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 of the word family.

 “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.