The first few weeks of kindergarten are so different from the rest of the year! There are so many important concepts for students to practice at the same time they’re getting in the groove of being in school. If you’re looking for a low-prep alphabet activity that your students will love, this post is for you! I’m sharing free activities for alphabet sounds practice that are easy to add to your daily routine, even at the beginning of the school year.
Practicing Alphabet Sounds with Games
We all know how much repetition it takes for our young students to master letter sounds! Games and activities are a great way to bring some extra fun to alphabet sounds practice. It keeps students motivated to keep practicing the letters of the alphabet. Plus, games and hands-on activities can easily be incorporated into any different parts of your daily routine.
The activity I’m going to share with you is perfect for helping your students practice alphabet sounds in a fun way. Your students will love this game so much, they won’t even realize they’re learning at the same time!
Alphabet Sounds Game for Kindergarten
What You Need
For this game, all you need is a basket, a pocket chart, letter cards, and the poem poster to display. If you don’t want to use a basket, you can give each student a letter card at the beginning of the activity. You could also turn over the cards in the pocket chart and have your students come up one at a time to flip over a letter.
Free Alphabet Sounds Practice
Get 4 free alphabet games that you can use to help your students practice letter sounds in a fun way! This free download includes alphabet sound practice for each letter of the alphabet. Enter your email below to get this freebie sent straight to your inbox!How to Play
After reciting the poem together as a class, you can invite a student to pick a letter out of the basket and identify the sound the letter makes. The class can repeat the letter sound as the student places the card in the pocket chart. Then you can invite another student to choose a letter card, repeating the process until you run out of cards or time.
How to Extend
The fun doesn’t have to end after all of the letters have been chosen! Once all of the cards have been added to the pocket chart, you can work together to put them in alphabetical order. You can also practice identifying the letters by name. In fact, you could start all over again using a different poem for the game that invites students to say the name of the letter instead of the sound.
Another fun activity that you can do with the pocket chart full of letters is to hide a star or another small object behind one of the letter cards. Then students can take turns guessing the location of the hidden item by saying a letter sound (or name). They’re always so eager to see underneath each card!
When to Use Alphabet Sounds Practice Games
Another way to keep students engaged in alphabet sounds practice is to incorporate these activities throughout the school day. Seeing a familiar activity in a slightly different context can grab your students’ attention and maintain their interest! Here are several ways that you can use the activity above during different parts of your daily routine.
Small Groups
A great place to introduce this game is during your small group instruction. By working with a smaller group of students at a time, each child can have multiple opportunities to pick a letter from the basket and figure out the sound the letter makes.
Carpet Time
Once you’ve had a chance to introduce this game to your students in a small group setting, your class will be ready to practice alphabet sounds as a whole group to supplement your literacy instruction. This also makes a fun letter review game that you can use as a warm-up for carpet time.
Literacy Centers
After seeing this activity modeled several times, your students may be ready to do it on their own! Pocket chart activities like this one can be a great station during literacy centers, especially when they are already familiar with the activity. Just as they did in small groups and during carpet time, students can take turns selecting cards to place in the pocket chart. They should be able to navigate this activity with minimal direction or support needed from you, which is what makes it ideal for centers!
Transitions
Letter sound practice is a great option when you have a little bit of extra time before your next transition. Whether it’s before lunch time or after getting packed up to go home, your students will be excited to play the apple game when you have a few extra minutes!
I have always loved how one simple activity can be used in so many different ways and at different points of the daily routine.
Even More Alphabet Sound Practice!
Kindergartners thrive on repetition, so the more practice, the better! You can change the theme of the letter cards to keep students interested and engaged in this alphabet sounds activity. This allows you to bring fresh alphabet practice to your classroom without having to teach your students an entirely new activity. After introducing your students to this activity using apple letter cards, you can continue the alphabet sounds practice with pumpkin cards!
Grab Your FREE Activities for Alphabet Sounds Practice
If you’re interested in adding more letter sounds practice to your daily routine, be sure to grab this freebie with the apple and pumpkin activities pictured in this post!
This free download includes both uppercase and lowercase letter cards, along with additional blend and digraph cards that you can use for word building. This allows you to extend this activity for even more phonics practice! Just fill out the form below to have this freebie delivered straight to your inbox.
Free Alphabet Sounds Practice
Get 4 free alphabet games that you can use to help your students practice letter sounds in a fun way! This free download includes alphabet sound practice for each letter of the alphabet. Enter your email below to get this freebie sent straight to your inbox!Save These Alphabet Practice Activities
Be sure to save this post if you’d like to find these activities later! Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest. You’ll be able to quickly find this post when you’re looking for engaging alphabet sounds practice.
