Word building cards.

Activity

Are you looking for a fun activity to help kids 

sound out words? My preschooler loved are 

these! Over the past year, I’ve been doing a

 lot of pre-reading activities with my Four 

(almost five).

We’ve read pocket chart sentences, used my 

voice to print packs to learn concept of word,

 and are even starting a simple reading 

curriculum for preschoolers.

He’s got concepts of print down. He’s starting

to learn simple sight words.But sounding out

words? That’s a tough one.

Read

5 things kids need to know

before they are ready to "sound it

out")

I created this activity without an expectation

 that my son would be ready for it. Imagine my 

surprise when it was just the thing he needed

 to get sounding out to “click!” Woo hoo!

To play, simply print the word building mat 

and a set of cards and pictures. Each page

in the download has five pictures and five 

beginning letters or blends for a particular 

word family. Help your child read the name

 “Aaaad.  Ad.” Next, he puts it in the red

box (see above).

Have your child choose a letter, put it in the left

 box, and read the new word.  “Ssss…ad. 

 Sssaaad. Sad.”

Finally, he finds the picture that goes with the 

word and  put it on the bottom sign. When done,

 your child can place the letter and picture in two 

piles above the mat. Then he starts over with a 

new word. When you’re done with one word 

family, try another one.

My son did really well with the short a and

 short o word families. When I pulled out the

 short i word families, he quickly became 

frustrated. We put the activity aside for the

 day, but I’m looking forward to trying it again 

when he’s ready.