Letters and Sounds are the Building Blocks for Learning to Read

A beginning step in learning to read is learning that special symbols stand for letters that make sounds. The sounds of each letter (or letter combinations) and blending those sounds to make words is the basis of phonics. Letters and sounds are just one piece in learning to read. Our young readers need to be able to put many different pieces together to really break the reading code.

I start with letter names and sounds because they are very popular in young children’s classrooms. Preschool and Kindergarten classes love teaching letters and sounds because progress is easy to track. Additionally, we all remember learning the letters of the alphabet. Plus, research shows that letter sounds need to be taught systematically when teaching children to read.

Activities for Learning Letters and Sounds

There are so many different ways to learn the letter names and sounds. Yes, you can use flashcards, YouTube videos, songs, and even learn through play. We love learning our letters and sounds during play and our every day interactions. You can even incorporate flash cards into play too.

I know there are many people who strongly dislike flashcards, but it’s less the flashcards and more the methods. Children naturally love learning and want to learn more. But they do not like drill and kill exercises where they constantly fail. Instead, they love to see all that they have learned and now know!

Play with the Alphabet

Since children all learn differently, we need methods of teaching letters and sounds that go beyond just flash cards. Kids need many opportunities to play with letters before they are ready to learn names and sounds. Begin by finding ways to bring letters into the home.

Favorite Toys

We love decorating our refrigerator with letter magnets low enough for the kids to play. Our kids love to use these letters to make words, write messages, and even make designs. Our youngest children make designs and move the letters around. When we have a moment, we join them in their play and introduce the letter names and sounds. We may even make a few words together.

We absolutely love toys with letters on them. Blocks with letters and other alphabet toys are always fun. We love alphabet robots and alphabet foam tiles in our home. The more toys with letters on them, the more you encourage your child to pay attention to letters in their environment.

Bath time is a great time to focus on letters and sounds with your little one. This is a time when we are focused on our child and stay with them. Since they have our attention, we might as well add in some learning. In the bathtub, we love to have bath foam letter tiles and ABC rubber ducks. (Who doesn’t love the rubber ducky game!). And of course, sing the ABCs.

Play first, Then Introduce

We begin just with playing with toys that have letters on them. Children love toys and they enjoy brightly colored toys. So often toys with letters are brightly colored. In the beginning, don’t worry so much about pointing out the letter names and sounds. Instead, just let your child enjoy the toys and play with them. If the moment presents, it’s okay to talk about the letters and sounds but don’t push it.

Once your little one is used to playing with letter toys, I love using these same toys to introduce letter names and sounds. I find that introducing both the letter name and sound together is more beneficial for early reading than just the letter names. When children are learning to read, knowing letter names is nice, but the sounds are what is really important. Try something simple like, “Oh, this is letter B it says /b/ like butterfly.”

In the beginning, don’t worry so much about the order and systematically teaching these sounds. Right now it’s all about exposure to letters and sounds. As your child plays with a letter, go ahead and introduce the name and sound. A good recommendation is to start with the letters in your child’s name, but don’t limit yourself. Do what comes naturally during play and interactions with your child.

Utilize the Different Senses

When your sweet child is really ready to begin learning the names and sounds of letters, I find that using multiple methods is very helpful. It’s not enough just to show most children a flashcard of a letter and expect them to learn it. They need to be able to interact with the letters in a variety of ways.

Great Programs for Letters and Sounds

I love using programs where each letter is transformed into an image that begins with the letter sounds: Jolly Phonics, Zoo Phonics, Sunform. Then pair each letter with a special motion and sentence. “This is the letter A, it says /a/ like apple.” By using pictures, motions and sentences, you are allowing your child to interact with the letters by touch, sight, and hearing. The more senses you can use, the better your child will remember the names and sounds of letters (or really anything they are trying to learn).

The different pictures, motions, and sentences are great for recall too. When you are playing with your child, you can show them the picture, say the sentence, or do the motion to prompt the letter sound or name.

Making Flashcards Multisensory Too

Picture flashcards are a great way to interact with letters, but it is not usually enough. I loved having two sets of picture flashcards so that we could play memory (either cards laid face side up for little ones or face side down for more advanced children). We would also lay the cards out on the floor and play a game where my little one would bring me a letter and if he knew the name and sound, he added it to his pile. If he didn’t, I would keep the letter.

Flash card flash can be a fun game too. Quickly flash a letter card and ask your child to give the motion, sentences, or letter name and sound. You could also do this backwards. You give the motion, sentence, or letter name or sound and ask your child to find the flashcard.

Flash card keyboard is a favorite among our children. We lay the flash cards on the floor. Then we ask our child to jump on a specific letter by giving the name, sound, sentence, or motion. If your child is struggling with this, you could provide the photo card as further assistance. For an added challenge, arrange the letters in rows like a keyboard.

Such simple games but they give your little one so much power and lets you know which letters and sounds he really knows and which he needs more practice.

