Grab a box. This beginning sound activity for kindergarten is hands-on learning fun!
By now, you know that I am pretty passionate about ditching printables and pairing learning with real-life, hands-on experiences. This beginning sound activity for kindergarten has the excitement we need to explore letter-sound relationships.
On a much larger scale, activities like this are called phonemic awareness, which means SOUND awareness.
Sound awareness is part of reading readiness, and there are a few things we can do at home to help our children prepare.
RELATED: Headed to Kindergarten? Do not miss these important 5 tips before you go!
In future posts, we will continue to dive into sound awareness and what phonemic awareness means for parents. (coming soon)
For now, let’s run to the recycle bin or find your nearest tissue box to dive into listening for beginning sounds. Let’s take the alphabet to another level!
RELATED: Don’t miss this list of Kindergarten activities!
Learning how to read is complicated.
It is believed that most children learn to read around 6 or 7.
We do not need to rush learning how to read.
Instead, we can focus on early reading skills (reading readiness) with our preschoolers and kindergarteners by talking about what our mouth does to form letter sounds and explore rhyming words.
Learning the alphabet and learning how to read can go hand in hand when we better understand reading readiness.
Let’s do some prereading skills together.
Before diving into this beginning sounds activity, let’s take a minute to better understand what I mean about how our mouth forms with letters and rhyming words.
Giving parents and caregivers a chance to understand better the WHY helps make activities like this more meaningful.
Do this now:
- Say the letter sound /p/. What happens to your lips? Do you feel the air?
- Next, say the letter sound /m/. Did your mouth change? Did you feel air saying /m/?
- Bringing awareness to you and your child helps develop sound awareness.
- Now let’s say the word cat.
- Can we rhyme cat with the word hat?
- What if a fat cat sat on a black mat wearing a purple hat? Have fun making up rhyming phrases (and explore word families) with your children as you wait on your Starbucks.
Hands-on activities allow us to give preschoolers, kindergarteners, and first graders a few more tools in their toolbelts.
As a child learns how to read in school, they will begin to connect the dots from conversations (and easy ideas) from home.
Let’s set up this beginning sound activity for kindergarten
Start with letter sounds your child has mastered.
Doing so helps build confidence and investment in the activity (We call activities like this Breakfast Invitations) and allows you to extend and play again, adding more sounds.
Here, I pick five letters; W, M, D, C, and T.
Next, I pick objects that begin with the same letter sounds. Here I have a watch, motorcycle, dog, car, and toothbrush.
I placed all objects into the box and covered the top to make them mystery objects. – I love spicing up simple Kindergarten activities like this!
RELATED: Letter recognition and sound recognition are different. Learn what letter recognition is here.
Supply list:
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- White paper roll
- Markers – my FAVORITE pack!
- Toys from your home
RELATED: Here are our favorite alphabet toys for kids!
My five-year-old is still learning his letter sounds
Remember, there is no rush to read. Since my five-year-old is still learning his letters and letter-sound relationships, I want to begin with the letter sounds he has already mastered.
He has one more year before kindergarten, so we have time to work on letter-sound relationships.
As he picks up each object, he giggles and places it on the correct beginning sound.
Next time we play, I can use the same letters with different familiar objects and add one or two more letters to the list.
Want to focus on letter recognition? Take a look at Fine Motor Letter Grab and Writing Letters with Racecars.
My seven-year-old knows his sounds, yet he can use some review.
I like to place the first round with beginning sounds and then play again, focusing on matching the objects to the correct ending sound.
See that? Once your child has a solid foundation with beginning sounds, you can keep the same supplies and set up to better meet their needs as a reader.
Looking for other literacy and letter activities?
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