Initial letter sounds are some of the first your students will begin to identify. 

Whether it’s by associating names of their family members, foods they like, or animals they know, early readers discover phonics by linking the first letters of words with the sounds they make. 

We put teaching letters and sounds into a board game that allows students to work together while they practice their phonological awareness. 

Play and Implement Letter Sounds Practice at the Same Time

This resource can be used as a reading center activity, or as a guided reading group game to practice applying letter-sound correspondence.

Shuffle the letter cards and place them face down in the middle of the playing area. Then, place the game pieces on start.

To take their turn, a player chooses the top card from the deck and identifies the letter on the card and the sound it makes. Then, they move their game piece to the first picture that starts with the matching sound. If there are no more pictures that match the sound, the player loses their turn. 

Play continues until each player draws a card that matches the last space on the game board. 

If students need it, suggest they use a visual reminder of the letter sounds such as an alphabet display.

Turn this Letter Sounds Practice into More Ways to Learn and Play!  

We’ve thought of a few more ways you can use this game in your classroom. 

Sentence Practice

Have students keep a pencil and paper nearby. After they move to a space, have the student write the word in a sentence on their paper. If students aren’t comfortable with writing sentences, just writing the word down will be great practice for sounding out words. 

Initial Sounds Practice

This game can be used with your guided reading group. In this version, you will not use letter cards. Instead, students will roll a die and move that number of spaces on the board. When they land on a space, they must be able to tell you what letter the word starts with to stay there—or they go back to the space they were in. The first one to the end of the board win! 

Yes, And…

As an additional challenge, have students name another object that starts with the letter sound before moving to the new space.

Easily Prepare This Resource for Your Students

Print all game pieces on cardstock for added durability and longevity. Place game parts in a folder or large envelope for easy access. 

Before You Download

Use the drop-down icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource. 

This resource was created by Lindsey Phillips, a teacher in Michigan and a Teach Starter Collaborator. 

Keep the fun in learning with more games and activities that build confidence in your student’s reading abilities! 

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