Preschool Beginning Sounds worksheets

About this worksheet

Hearing the first sound in a word means pulling one small piece off the front of something the child has always heard as a single lump. A four-year-old can say fish perfectly and still not notice the /f/ at the start, so this is listening work before it is letter work, and an adult has to say the words out loud. The first level puts one picture in a box and offers three more pictures; the child chooses the one that begins the same way, and nothing on the page has to be read.

The second level takes the box away: the grown-up says a word and the child finds the picture that starts like it, so the sound has to be held in the head for a moment. The third shows one picture and asks which letter begins its name, which is where the sound gets a written home. Stretch the sound gently, ffffish, rather than adding a vowel and saying fuh, and watch for a child matching by meaning: fish and water go together, but fish and feather are the sound pair.

What your child will learn

• Hear the first sound in a spoken picture name
• Choose another picture that starts with the same sound
• Find a picture that starts like a word you only hear
• Connect that first sound to the letter that spells it

Head Start ELOF standard: P-LIT 1, RF.K.3.A