Learning letters is very important, but learning the corresponding beginning sound that goes with the letter is even more important! 

What does that mean? Instead of just saying “this is the letter A”, try saying, “this is the letter A,  A says “ah” like apple”

Connecting the sounds to the letters helps to prepare children for learning how to read. 

How can you help your child with letters and beginning sounds at home? Check out some of these activities below!  

Coloring Letters

Coloring is always an easy activity, and kids always seem to enjoy it. These Beginning Letter Sounds Coloring Animal Alphabet pages are a great time filler.

Before, during, or after, talk about the pictures and the sounds that the letters make. Example: C is for cat. C says “kuh”.

You can download this freebie right below:

Beginning Letter Sounds Clip Wheels

These printable Beginning Letter Sounds Clip Wheels are a great way for your child to practice their beginning letter sounds.

Tell your child what the letter is for the wheel and what sound that letter makes. Example: This letter wheel is for the letter A, remember that A says “Ah”. Can you find all of the pictures that make the “Ah” sound?

Your student will then clip all of the pictures that start with the A sound with a clothespin. This is great for fine motor skills!

You can find these clip wheels here: Beginning Letter Sound Clip Wheels

Self Correcting A-Z Puzzle

These printable puzzles are a great way to practice beginning letter sounds along with uppercase and lowercase letter matching!

These puzzles are self correcting with the animal pictures. Your child will be able to find the correct letters based on the animal pictures.

Remember to talk about the animal and the corresponding letter sound. For example: Great job putting the bear puzzle together! Remember this is the letter B, B says “buh”, B is for bear.

You can find these animal puzzles here: Self Correcting A-Z Animal Puzzles

Beginning Letter Sounds Puzzles

Here is another printable puzzle! This one is a two piece puzzle, but I also have a version that is three pieces (picture piece, uppercase piece, lowercase piece).

This puzzle is a little more challenging since the picture is on one piece and the letters are on another.

Children will match the letter puzzle pieces to the beginning sound puzzle pieces. You will definitely want to check their work on this one to make sure they matched the letters correctly. If they had a few mixups, be sure to talk about them and tell them the sounds those letters make.

For example: Great try with this one, but the car picture does not go with the letter K. Do you remember what other letter makes the “kuh” sound? Great job, you are right, it is the letter C!

You can find this puzzle here: Build & Learn with Puzzles {Beginning Sounds}

Letter & Sound Matching

I originally created this printable activity to be used with connecting links, but it is also a great activity without them!

Children will match the uppercase and lowercase letters and then find all of the beginning sound pictures that go with that letter. I have included over 150 beginning sounds picture cards. These picture cards include both the short and long vowel sounds.

I would only do a few letters at a time so your child does not become overwhelmed.

You can find this beginning letter sound activity here: Beginning Sounds with Connecting Links

If you choose to use the connecting links, you can find them here: Learning Resources Connecting Links

Memory Match

Memory match games are always a huge hit with my students. Any type of memory match game has great benefits for your child!

Memory matching games:

• improve attention, concentration, and focus
• use critical thinking
• improve visual recognition
• require spotting similarities and differences
• use short term memory

This Beginning Letter Sounds Memory Match game is a fun way to recognize the letters and learn their sounds.

You can find this printable memory match game here: Animal Alphabet Memory Match Game

Play-Doh Letters

Kids LOVE Play-Doh, so why not build some letters using it? Print these beginning letter sounds play-doh mats and then place them into page protectors. Your child can then roll Play-Doh to form letters. Talk about the sounds the letters make. Example: J is for Jellyfish. J says “juh”.

You can find these printable Beginning Letter Sounds Animal Mats here: Build & Learn with Play Dough {Animal Alphabet Mats}

Books about Letters

Reading books about letters with your child is another great way to help them with their beginning letter sounds. There are tons of books that work on the alphabet and letter sounds, I bet you even have a few at your home already!

If you don’t, I really love the book A is for Apple. I really like this book because it is interactive with flaps and pictures but also tracks to trace the letters.

Letters in Names

The last letter related topic I am going to talk about is letters in names! It is important that your child learns the letters that make up their name. I wouldn’t even focus on the sounds the letters make when doing these activities, because that might get confusing for your child.

When teaching beginning sounds, I usually start with only the short vowel sounds. For example: A is for apple. After students master the short vowels I then move to long vowel sounds. For Example: A is for acorn.

If you want to talk about the sounds the letters make in your child’s name that is fine, but it is not necessary if you are just focusing on them learning their name and spelling their name.

Some fun ways to practice learning and spelling names include:

• singing a name song
• custom name puzzles
• making names with Play-Doh
• tracing names with markers or crayons

These are just a few ways to practice learning the letters in a name.

You can find my FREE editable and printable name practice mat here: Trace & Learn Name Practice Mat

Digital Beginning Sounds Activities

Other Resources I love for Letters & Beginning Sounds:

Melissa and Doug ABC Picture Boards

Melissa and Doug Alphabet Wooden Lacing Cards

Melissa and Doug Self Correcting Letter Puzzle

Learning Resources Alphabet Soup Sorters

Learning Resources Alphabet Acorns Activity Set

Learning Resources Goodie Games ABC Cookies

Check out my FREE Kindergarten Readiness Checklist! Click the image below.

Please supervise your child while they are completing learning activities.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.