Hi everyone!
It has been a long time time since I have written on here, but hope to be back a bit more and have a few posts coming up that I hope you enjoy!
If you have been following me over on my Instagram then you know I recently shared my 4 year old sons strong desire to learn how to read. He asks me almost everyday, “Mom, will you teach me how to read?” and it just melts my heart! He wants so bad to read like his older sister, but doesn’t understand that it can’t happen over night or in one lesson.
This past year we did a Letter A Week curriculum for preschool (you can find my post on how I teach this/plan HERE) where we went through the alphabet and learned each letter. My son is still working on mastering his letter sounds, so that is our goal for the summer to get him prepared to learn how to read.
My sons love language is also quality time. And if you spend one on one time with him, he usually wants to play a game. So I gathered all our letter sound games to play throughout the summer and thought I would share them with you! Playing games is the best way to get them learning without them even realizing it. Here are some of my favorites we will be using:
Players sound out the letters on their cards, match it to a beginning sound of a picture on the game board, and place a chip on it. Whoever gets four chips in a row first wins! Simple game that helps with letter recognition and beginning sounds.
Launch & Learn Beginning Sounds Game
We just bought this for my son and he LOVES it! This game is from Lakeshore Learning and is a little more expensive than I would usually spend, but is really great quality (wooden tile pieces) and is a lot of fun! Each player takes turns launching the tiles from the dispenser and matching them to a picture on their board that begins with that letter. Fill up your board to win! We have had this game for only a week and I can already tell how much it is helping my son!
Sound Games from The Measured Mom
I love these simple games from themeasuredmom.com and they are all FREE printables! I print them on regular paper and place them in a dry erase pouch/page protector when we are ready to play! We use game pieces I have saved from old games or mini erasers from Target dollar spot as our markers, and giant foam dice you can find at the dollar store.
- Say the Sound game– Roll the die, move that many spaces, and say the beginning sound of the picture you landed on. First to finish line wins!
- Roll an Ending Sound game– Roll the die, find the corresponding letter at the top, and move to the next space that ends in that sound. First to finish line wins!
- Dig Up the Letters– Not necessarily a game, but another activity to do together. I like to use Scrabble tiles or Bananagram tiles for this. I hide them in a sensory bin of rice or beans, have them find a tile and match the letter to its beginning sound picture.
Bingo is always a favorite that any age can play! We have this bingo set from Let’s Play School that comes in uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers 1-20. They come with letter cards we use to learn/practice letter recognition, but now we will use the picture cards from her Jungle set (May Subscription) to find the letter that matches its beginning sound.
These are all simple games we can pull out easily whenever we want. We hope to play these throughout the summer and master those beginning sounds! I hope these are helpful in your household as well!
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