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Consonant sounds sorting mats

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Help your child master beginning consonant sounds with these colorful sorting mats!

consonant sounds sorting mats

Each mat has a little girl holding a featured letter. Your child needs to find the pictures that start with that consonant and place them on the board.

Lately the theme for my printables has been “simple and low prep.”    While this activity is pretty simple, it isn’t low prep.  It took my eight-year-old and I an hour or two to prepare the materials. But considering how much use we’ve already gotten out of these, I call it worth it!

consonant sound mats 1

How to prepare the activity

You’ll need to print the consonant sound mats (there are two per page) plus the consonant sound pictures at the end of the download.  I always print on this cardstock for durability.

After printing, laminate.  I love our laminator because I don’t have to cut apart the cards before we begin.  I laminated each full sheet of picture cards and cut them apart after laminating.

The next step is optional, but I recommend it: Attach clear Velcro dots to the back of each picture card and to the gray squares on each mat.  Kids love attaching the pictures with the Velcro, but I have a practical reason for you too. It makes storage very easy.  Just slide each consonant mat (with pictures attached) into one gallon sized storage bag.  Seal the top, and you’ve got a tidy little package easy to put away and pull out again!   This saves you the trouble of storing all the cards individually in ziploc bags or just loose in a box.

consonant sound mats 3

The first few times we played this, I experimented with keeping the picture cards connected. This way I could have punched them with a three hole punch and stored them in a binder.  Later I chose to cut the cards apart because I wanted my son to compare different consonants.

consonant sounds mats 2

How to play

  1. Choose two mats (or a single page if you haven’t cut them in half).
  2. Have your child rip off the pictures and mix them up.
  3. He should say each picture’s name and beginning sound and stick it to the correct mat.

How to make it simpler or more challenging

You can make this game easier by choosing consonants whose sounds are very different.  If they are made in a different part of the mouth, they are easier to distinguish.  For example, /v/ is made with the top teeth on the bottom lip.  The /w/ sound is made with open lips.  This would be an easy contrast.

You can make the game harder by choosing consonants whose sounds are made with the same part of the mouth.  The sounds /p/ and /b/ are both made with the lips, making this contrast more difficult.

We hope you enjoy this free learning activity!

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Get your free beginning sound sorting mats!

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68 Comments

  5. Ana

    Omg I don’t know how to thank you that you provide this printables free, most of the ones that i found you have to pay for them and sometimes i just can’t affort them. I got inlove with your work the moment i saw them cause everything is pictures and these really help because my two babies are autistic they are more visual i just cant thank you enough.

    Reply to this comment

  11. Amy Ochandio

    I love these!! My students love these too!! They grab these as soon as they get to teacher table, while they are waiting on me, and start sorting. We also use the little pictures for syllable sorting – super resource! Thank you for sharing!

    Reply to this comment

  16. NB

    Thank you for being such a great sharer! So many of your free downloads have been FANTASTIC teaching tools for my ESL students. You are so insightful and creative. Thank you very very much for your efforts and your generous soul!

    Reply to this comment

  17. Seema

    Hi Anna,

    What a delightful website!
    Your printables are so colorful and appealing. I am going to start a small centre for children on the autism spectrum and those with reading issues. I am a mom of a 14 year old , almost recovered bright ASD child.
    I just wanted to point out some omissions in this download.
    in the key for “n” net is mentioned twice , one should be neck.
    In the key for “v” vest is missing.
    Otherwise,its perfect!

    God bless you for your willingness to share with all! I am going to buy your products and tell more and more parents about your almost one stop shop website. Love you!

    Reply to this comment

  21. Jan

    Thank you so much for this freebie! I spent today getting it ready for working with some children who are struggling with learning letter names/sounds. Perfect for working with them in a small group!

    Reply to this comment

  23. sue gnacyk

    Hi,
    You have so many wonderful activities on your website! I have purchased some as well as taken advantage of some of the freebies. They are terrific and my students have enjoyed them as well. Thank you so much for sharing your wonderful activities and ideas! I truly appreciate your hard work and willingness to share.

    Reply to this comment

  25. saru

    Hi Anna,

    I learned a lot through your website. Yours and reading mama’s website gave me so much hope to teach my son.You have so much knowledge and a big heart to share so many resources. My son has autism and he is 5 year old. I am using your bear patterns, number recognition materials to teach him.He still doesn’t know his letters.Recently started using your “find the letter” worksheets with him. Is it still okay to start with the consonant sorting mat? Please advise.

    Thanks!

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      Hello, Saru! I’m sorry for the delay in answering your question. I think it’s worth a try to start with the sorting mats. Some people believe in teaching letter sounds before words, so that logic would say that using the mats early on could work. Just remember to have him do two easy mats at a time … an easy contrast would be where two sounds are very different, such as the sounds of c and m, but NOT the sounds of p and b. I hope this activity goes well for him!

      Reply to this comment

  26. Norma E.

    Thank you very much for sharing this beautiful activity.
    I printed it out a few days ago as soon as I saw it, laminated it, cut, well, thank you again, from a homeschooling mom of PK and 1st grade in Texas.

    Reply to this comment

    • Anna Geiger

      Pretty sure there’s a peanut in there. 🙂 When you look at the download you’ll see that all the pictures for the same letter are grouped together, so that should help. You can just go back and check the file after you’ve cut them apart. Guess I should have included a key!

      Reply to this comment

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  7. […] He probably likes to classify, order and quantify items and structure can seem very important to him. As this is the time many children start school, it links in nicely with the order of a child at this stage.  These activities provide perfect opportunity to practice these skills: Foam mosiacs, alphabet beads, nature patterns and consonant sound mats. […]

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