Beginning of the Year Beginning Sounds

Every year when the school year starts again I get a wake up call at how far we take our students over the course of one year.  You would think that I would be used to it after 11 years of teaching 1st grade, but I always forget!  When students leave my class at the end of the year, they are reading and comprehending what they read.  The content of their books is rigorous enough for them to look for a real plot and dig deeper into stories to work on comprehension.  After summer is over, however, my new batch of ex-Kindergartners roll in and I realize that it's time to start all over again!

Most times starting over again means starting from the basics of reading and writing with skills like beginning letter sounds.  (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.K.2d Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.1.2c Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.)  While they work on this a lot in Kindergarten I find that after a summer off, it helps to brush up on this.  You also have your handful of other students who may struggle with this in reading and writing and need more than just the first few weeks to practice this skill.  

I created this Beginning Sounds Activity pack to help you start the year off right!  The packet includes many different ways to practice identifying beginning sounds.  It starts with a centers activity in which students match the beginning letter sound to picture cards.  

This center is followed by a second center in which students must write (and practice proper letter formation!) the corresponding beginning letter sound.  

Students can then move on to another center that steps the challenge up a little by combining beginning letter sounds in a puzzle to create a new word!

Follow these center up with fun practice pages that can be taken for daily grades as well!  These pages include matching, cut and glue, mystery message, etc.  There are also reference posters and answer keys for you and your students.  The final piece of this activity pack is an assessment for you to get a quick and accurate grade to see how well your kiddos have mastered the material.  

I hope you enjoy this activity pack.  I designed it in graduated steps to help make it easier for you to introduce, reinforce, and assess your kids all in one package!

You can snag this Beginning Sounds Activity Pack from my TPT store!