Letter Sounds Listening Game

This exciting letter sounds game is great for preschool and kindergarten. Before learning to read, kids must first understand that each letter has an individual sound. This can be a very challenging skill because some letter sounds such as /b/ and /d/ are very similar. Mastery requires lots of practice. There’s no better way to practice than with an exciting interactive activity.

When playing games, my students always loved when they got to hold something. The responsibility of being in charge of a particular component really kept them engaged. This game allows kids to control two or more letters at a time and can be played with one or more kids. No matter the size of the group, the fun of this letter sounds game is the same.

Letter Sounds Listening & Matching Game

Materials Needed

• free printable (at bottom of page)
• craft sticks
• tape

How to Assemble the Activity

After printing, cut out the letter circles. You can stack the pages together to cut multiple pages at once. I know many people don’t like to do this, but it really is a time saver. You can choose from both capital and lowercase letters. Once all of the letter sound circles have been cut, you can simply tape them to the craft sticks. Or for added durability, laminate the cut circles prior to adhering to the craft sticks.

Ways to Play

This game can be played in a variety of ways, beginning with just 2 letter paddles. Once your child is holding two letters, you will start saying words aloud that start with one of those two letters. Each time you say a word, your child will hold up the stick with the corresponding letter. For example, if you say “apple” your child will hold up the letter a.

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When saying words for the corresponding letters, do NOT alternate every other word. If you do, your child will be able to anticipate the correct letter and will not be thinking about his/her answer. Instead, be completely random. For example, sun, man, mighty, sad, salty, sandbox, moo, etc. Being random will keep your child on their toes and ensure that they are truly making a connection between the letter and the sound.

Once your kids have advanced past using two letters, you can set multiple paddles on a table and let them select from a larger field of letters.

Once your child has mastered beginning sounds, you can use the same game to have them identify ending sounds, which is a harder skill. Or, they can identify medial sounds (sounds in the middle of the word), which is the hardest of all.

How to Adapt

Extra Active Kids – You can place the paddles on the floor at one end of the room and have them jog over to retrieve the corresponding paddle after a word has been said

Low Muscle Tone – You can bolster the craft sticks with a piece of foam to facilitate a tighter grip.

Sensory Approach – You can enhance the letters with matching puffy paint colors, or matching pieces of felt that have been cut to shape. You can also glue on colored glitter or sand.

Happy learning!

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