Fun Ways To Teach Letter Sounds To Preschoolers

Wondering why introducing letter sounds for kids is important? Well, when a child knows English alphabet sounds, they can use them to decode a word and easily read and spell words.

While reading words, children widely depend on the sound of letters for the pronunciation of the word. The letter sounds help them to differentiate between difficult words like “hen” and “pen”, where only the first letter is different, and the other letters are the same. If a child fails to detect the sound of any one letter, both words will sound similar to them. Therefore, it is important for children to learn about letter sounds.

In this article, we have covered information about letter sounds, why you should teach letter sounds to your child and activities to teach the same. Let’s read!

What Are Letter Sounds?

Letter sounds for kindergarten kids are all about children knowing the letter sounds. In simple words, it means that when children see a letter, they are able to say what sound the letter makes. It can also be understood as the knowledge of the letters which represent the individual speech sounds in the English language.

Should You Teach Letter Sounds Or Letter Names First?

Both letters sounds and letter names are equally important for kids to learn. So, it does not matter what you teach your child first because, at the end of the day, they have to understand and learn both the things.

Letter sounds will help the kids to read those simple words in children’s books, and letter names will help them know what letters are called. All you need to do as a parent is teach your child about letter sounds and letter names in a clear, engaging way so that children have no problem processing it.

What Is The Right Order To Teach Letter Sounds To Your Child?

There are various factors involved in a child’s quest toward learning the letter sounds. Various learning styles and approaches must be used to make sure the child has learned the letter sounds. Let’s take a look at letters and sounds in order to teach kids the letter sounds.

• Start building awareness for the phonic sounds of letters in your child.
• Start teaching the letter sounds in your child’s name and then move to other words like your child’s favourite game, food, etc.
• Teach with the help of capital letters as it is easy for children to recognise them and then move to lowercase letters.

How Many Letter Sounds Should You Teach Your Child At A Time?

While teaching letters and sounds to kids, you might come across the question of how many letter-sound you should teach your child at a time. The best answer to this question is that you should start with teaching one letter sound at a time and when they have learned one letter sound, then move to the next sound.

Children are quick learners, so you will be easily able to make them learn 4-5 letter sounds in a week. But do take out some time to go through these sounds so far, so they are not forgotten.

How To Teach Letter Sounds To Preschoolers?

Looking for ways to teach alphabet sounds to your child? Learning letter-sound should be a fun experience for children as learning the sound of letters plays a big role in the language development of children. Let’s read about some tips that you can use to teach your child letter sounds.

• Make sure your child has a chance to practice their letter sounds in a routine and repetitive way.
• Have multiple references and tools available at home when teaching letter sounds.
• Be creative with the activities you pick when introducing and practising each letter sound.
• Allow your child some time to explore with hands-on and fine motor activities to practise letter sounds.

Now, we will take a look at some activities and letter sound games for children that will encourage your child to learn letter sounds.

Interesting Activities To Teach Letter Sounds To Preschoolers

Mastering the letter sounds is an essential skill for our little readers. Without this skill, children will struggle with building and recognising words and patterns. To help your child learn letter sounds, we have come up with some fun and engaging letter sound activities for preschoolers. These activities will easily help your child to understand the concept of letter sounds. Let’s take a look at these activities for kids.

1. Draw Something With The Letter…

Take a drawing sheet and a pencil. Now, ask your child to draw something with any letter of the alphabet. For example, you can ask them to draw something with the letter B, and they can draw a ball or a box, etc.

2. Say Two Words

In this fun activity, you have to say two words. If the words begin with the same sound, your child has to stand up. If not, they have to keep sitting down. For example, if you will say cat – cake: they have to stand up. If you say hat – bat: they have to keep sitting down.

3. Letter Of The Day

Pick any one letter sound to teach your child in a day. Teach them the name of different things that start with that letter throughout the day and at the end of the day, revise all the words with them. For example, you can pick the letter “K” as the letter of the day and teach them the letter sound of “K” with the help of words like a kite, king, kangaroo, kettle, etc.

4. “I Spy” Game

In this game, you have to use the words “I spy something of letter sound…” and your child has to look around and pick something with that letter and bring it to you. For example, you can say, “I spy something that starts with the letter sound B”, and your child has to pick anything that starts with the letter B, like a book, bag, ball, etc., and bring it to you.

5. Hop & Skip Game

Using chalk, write several letters on the floor. Now ask your child to follow your instructions. All you have to do is instruct your child to hop or skip one letter to reach the other letter. For example, you can instruct your child to – “Hop to the letter that makes the sound N” or “Skip the letter that makes the sound B”.

6. Grab A Sound

Write a few letters on pieces of paper and put them in a bag. Let your child reach into the bag and take out letters one by one. Have them say the sound and one word with that sound that matches the letters.

7. Pick The Letter Sounds

Make 26 chits from a piece of paper and write each letter on these chits. Place these in front of your child. Say any letter sound, and your child has to pick the letter chit that matches the letter sound. For example, if you will give your child the letter sound “L”, they have to look for the chit with the letter “L” written on it.

8. Circle The Letters.

Give your child a page of their favourite storybook to read. Also, give them a letter sound that they have to find and circle while reading the storybook. For example, if you will give your child the letter sound “T”, your child has to circle all the letters that start with that sound.

Once your little one has confidently mastered letter sounds, they’ll be ready to take their first step toward literacy, vocabulary, and language development. We hope the interesting activities mentioned above will help your child to learn and understand the letter sounds.

Also Read:

Letter Recognition for Kindergarten
English Alphabet for Kids with Activities
How to Teach Lowercase Letters to Preschoolers