Print this free letter sounds activity to help your child identify beginning sounds in words.
We’ve done a lot of beginning sounds activities around here. You may have seen our 25 match mats, our beginning sound coloring pages, and our Beginning Sound Blackout.
If those activities are a little tough for your child, you’ll appreciate this activity.
It takes a little step back.
Do you notice how there aren’t any letters on these cards? That’s intentional.
The point of the activity is not to teach which letter makes what sound, but to help children hear and identify beginning sounds. This can be trickier than you might think!
The idea is simple. Clip the picture that starts with the same sound as the main picture above. The download comes with both a green and red set. Each set has one card for each letter.
The red set is slightly harder, and here’s why. Many of the cards have pictures whose beginning sounds start at the same part of the mouth. (The fancy phrase for that is point of articulation, if you want to impress anyone.)
For example: Say the word turtle. Now say duck. See how your tongue is right behind your top set of teeth when you start each word?
Try zipper. Now say snake. See what I mean?
Volcano and frog. Both times, your teeth are on your bottom lip.
How about ant and elephant? Those vowel sounds are tricky.
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I figured my Four wouldn’t have any trouble with these cards. The consonants were no problem at all.
But the vowels threw him for a loop. Each time, I had to help him choose the correct picture. This tells me we need more listening activities to help him hear the difference between vowel sounds. Stay tuned for those!
Bonus! The set also comes with pictures for these common digraphs: th, ch, and sh.
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Letter Sound Games & Activities
$24.00
With 30 activities for teaching beginning, middle, and final sounds, this bundle has it all!
Free Alphabet Printables
Join our email list and get this free sample of alphabet activities from our membership site! Students will practice identifying and forming letters, matching upper to lowercase, and identifying beginning sounds.
Alexandra
Little correction. On the Free Letter Sounds Activity – Clip Cards page it says “For example: Say the word turtle. Now say duck. See how your tongue is right behind your BOTTOM set of teeth when you start each word? Try zipper. Now say snake. See what I mean?”
Turtle and duck should be right behind your TOP set of teeth (bottom for zipper and snake).
Still love your website!
Anna G
Thanks for that catch! Fixed it!
Noleen Chalmers
Thanks very much, Anna. This is a great resource that I m going to use with the students in my classroom who are sill experiencing difficulty in recognising and pronouncing the initial sounds for words.
The pictures are clear and I feel sure that will also help them with this skill.
Anna G
I’m so glad you can use them, Noleen!
Cheryl
You are the Best. Thank you for taking care of so many of us!
Anna G
That’s so nice of you to say, Cheryl! I’m so glad you can use my resources!
Lisa
I only have access to an iPad to print from is there anyway to print from this
Anna Geiger
You would need to download the file to your iPad and then open it to print. I don’t know how to save files on an iPad.
Ginnie
Not only do I appreciate these cards, but that you mentioned the trouble your little one was having with vowel sounds. I am seeing that with my daughter, especially with soft vowel sounds. Detecting letter nuances is tricky, but I am glad that we aren’t the only ones experiencing difficulty. Thank you for sharing.
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, Ginnie! It was fun for me to go back and read this, as I had forgotten that my little guy was having trouble with vowels two years ago. He was just reading Cam Jansen (an early chapter book) to me the other day. Here’s another game that is really good for helping kids hear vowel sounds, if you haven’t seen it yet: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/26-free-games-teach-short-vowel-sounds/
Ginnie
Thank you for the additional help! Have a wonderful weekend.
Ton
Another teacher referred me to your website. Thanks soooo much for sharing theses resources.
Anna Geiger
Yay – I’m so glad your friend sent you here! Welcome, Ton! 🙂
Lucy Price
Thank you for all your hard work. My kids love these centers. Love them!!
Anna Geiger
Yay – that’s wonderful to hear, Lucy!
Hope McNew
I love your letter sound clip cards, but am unable to print them at home because my printer has decided to stop working. I was trying to save them to be able to print at Office Depot, but am unable to. Would you be able to help me with this. I would really appreciate it. Thanks for your help.
Anna Geiger
If you right click on the link to download, you can save the file to your computer. I’m not sure how you bring the files there to print, but you can call and ask. Hope that helps!
Belinda
You have a lot of great resources for my pre-k students. I plan to implement several of your activities this fall. Thank you so much and keep up the great work. We teachers need you. I would also like to learn how to make cards and games.Any pointers will be appreciated.
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, Belinda! I don’t have tutorials for making printables, but my biggest advice is to use MS Publisher. I like how easy it is to manipulate text boxes and images in that program. For images I usually purchase mine on Teachers Pay Teachers because most of those can be used commercially. You can find free image sources if you are not going to sell or share your printables online.
Tatiana
Anna, thank you so much for this wonderful activity!
9golfy
Love this, Do you have a daily conversation for learn? Thx
Anna Geiger
I’m not sure I understand your question.
Patricia
Thank you so much! Your activities are wonderful!
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, Patricia!
Becky Spence
These look great! I just made a set for Free Homeschool Deals to go live next week. Great minds think alike, I guess. Ha!
Anna Geiger
Actually I made them because a reader asked for them. So I think yours is the greater mind! 🙂
Erin Slagg
Love! Especially for three year olds. Thank you for this great activity. I like that it eliminates the sometimes daunting aspect of letter awareness, and it focuses on similar sounds. It will give my three lots of listening detective practice!
Anna Geiger
I hope he likes them, Erin! Hopefully my own Three will be ready for them in a few months. 🙂