Here are five activities for practicing beginning word sounds for kids who like to be active!
We have been practicing the beginning sounds of words with Owen (turning 5 in May). He’s desperate to learn to read (so he can play Scrabble on Daddy’s phone!), plus he has two older brothers that he wants to keep up with! He is probably my most workbook oriented child, but even a 4 year old who likes workbooks can’t write for very long at a time. So we’ve been finding active ways to work on school.
Activity #1: Label the house with post-it notes. Give your child a pad of post-it notes and a washable marker and tell him or her to label things with the letter they start with. Owen LOVED this!
Gresham (2nd grade) begged to join in after he finished his language work, except that he wanted to write the whole word. This is not really a skill he needs to work on, but he sure had a blast using post-it notes! We keep finding his labels EVERYWHERE, and I smile every time I see one. And the side benefit of this is that now I know what words we need to work on spelling since we had a “towl” in the “kichen.” 🙂
Activity #2: Go on a scavenger hunt. Go around the house and look for items that start with specific letters. We did this for the consonants that Owen has learned in his phonics book so far.
Activity #3: Nerf Shoot-out. Make your own alphabet targets and then shoot them! I cut up some cereal boxes and quickly made some alphabet letter Nerf targets.
I called out a word, and Owen had to shoot the letter that the words starts with. Owen thought this was great! (And so did Gresham who begged to join in on this one too!)
Activity #4: Block Knock-Down. This is similar to the Nerf game. Label wooden blocks with alphabet letters using post-it notes or paper and tape. Line the blocks up on the table. Call out a word and have your child knock down the correct letter block. Knocking things down is always a hit at our house!
Activity #5: “Find the letter” relay. Foam bathtub letters are perfect for this. Put a basket of letters on one end of the house. Call out a word and have your child run to the basket, find the correct letter for the beginning sound, and run back. Burn off energy and practice letter sounds at the same time!
For more reading readiness ideas, check out my Beginning Readers Pinterest board!