Tuesday, October 8, 2013

Teaching the Alphabet: Identify Initial Sounds


Woo hoo!  Finally got this packet compiled and ready to post.  This is a great set of worksheets to practice phonemic awareness and to recognize, isolate, and identify initial sound.  Kids can start by tracing the letter, or "rainbow writing" the letter.  Starting points are there to aid students with correct letter formation.  (Rainbow writing is where the student chooses 3 or more colors and traces the letter once with each color.)

Then practice making the sound.  Be sure when pronouncing the sound of each letter, that the sound is isolated - not blended with a vowel (i.e. /t/ /t/ not /tuh/).  Make sure that the students can correctly identify the pictures on the page.  It's funny how to the teacher, the pictures are obvious correlations, but occasionally a student will use a synonym.  The pictures in this set have been carefully chosen to avoid this kind of confusions, but some students just have a different level of vocabulary, and they will always surprise you.  The one I have encountered a couple of times is on the long "E" page - it is supposed to be an "eagle", but some will identify it as a bird.  It is your option to correct the interpretation, or just go with their words and just be sure they identify the sound correctly.  Have students draw a line to connect the letter with the pictures that start with it's sound.  It is also helpful to have them cross out the picture that doesn't correlate.  Of course coloring the pictures  is encouraged (anything to help further develop those small motor skills).

You can purchase the packet at TpT here

Here is a freebie for you - hope you enjoy the packet as much as we have in our class :)