beginning Sounds worksheets on a rainbow background. " width="1200" height="1200" />This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. See our disclosure policy.
Get 26 pages of free Beginning Sounds Cut and Paste printables with one worksheet for every letter of the alphabet, A-Z! These no-prep worksheets allow children to practice initial sounds in engaging ways like cutting, pasting, and sorting colorful pictures.
beginning Sounds worksheets on a rainbow background. " width="1200" height="1200" />
Table of Contents (Skip Ahead)
Identifying beginning sounds in words is a foundational phonological awareness skill. It’s a time children begin to understand that the words they say are made up of sounds, and those sounds are connected to print.
It builds the foundational skill of recognizing that sounds correspond to letters. Children need to learn that when they see a letter, their mouth must make that sound and their ear must hear that sound.
These will always match! Identifying initial sounds is an important first step in this orthographic mapping process.
Why focus on beginning sounds in words? Well, it’s easiest for kids to hear initial sounds in words before attempting to isolate and identify medial or final sounds.
It’s still a hard skill, but with repeated practice and lots of examples (we love to use an alphabet arc for even more practice!), kids will begin to understand. They’ll start hearing the sounds at the beginning of words and connecting them to print.
As an added bonus, these worksheets even help kids develop scissor skills with cutting and pasting requirements.
👉 For even more practice and repeated exposures, get our Alphabet Bundle of resources!
These worksheets get kids practicing a very important skill needed for reading success – identifying beginning sounds in words.
Whether you are working on one particular letter OR if you’re focusing on the overall skill of identifying beginning sounds in words, you’ll have a comprehensive resource that will cover it all!
These worksheets are developmentally appropriate for preschool, pre-k and kindergarten students. Learning beginning sounds is the first step toward phoneme segmentation!
Build on this knowledge, and model how the letter connects to the sound they hear at the beginning of their name: Joy – /j/.
👉 Note: If a child has a digraph or special blend at the beginning of their name, teach them that! For example, Charlie should learn Ch – /ch/ rather than the C – /c/ sound. Or Drake should learn Dr – /dr/ rather than /d/.
Use these words as an answer key, to assist students as they complete the worksheets, or for other beginning sounds practice activities.
*Letter X: We teach the letter X as making /k/ + /s/ sound; however the only English words that begin with x have the /gs/ sound.
As such, the words we use /k/ + /s/ as the ending sound. For the letter X worksheet only, students should be directed to listen for the /k/ +/s/ sound at the end of the word.
Using these worksheets? We’d love to hear about your experience with them!
Leave a comment below or tag us on Instagram @literacylearn.
