Beginning sounds are an important part of learning to read and learning those beginning sounds is done mainly through phonological awareness (the ability to hear and manipulate units of sound in spoken language). To learn more about phonemic awareness you can read this blog post.
1. Beginning Sound Sorts
My students tend to mix up certain sounds (especially when their first language is not English). For example, it’s super common for my students to mix up the /j/ and /g/ sounds or the /e/ and /i/ sounds. One activity I like to do is sound-sorts focused specifically on the beginning sounds that they are mixing. Here’s one way we would practice this in a small group or whole group. We pick a picture and review the name and repeat the beginning sound- “jug, jug, /j/ /j/ /j/ jug!”
On an individual or partner level, students can complete the cut and paste beginning sound sort specific to their area of struggle. Click here or the picture below to grab the FREE /j/ /g/ sort.The full resource includes 26 commonly confused beginning sounds.
2. Beginning Sound Videos
More often than not, I start my phonics time with a video song. The world of YouTube has really given us some great artists. Here are two of my favorite beginning sound videos that my students enjoy.
I also curated a playlist of my favorite YouTube songs for teaching phonics, you can read more about that here. I also have a blog post of my favorite YouTube channels for the primary classroom.
3. Visuals
The best way to get students hearing and knowing those beginning sounds is through visuals. Again, phonemic awareness is KEY in developing successful readers (so don’t skip out on reading THIS BLOG POST if you don’t know much about phonemic awareness). Using visuals helps take the focus off of what the letter looks like to what it sounds like. Obviously we need to connect the two and this is where we will do that. Simple picture sorts like I shared above are super helpful for students to match pictures with similar sounds.
Another favorite activity of mine is from Kristin, A Teeny Tiny Teacher. She has digital morning work slides that I took into my intervention class. This ABC pack was super helpful when correlating beginning sounds. We’d talk about the letter of the day, write it, sing a song for it, and then students have to pick which pictures start with the sound/letter of the day!
4. Dice Activities
I have some epic dice I found at the Dollar Tree a few years ago, but found these on Amazon (amazon aff. link). I write down 6 different letters, usually the ones my students struggle with or confuse the most. The students roll the dice, say the sound, and have to come up with a word that starts with that sound. This one can be a little more challenging, but it’s a good challenge. I posted about it in my instagram highlights.
This can also be done digitally with wheelofnames.com. Enter the letters you’d like your students to work with (or enter ALL letters, up to you), spin, and PLAY!
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