Kindergarten Elementary
Language ArtsPrintables
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Once you’ve mastered the letters of the alphabet, the next step in learning to read is establishing that each letter makes a sound or sounds in some cases, and then to start applying those sounds to words.
Being able to pick out the sounds within words will not only help your child learn to sound out words they’ve never encountered before but it can also make it easier for some children to learn to read from the beginning.
With this gumball beginning sound activity, they’ll have the opportunity to practice picking out the beginning sounds within words and associating those sounds with a letter of the alphabet.
Now, it’s not hard to tell that we’re a little bit obsessed with gumball machines.
We’ve used them to practice number sense, counting, and even color words at this point!
They’re just so much fun to use in an activity and they can be incorporated in so many different ways.
This beginning sound activity is no different.
Beginning Sound Gumballs
Each gumball machine has a letter written on it and within this download, you’ll find all 26 uppercase letters of the alphabet.
You’ll also find a number of colored gumballs. Three gumballs for each gumball machine.
The first gumball will have your child match the uppercase letter of the alphabet to the one on the machine.
The second will give them the opportunity to practice matching the upper and lowercase versions of a letter together.
Finally, the third gumball in each set includes a picture that begins with the sound from its corresponding gumball machine.
After you have printed out the gumball machines and the colored gumballs, you’ll simply need to cut them out, and run them through your laminator for durability.
Then, just set them out and have your child attempt to match each of the gumballs to the correct gumball machine based on the letter that you’ll find on the bottom of each.
Of course, as always, if your child isn’t ready for the full alphabet all at once, start out with just a few letters and go from there. Before too long they’ll be pros and matching letters to their sounds.
