Have you seen my Read ‘n Stick mats yet? They’ve been a great tool for helping my older preschooler learn to sound out words in word families. His younger brother wants very much to do those himself. In fact he’ll take the cards off the mat and ask me to help him put them in the right places- even though he doesn’t sound out words yet or understand much of the vocabulary.
My Three isn’t ready to learn to sound out words; he needs to work at hearing beginning sounds. So I decided to create him his own stick mats. He loves these and asks to do them. I love that once they’re assembled, it’s easy to take out the binder and let him work at the kitchen table while I’m preparing a meal. And the Velcro dots keep everything in one place.
I hope you can use this beginning sounds activity in your home or classroom!
(This post contains affiliate links.)
I call these Beginning Sound Match Mats. (Sorry for the tongue twister at the end there.) Each mat builds on the previous one – so while the first mat only requires your child to match pictures beginning with f and t, the next mat adds a new letter – and so on. The newest letter always receives the most attention, and as your child has had several mats of practice with a particular letter’s sound, that one gets bumped off to make room for another letter.
What order am I using? Since I use pieces of Reading the Alphabet to teach my boys to read, I’ve decided to use that curriculum’s order of teaching the letter sounds. You could go in whatever order you wanted, but if you want to make this a learning experience that builds on previous mats, start with number 1.
Free beginning sounds activity
How to assemble
1. Print the mat and the cards.
2. Laminate both. (I love my affordable home laminator!)
3. Cut apart the cards.
4. Attach clear Velcro dots to the pictures and cards (you’ll use the fuzzy white part on the back of the cards).
5. Punch holes in the mats and store them in a 3-ring binder if you want to keep them all in one place.
How to use
1. Have your child take off all the cards (no problem there – my Three does not want any help because he loves those Velcro dots!).
2. Guide your child to say each picture name, listen to its beginning sound, and find the letter which makes that sound. Attach to the picture.
3. If your child wants to do it a different way, see if it works for him. My Three likes to take the letter cards and move around the board, saying each picture and finding the one that matches. It seems less efficient to me, but he’s resistant to my way of doing it. He actually gets more practice this way!
4. Take out the mats as often as your child wants to do them.
5. Find lots of other fun ways to practice beginning sounds to supplement this activity.
A sample mat
Great news! All 25 mats are now complete AND available in one easy download!
Click HERE to get to my post which shares all 25 mats.
(You’ll need to go to the end of the post for the download.)
Have you seen our popular alphabet curriculum?
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Annette
Our 6 year old is having trouble hearing the first sound on words. This will help us. I have some from when he was 4 that you helped us out with. Any other way to help him with the sounds that he is missing? He is above average in reading for Kindergarten but we a stumped on how to help him out.
Anna G
Is he having trouble isolating beginning sounds or telling you what letter actually makes the sound?
Melania Dejesus
Great activities!
Anna G
I’m so glad you like them, Melania!
Dawn Velez
All of your activities are AWESOME for Kindergarten!!!
Anna G
I’m glad you like them, Dawn!
Dayen
I just printed these as I think kids would love this type of activity! Thank you for all your hardwork putting these together.
Anna Geiger
I’m so glad you can use them, Dayen!
Sandra Henry
This is awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome Sandra!
LaDawn White
You are the answer to my prayers with these creative activities.
Thanks so much.
LaDawn White
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, LaDawn!
Pamela
Hi Kristin,
I can’t get these to download for me and was wondering if you could help? These beginning sound activities would be great to work on with my grandson. I tried chrome and adobe along with Google don’t know why this is not working for me. This is where I was lasthttps://www.themeasuredmom.com/learn-letters-and-sounds-25-free-picture-mats/
Thanks
Pam
Anna Geiger
Have you tried everything in this post, Pam? https://www.themeasuredmom.com/how-to-download-free-files/
Make sure you right click on the download link and save to your computer – then open.
If none of the options are working, let me know what’s happening – if you’re getting an error message, nothing is hapepning, etc.
Rita Stein-Grollman
Thank you so much for providing this fabulous resource. I am truly grateful, as I am new to elementary age children. It is great to see such creative work. You are very generous to share this with others.
Thanks again!
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, Rita!
Renai
I like many of these game ideas on your site. I’ve been looking for these types of ideas to make games in Spanish for home use.
Anna Geiger
Hopefully you’re finding some good inspiration for making your own materials! Thanks so much for stopping by, Renai.
Lola
Thank you soooo much. This will save me tons of time. I appreciate your sharing with us. Can’t wait to see more.
Anna Geiger
You’re welcome, Lola – actually I’ve finished all the sets and put them into one easy download :). You can see them here: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/learn-letters-and-sounds-25-free-picture-mats/
Lynn
Thank you soooo much!! I really appreciate the help from a grade one teacher and a single mom.
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, Lynn! I hope you find a lot of things here you can use in your classroom and at home. I remember how tiring it was to be a full time teacher, and parenting can be pretty exhausting too. 😉 I hope what you find here can save you a little time and effort. Have a great week!
Amanda
Thank you for posting this! We are going to do it in small groups this week. My entire class needs work on beginning sounds.
Anna Geiger
I’m so glad you can use it, Amanda! Can I ask what you teach?
Amanda
Preschool, we did two of them today, going to rotate through the rest on Wednesday and Friday. The kids enjoyed it and they are starting to catch on. Thank you again!
mar
thanx for sharing. I think I will use these for bingo games for my kiddos.
Anna Geiger
I love that idea!
Crystal & Co
Perfect resource for homeschool families!
Anna Geiger
Thanks, Crystal!
Veens @ Our Ordinary Life
Just yesterday I was trying to figure out where to get these kind of printables 🙂 I downloaded a few from prekinders too, but these are really helpful too. i am going to use it with my son.. THANK YOU for all the effort you put into these and sharing your resources with us too. Really THANKFUL for your site 🙂
Anna Geiger
You are very welcome, Veens! I really appreciate your comment!
Deborah
Thank you! My 3 1/2 year old is just now starting to sound out the letters that he sees. This will be a great, orgainized way to help him build this skill. I am also following Reading the Alphabet (thanks to reading about it here on your blog) and this will be the perfect addition! Thanks again!
Anna Geiger
I’m so glad these will work for you, Deborah, and am very happy to hear that you’re using Reading the Alphabet. Stay tuned- I’m working on another set.
Angie
These are amazing! I think I could spend hours downloading and creating from your site. Thank you.
Anna Geiger
Oh, please do! 🙂 I’m glad you’re finding things you can use, Angie!
Kristen
I just printed these as I think my one would love this type of activity! Thank you for all your hardwork putting these together.
Anna Geiger
You’re very welcome, Kristen! I am working on another set which I will be sharing within the month, I hope.