welcome, Mary!
Jenni says
I plan to use these with my letter of the week. Thanks so much for such great activities!
Anna G says
You’re welcome, Jenni!
Ruth says
Hi … I’ve been trying to print out these pages but it’s printing black on the white sections of the page … do you have another website I could try to print these the correct way ? I would love these for my classroom… thank you so much
Ruth
Kate Dowling says
Hi Ruth!
This is Kate, Anna’s assistant. Please be sure you open your file in the free Adobe reader. This is likely the cause of your printing trouble. If you don’t have the latest version on your computer, please get it here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/
Printing from mobile devices sometimes doesn’t work well, but printing from a computer within Adobe Reader works. Thanks!
Colleen says
Thank you for this activity, which will be used for my small group of 3.5 to 4 years old.
Anna G says
You’re welcome, Colleen!
Linda Aragon says
Thank you so much! I am a 1st grade teacher, and these will be perfect for those students who are still at a kindergarten or pre-school level.
Anna G says
You’re very welcome, Linda!
arielle says
I don’t know if anyone else is having this problem, but the background prints completely black for me. I tried both color and black and white. Printer beware, run a test page first. This freebie ended up costing me $$$$ because I used all my ink without realizing (printing from another room!)
Anna G says
When printing errors like this occur, 99% of the time, the issue is solved by downloading and printing the file using the free Adobe Reader. You can get it here: https://get.adobe.com/reader/
clair says
Thank you so much for your story about your daughter. Mine is also just shy of 4 years old and we’re still working on beginning sounds. She can point out letters and for the most part make their sounds but when it comes to examples, we’re still working on them. Her older brother was reading basic words before he turned 4. It’s so hard not to compare them and I need to remind myself that they’re each their own person and will learn at their own speeds… I’ll be printing these out today. Thanks
Anna G says
I totally know what you mean, Clair! They all learn at their own pace.
Krystle says
I looked through your post and I looked through your comments and descriptions. I have been using this amazing letter sounds activity with a couple of my kids who are ready and loving it by making an alphabet book. I noticed that there are no words that START with an X in them. In the X letter sound worksheet, there are words that have an X in them but there are no words that start with X like x-ray or xylophone which are normally the ones in alphabet books. Would there be an update to this in the near future so that we can finish all of them? Thanks so much for your time and efforts. We love using these. You did an amazing job and I will be using these again with my 2 youngest when they become ready.
Anna G says
Hi Krystle! Since I created these to reinforce letter sounds, I had to include pictures whose names actually have the /ks/ sound in them. So for consistency, I used words whose names end with x.
Sheila D Langermann says
Thank you so much. These are great. Did I miss something or are there only 3 words that start with A and 4 words for all the other letters?
Thank you.
Sheila
Anna G says
That’s correct – I’m not sure why I did that. 🙂 Must have been a shortage of clip art!