If you are looking for some fun and engaging worksheets on beginning sounds, look no further! Our Alphabet Animal Beginning Sounds Worksheets are a great way for your students to learn to discern beginning sounds. They also reinforce letter/sound correspondence.
Beginning Sounds Worksheets
We used worksheets on beginning sounds just like these when we were teaching kindergarten, so we know they work! These worksheets can be used for students of varying skills and can grow with your students throughout the year. If your students are just learning the alphabet, they can color or circle the pictures that begin with the focus letter. If your students are ready to begin writing, have them write the corresponding letter below each picture that begins with the focus letter. As your students become better at segmenting, writing and spelling, they can sound out and write the word phonetically beneath each picture and color or circle the pictures that begin with the focus letter. Whatever the needs of your students, the Alphabet Animals Beginning Sounds Worksheets are a great tool to teach onset and rime, letter/sound correspondence, spelling, and phonics.
How to Teach Beginning Sounds
As kindergarten teachers, we used worksheets on beginning sounds every week. After a quick introduction of the alphabet using Rainbow Writing, we focused on 1 letter a week. During this time, we used beginning sounds worksheets on day 3 of each week during our alphabet skills block. Before passing out the worksheets, we would go over the focus letter name and sound (A…a…Alex Alligator…./a/…/a/…Alex Alligator). Then we would name all of the pictures on the beginning sounds worksheet. As we named each picture, students would listen for the focus letter and give a thumbs up if the word began with that letter and a thumbs down if not. Next, students would complete the worksheet according to their skill level.
Digital Beginning Sounds
Use our Digital Beginning Sounds google slides as a fun start to your lesson! Each letter of the alphabet has its own 8 page interactive digital slideshow. They are a great way to engage your students. You can use these slides in your classroom or for distance learning. Click on the video above to watch a preview of the letter Aa slideshow.
Differentiation: Using These Worksheets Throughout the Year
Our students always loved finding and coloring the pictures that began with the focus letter. As the year progressed, we would model how to count the sounds in each picture and students would write the word phonetically beneath the picture. (i.e. Teacher says, “Let’s count the sounds in apple.” Students would put their fists up in the air and count the sounds with the teacher, raising 1 finger for each sound heard. Teacher continues, “ /a/ /p/ /l/. I hear 3 sounds. Let’s write the letters that match the sounds beneath the picture of the apple. Remember, we counted 3 sounds, so we are going to need to write at least 3 letters.”) If students knew the conventional spelling, we would encourage them to write the word correctly. When students would ask if a p l was how apple was really spelled, we would show the conventional spelling (apple) and then applaud them for getting close. We noticed all the letters we got right, and celebrate that although it was not spelled this way in the dictionary, we could read it! Beginning Sounds Worksheets helped teach our students how to spell and write words.
Our Alphabet Animal Beginning Sounds Worksheets are cute, fun, engaging, rigorous and can be differentiated for all your students.
More Alphabet Worksheets
If you are looking for more alphabet worksheets, we have plenty! These Beginning Sounds Worksheets go along great with our other Alphabet Animals worksheets. We have a fun and engaging yearlong alphabet curriculum as well!
