Beginning letter sounds are the sounds—or phonemes—that start words. For example, the word cat starts with the phoneme /k/. The word bat starts with phoneme /b/.
When teaching young learners how to read, it is important to start with building phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is a skill that develops with time and practice with phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest units of sound that make words. One of the simplest ways to start building phonemic awareness is by learning beginning letter sounds.
Why start with beginning letter sounds? First, beginning letter sounds are the simplest to recognize because they are the first sound we hear in words. It would be more challenging to identify medial or ending phonemes, which children learn later. Second, since we read left to right, learning beginning letter sounds primes children for other phonics skills that prepare them to read.
In American English, there are a little over 40 different phonemes. Our game, Picture This, was created to help children learn beginning letter sounds so that they are better prepared to be strong readers and writers.
Learning Beginning Letter Sounds Prepares Children to Read
Speaking is a natural skill, but reading is not. That is why we must be explicit when teaching children how to read. Practicing beginning letter sounds helps children build phonemic awareness, which is crucial in building a child’s ability to read. Phonemic awareness allows children to match sounds in speech to letters in text. If children are unable to complete this process of decoding, they struggle greatly with reading, writing and spelling.
In order to avoid this struggle completely, it is vital that we work with children as much as possible to build phonemic awareness. It starts with beginning letter sounds. What does this look like in action?
Say that today, children learn about the phoneme /d/. They see an image of a dog and are instructed that the word dog starts with the /d/ sound. Every time they see the letter d, they should always link it to the sound /d/. The next time they see an image of a dog, they know it is spelled with a d and that letter d sounds like /d/. This is simple enough, but how does this child advance to reading from here?
Once children understand the relationship between the visual representation—letter d— and the sound it makes, at the very least, they know that any word that starts with letter d makes the /d/ sound. So, in their free time, perhaps they read a small book and come across the word dance. They may not know what that word is. But, they do know that the starting letter looks identical to the letter that starts their favorite word dog. They also know that the sign d makes the /d/ sound. They conclude that the word dance is likely to also start with the sound /d/.
However, to get to this point, children must be able to differentiate different phonemes from one another. With enough practice, they should be able to separate all the phonemes and know which phoneme matches with which letter. For example, dog has three different phonemes: /d/, /o/ and /g/.
Learning to read is a slow process, but it is one well worth the effort. For young children, learning to read starts with learning beginning letter sounds.
Practicing Beginning Letter Sounds with Picture This!
You can play this game with a smaller or larger group of children. For this activity, you will need:
- Picture cards that begin with the target phoneme
- Pocket chart
As teachers using Professor Pup’s Phoneme Farm, you have access to 360 unique picture cards to practice phonemes. We recommend printing these cards out so that each child can clearly see the pictures during the game. You will also need a pocket chart. This is a large poster full of plastic slots designed to hold illustrations. If you do not have a pocket chart, you can also use clothespins on string, magnets or even pushpins.
It is very important to be as explicit and clear as possible with directions and explanations. Introduce the beginning letter sound. You might say, “Today, we will be learning about words that start with the /k/ sound.”
Then, from your stack of picture cards, draw one card at a time and display the card in the pocket chart. Enunciate the word clearly, with particular emphasis on the beginning phoneme. For example, if the picture card has an image of a cat, say, “Cat—/k//k/—cat.”
Once you have completed one card, display the card in the pocket chart so everyone to see. Then, repeat the exercise with the next handful of cards. Children will not be able to pick up on patterns unless it is made obvious to them. So, when playing this activity, be as clear and explicit as possible. Every so often, review the cards in the pocket chart and explain how each word starts with the beginning letter sound and what that sound is.
We also suggest using a pointer to draw children’s attention to the right place while continuing to emphasize the target phoneme. The objective is to have children audibly recognize the target phoneme that starts these words.
Once the activity is complete, restate the learning objective. You might say, “Great job! We practiced all these words that start with the /k/ sound!”
Master All Beginning Letter Sounds with Professor Pup’s Phoneme Farm
At Professor Pup’s Academy, we want every teacher to have the tools to teach phonics to their children. Our activities are simple, effective and engaging so any child can master beginning letter sounds.
In addition to tablet time playing Professor Pup’s Phoneme Farm, we recommend working in some of these activities to help build phonemic awareness. Games like Picture This really help children spend quality time with beginning letter sounds so that they have a good head start on developing phonemic awareness.
Would you like some more ideas? We have six more incredible classroom games to help your students learn beginning letter sounds and become champions of reading. All coming this week!
If you have not already, but would like to use Professor Pup’s Academy in your classroom, please visit our page for teachers. We offer a free 30-day trial for all teachers.