Teaching our young children is a very exciting time, though it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming. There is a lot of information out there, and it can be hard to discern exactly what, when, and how to teach a preschooler—especially when it comes to teaching letter sounds.

But let me tell you this: the fact that you’re here—learning, growing, and taking an interest in your child’s development—speaks volumes. You are your child’s best teacher, and I am here to help support you on that journey.

So, let’s get right into it!

Letter Sound Games for Preschoolers

For the activities in this post, you’ll need a copy of these FREE Beginning Letter Sound Cards. So first things first, grab your copy below, then we’ll talk about how to use those cards in fun letter sound games with your preschooler.

The Order to Introduce Letters

You likely noticed that your Beginning Letter Sound Cards don’t start with A-B-C. That’s because there is a special order to introduce letters that sets our children up for later reading success, and it starts with the letter grouping s, a, t, i, p, and n.

After teaching children the letter sounds and names in that first group, children can already start building words! With just those six letters, children can build words like sat, pat, pin, tin, etc. This is a huge boost to self-esteem and allows reading to flow like magic.

After the first group, children progress through the remaining letters in this order:

1. 1. s, a, t, i, p, n
2. c, k, e, h, r
3. m, d, g, o
4. l, f, b, q, u
5. j, z, w
6. v, y, x

What is Phonological Awareness?

But wait! There is one more thing I need you to know before we get started with those Beginning Letter Sound Cards.

In addition to learning the letters, there are seven pre-reading skills that children must know before they will be able to read. These are known as Phonological Awareness Skills and include:

1. Rhyming
2. Word Awareness
3. Syllable Awareness
4. Sound Identification
5. Sound Segmenting
6. Sound Blending
7. Deleting Sounds

Phonological Awareness focuses on auditory skills—hearing the relationship between words, the rhymes, sounds, and syllables— not the letter names or what they look like. A strong foundation in Phonological Awareness is the best way to set your little one up for future reading success! For this reason, I included a handy little printout of the seven Phonological Awareness skills in the free printable for you as well.

Letter Sound Games with Sound Cards

Okay, now back to those Beginning Letter Sound Cards! We’re going to use these cards to teach your little one the first grouping of letters and practice sound identification.

To start, print out your cards. I suggest printing the cards on cardstock or gluing them to cardboard so they are sturdy for little hands. Once they are printed out, it is time to play and learn.

You’ll notice that each card has a letter in uppercase and lowercase on the left, and four little pictures on the right. Some of those pictures begin with the same sound as the letter shown on the left, and others do not. We’re going to use those little pictures for teaching letter sounds to your child. 

For example, with the S card, you would start by saying:

• This is the letter S and it makes the ssss sound. Let’s see if any of these words also start with the ssss sound. Hmm, first there’s a star. Sssstar… does that start with the ssss sound? Yes! Let’s clip a clothespin on the star.

Then you’ll progress through the rest of the pictures, saying the word nice and slowly, and see if your little one can hear that beginning letter sound:

• Sssnake. Yes! Snake starts with the ssss sound. Let’s add a clothespin.
• Eggs… Ooh, that’s a tricky one. Eggssss ends with an ssss sound, but does it start with the ssss sound? Let’s listen again. Eeeggs. Nope, no clothespin.
• And depending on whether you would call that last image a soccer ball, a football, or just a ball will decide whether or not you clip a clothespin on it!

Quick Tip!

When first teaching letters and sounds, it is best to start with the most common sound that letter makes. For example, I like to start with the short vowel sounds. So for the letter A, we will focus on the /a/ sound, as in apple, and for the letter I, we will focus on the /i/ sound as in igloo.

More Letter Sound Games

After you’ve gone through those first six letters, there are lots of fun and playful letter sound games you can play together to reinforce that learning. After all, little ones learn best through play!

Here are a few fun ways to play and learn:

Go Fish: Print two copies of the letter cards and have a game of Go Fish! You could play to practice the letter names (e.g. “Do you have the letter S?”) or the letter sounds (e.g. “Do you have the letter that says ssss?”).

Scavenger Hunt: Lay the cards on the floor and have your child go on a scavenger hunt, trying to find something that begins with each sound. They may find some socks to go with the S card, an apple for the A card, a toy for the T card, etc. You can also focus on just one letter sound and try to find as much as you can that starts with that one letter sound!

Hide and Seek: Hide the cards in a room and have your child find each one. When they find a card, can they tell you the letter name and the sound that it makes?

On the Wall: Tape the cards on a wall and call out a letter name or sound. Have your child try to throw a rolled up ball of socks to hit that letter card.

Letter Hunt: Pull out your child’s favorite storybook and go on a letter hunt! Turn to the very first page and read it together, then hunt through that page to find one of the letters, perhaps a T. How many can you find? Can you find one that’s at the start of the word? What about at the end of the word? Can you find an uppercase and a lowercase? Read the next page together and hunt for another letter. Continue on with all of the letters that you’re practicing!

Play into Kindergarten Readiness

As a Reading Specialist, I want to empower you to teach your little one and set them up for success. And as a homeschooling Mama of four, I want to take away all the fluff and keep everything SUPER easy. That is why I created Play into Kindergarten Readiness. One 20-minute activity a day, all core skills covered (including all of those important phonological awareness skills and the rest of the Beginning Letter Sound Cards).

In your free printable, I included a one-week sample of what you can expect in Play into Kindergarten Readiness. I do hope you will join me!

For all core skills covered in 20 minutes of play a day, check out Play into Kindergarten Readiness!

Take a peek right here:
https://shop.howweelearn.com/collections/everything-preschool

Thank you so much for reading, my friend!

xo
Sarah