Use a School Readiness Activity to provide early language thinking experiences for preschool children that will prepare them to do well in the early grades.
Grades:
Subjects:
Matching Beginning Sounds
Purpose/Skills- To provide the experience of listening to and matching initial sounds in words
- To perceive sounds and initial phonemes
- To begin associating sounds and words
Materials
Self-adhesive notes and marker
| listen | sound |
| letter | first |
| same | different |
Literature Suggestion
Read Can I Keep Him? by Steven Kellogg, or any book featuring animals that children can name.
- Review Can I Keep Him? by Steven Kellogg.
- Help children say the name and beginning sound of the name of each animal that Arnold wanted to keep (dog /d/, kitten /k/, python /p/).
- Invite children to think of a first name for each animal that starts with the same sound as the animal name. Examples: Dixie Dog, Kenny Kitten (also accept Cuddly Kitten), and Patty Python.
Procedure
- Explain that you are going to play a listening and matching game.
- Tell children that they will point to things in the room that start with the same sound as the beginning sound in their names.
- Go through the following sequence:
- Ask a volunteer to say his or her first name. (Example: Lisa)
- Repeat the child's name and the first sound. (Lisa; The first sound in Lisa's name is /l/.)
- Ask the child to look around the room for something that begins with /l/. Write the word for the object the child selects on a sticky note and ask the child to put the note on the object.
- After the child places the note, repeat the child's name and the name of the object with the same initial sound.
- Repeat the game with other children.
Enrichment
Pick an initial sound (such as /p/) and invite the children to find as many objects as possible in the room that start with that sound. (Examples: paper, puppets, picture) Have children repeat the initial sound aloud as they search.
Observation Assessment
- Proficient - Child says the initial sound clearly and finds an object that has the same initial sound as his/her name.
- In Process - Child has difficulty saying the initial sound and finding an object that has the same initial sound, but can do so with some help.
- Not Yet Ready - Child does not yet say the initial sound of his/her name or find an object with the same initial sound.
