Now that my son is in first grade and almost reading on his own, my 4 year old daughter is eager to catch up. She is still learning her letters and gets a little confused with the sounds they make. We recently discovered a fun way for her to practice figuring out which letters go with which letter sounds. In fact, even my 6 year old enjoys to playing it!
What You Need:
- A favorite game with many word options, like Match
- One or two eager learners
How To Play:
The game is simple, and I am really surprised we have not started this sooner.
We play the game as normal, except that when it is each player’s turn they say out loud what is in each picture (practice for the sound and letter match). i.e. “Balloon and Dragon”
When a match is found, the player says out loud what the match is. Then I ask what the first sound is. Once they answer that, I ask what letter makes that sound. If they run into an issue matching the letter sound to the letter, we will run through the alphabet together and if more help is needed, we will then run through the alphabet again saying the letter sounds for each letter.
Our conversation went a little like this:
Player: I found a match!
Me: What is it?
Player: Pizza.
Me: What sound does Pizza start with?
Player: Puh.
Me: What letter makes a Puh sound?
Player: P!
Me: Good job! You can take your match.
The first few matches were a little trial and error for us, but she soon got the idea. Her brother was able to skip right to telling me the letter before I even asked him.
Here is a short video demonstration of our new learning game:
Ever since the first time we played this game, my four year old often stops me throughout the day to tell me what sounds and letters the words she is saying start with. I love to see her so excited about learning!