Games to Play with Flashcards.

Some of our favorite card games can be played with letter flashcards. For some games you will want two different sets of flashcards, while for others, one set is enough. It is worth purchasing or creating a set of uppercase letters and lowercase letters.

WAR

War can be adapted to flashcards. Instead of the highest number winning, you can have the person with letter closest to A or closest to Z win. Divide your flashcards among all players. Each player flips one card. The person with the letter closest to A or Z is the winner and gets to take all the cards. If there is a tie, then you have a war. Each player in the war gets to flip another card.

GO FISH

Go Fish can also be played with flashcards. This time you try to make letter matches instead of number matches. Each player starts with 7 flashcards. They take turns asking for a specific letter and trying to make a match. If no match can be made, they draw one card. The first player to match all their cards is the winner. For a twist, ask your child to say the sound of the letter when asking for a card.

UNO

Uno is another card game that could be adapted for letters and sounds. For this you will want to mix the uppercase and lowercase letters together. Each player starts with 7 cards. Lay all other cards in a draw pile and flip one card into the discard pile. Players take turns laying down a matching card. A matching card is either the same letter or the same type of letter (uppercase or lowercase). The first player to use all their cards wins.

SLAP JACK

Slapjack is a great card game is your child is working on vowels. Divide the cards among all the players. Everyone flips a card at the same time. Keep flipping until someone flips a vowel. When someone flips a vowel, the first player to slap the cards wins all the cards. If you would rather keep the slapping out of the game, you could have the first player to say the sound of the vowel wins all the cards. Keep playing until someone has all the cards.

RUMMY

Rummy or gin can be adapted too. Each player starts with 7 cards. Place all other cards in a draw pile with one card flipped over for the discard pile. Players take turns drawing a card. They try to make three letters that match or three letters in a row (A, B, C or L, M, N). Once they have three matching letters or three letters in a row, they put the three cards down in front of them. When they can’t make anymore moves, they discard a card. Play continues until someone runs out of cards. For a twist, allow people to build off of other players sets on the table.

Hands-On Letters and Sounds Activities

When you little one is ready for more structured practice on letters and sounds, we have some great activities you can try.

PLAYDOUGH

Make letters using playdough. Your little learner can roll out long worms and then form these into letters. Practice with uppercase and lowercase letters. Alternatively, your child could roll out balls and then use the balls to make the letters. For extra support, try writing the letters on paper, then make the letters out of playdough on top.

As they make the letters, be sure to talk about the letter names and letter sounds.

BUILD LETTERS

Make letters with pattern blocks. Your reader can use the pattern blocks to construct shapes using one type of block or a variety of pattern blocks. For extra support, provide the outline of the letter for your little one to build on. This is great because you really can build with anything: legos, counters, tokens, etc.

While building the letters, have your child say the letter name and letter sound to practice.

LETTER DRAW

Trace letters on salt trays or paint bags. You can either play on an open cookie sheet or inside a closed bag for less mess. If you use the cookie sheet, add enough flour, salt, baking soda, sugar, or rice to fill the sheet. We pick only one type per cookie sheet. You can also use a more messy substance like shampoo, conditioner, bubbles, etc. Then let you little one trace their letters while saying the name and sound.

For less mess, fill a Ziploc bag with paint or shampoo. Then let your little one trace the letters on top of the bag. As they trace the letters, be sure to practice the letter names and sounds. For an added twist, have your reader draw a letter card as the letter they practice.

LETTER SEARCH

Print out nursery rhymes or other favorite short stories. You could even use the pages in a book if you have one that is falling apart. Place the pages into a sheet protector. Then let you little reader search for a specific letter on the pages. You could even give them a dry erase marker to circle the letters that they find.

Be sure to practice the letter name and sound as your child circles the letters. To add a little extra twist, they could pick a letter card to tell them which letter to find on the page. Wouldn’t it be great thinking if they drew an X and couldn’t find a single X on the page? What a great conversation to have with your reader.

Encourage Environmental Print for Teaching Letters and Sounds

Using environmental print is always so powerful! We would search for letters everywhere we went on signs, store fronts, cars, people’s clothes, playground equipment, food packages, anything we could find. In the beginning, just recognizing letters is a great start.

Once your child is pretty good at recognizing letters, try matching letters. Our children loved finding a letter on their own shirt and then looking for that same letter on our clothes. They can begin to match letters found in their home, on signs and even buildings.

Environmental print helps your little one practice letter names and sounds, but also teaches the importance of why we read. Plus it shows them that letters are everywhere and gives them new words to help them remember the sound of each letter.

Most children will have learned the letter name and sound for each letter by the halfway point of kindergarten. Once they have these down, it is time to start to put them together to read and write words! What a fun time to be a child! Learning to read is so empowering. Don’t miss the next post in the series, Rhyming.

Leave us a comment below and let us know some of your favorite ways to teach letters and sounds with your children.

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.