Learning letter and word sounds is an important part of any language. Therefore, learning to tell sounds apart is a key literacy skill which later helps children to read and write. But what comes after that? It’s all about the beginning or initial sound. Learning these initial sounds helps in linking a child’s oral language skills to written language – what they see and will attempt to write on their own. So, we can say that learning how to segment beginning sounds is an essential milestone when learning how to read. But what is the best way to teach these beginning sound to kids?
In this article, we have covered information on beginning sounds for kindergarten, examples to understand the concept easily and some fun hands-on activities to teach beginning sounds to kids. Let’s read.
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What Are Beginning Sounds?
Beginning sounds or initial sounds are the sounds at the beginning of words or the ones made by letters at the start of a word. For example, in the word “King”, the beginning sound is ‘K’. Generally, children learn about these beginning sound words in kindergarten before they move on to learning more complex letters and sounds.
Examples Of Beginning Sounds
To understand what beginning sounds are, let’s take a look at the examples given below:
1. Look at the image below.
There is a Koala in a picture. The word “Koala” begins with the “K” sound, which is it’s beginning sound.
2. Look at the image below.
There is an Iguana in a picture. The word “Iguana” begins with an “I” sound, which is it’s beginning sound.
3. Look at the image below.
There is a Penguin in a picture. The word “Penguin” begins with the “P” sound, which is it’s beginning sound.
What Is The Importance Of Learning Beginning Sounds for Children?
Wondering why your child must learn about beginning sounds? Here are some points on the importance of learning initial sounds for kids.
- It builds a strong foundation for children to build phonemic awareness.
- It helps children with sound discrimination.
- Understanding that letters are made up of sounds helps children to read and write fluently.
- It helps children learn the sounds that each letter makes and how a change in the order of letters changes a word’s meaning.
How To Teach Beginning Sounds To Kids?
It’s not that difficult to teach your little one beginning sounds. Here are some simple tips that you must know when you start to teaching kids these initial sounds to your kids
- Make sure that your child has a strong foundation of the letter and sound identification prior to working on beginning sounds in other words.
- Mastering beginning sounds may take your child to do a lot of practice. Therefore, you need a wide array of hands-on beginning blending words activities for children to work with.
- You also need to explain to them what needs to be done in a succinct manner and then let them move as they learn.
- You must encourage them to learn by supporting them.
- Learning is not a one-day thing, so make your child practice and revising till they have a grasp on beginning sounds.
Activities That Will Help Your Child To Learn Beginning Sound
Now it’s time to learn while having fun! These beginning sounds games, and activities will help kids learn how to find the beginning sounds in words and also build those phonemic awareness skills!
1. Colour The Beginning Sound
Colouring activities are always a great option to make kids learn something important. It allows children to explore their creativity while learning, and also practice their fine motor skills. In this activity, you will print various things on a sheet, like a cake, book, animal, bottle, etc. Now you will give your child a sound, say “B”, and your child has to colour the thing that begins with that sound.
2. I Spy Game
Everyone loves the classic “I Spy” game. You can use this activity to help reinforce beginning sounds. To play this game, you have to say, “I spy a fruit beginning with the sound A,” and your child has to say a fruit’s name with that letter, like apple. You can try various combinations and ask your child more fun questions to help them learn beginning sounds.
3. Trace The Letter
Take some shaving cream foam and spread it on a tray. Now give your child a word and ask them to trace that sound in the shaving foam using their finger. This tracing activity will help children’s brains form the connection between the sound and the letter, as they write.
4. Place The Objects
Make alphabet flashcards and spread them on the table in front of your child. Now, take a sensory playing bin or a playing bucket and add different small child-friendly objects to it, like a toy aeroplane, toy animals, etc. Ask your child to take one object out from the bucket and place it on the letter sound flashcard it begins with. Kids will have fun trying this hands-on activity at home.
5. Clip The Pin
On a sheet, draw or paste some pictures, like a kite and next to it in the corner, write 3 letters (one should be the beginning sound of the picture). Hand over the sheets to your child and ask them to clip a clothespin next to the initial sound of the picture shown on the card. This activity is excellent for letter recognition and letter-sound correspondence. A perfect way for kids to practice phonics, phonemic awareness, and blending. This engaging activity is also a great fine motor activity.
6. Draw It Out
Give your child a beginning sound of an object and give them some characteristics of that object. Your child has to guess the object and draw it. For example, you can say, “The objects begin with the letter sound “B”, it is round in shape, and children love to play with it. We can kick it; we can play catch-catch with it. What is the object?” and your child have to guess that it’s a “ball” and draw and colour it.
7. Tell The First Sound
In this game, you will gather 6 things around and arrange them in a line. These things can be common objects at home. Now, you will ask your child to roll a dice and say the sound of that numbered object. For example, if they roll a dice and the number 3 shows up, they have to tell the beginning sound of the object placed third in line.
8. Match The Sound And Pictures
Make 5 flashcards of 5 things and 5 flashcards of the beginning sound of those 5 things. Hand over these 10 flashcards to your child and ask them to match the phonics beginning sounds to the pictures by placing the flashcards together.
We hope these activities around initial sounds will help arouse some important phonemic awareness and impart phonics skills to your child. These activities ensure that your child is building a strong foundation for reading skills to come. Don’t worry if your child doesn’t show interest in learning beginning sounds at this stage. Give them some space and try teaching them again after some time. They’ll surely come around, it’s just a game about patience at the end of the day with the little one’s.
Also Read:
Letter Recognition for Kindergarten Kids
Alphabetic Principle for Preschoolers with Activities
Phonics Spelling for Preschoolers to Build Language Skills
