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Beginning Sounds Worksheets

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Say the picture, hear the first sound, find its letter: write the beginning sound, circle it, match it, and cut and sort by sound.

Download the beginning sounds worksheets

Write the beginning sound

Say the picture's name and write its first letter. Letter banks on the A to Z sets; no bank on the mixed sets.

Circle the beginning sound

Three letters for each picture: circle the one for the first sound.

Match pictures to beginning sounds

Beginning sounds cut and sort

Cut out eight pictures and glue each one under the letter for its first sound.

Print at 100% (actual size) for the cleanest tracing lines.

About these beginning sounds worksheets

Hearing the first sound in a word is one of the first steps into reading and spelling. A child who can hear that sun starts with /s/ and knows that s spells it is ready to write the first letter of any word they say, and soon the whole word.

These beginning sounds worksheets use simple black-and-white pictures of things kindergartners name the same way every time: sun, cat, fish, bus, moon. Children say each picture's name, listen for the sound at the start, and show what they hear in four ways.

On the write pages they write the first letter on a ruled line, with a small letter bank on the early sets and no help on the mixed sets. The circle pages give three letters to choose from. The match pages join pictures to letters with a line, and the cut-and-sort pages sort eight pictures under two letters, such as s and m or b and p. Every page has an answer key with the picture names on page 2.

Standards

  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.DIsolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.ADemonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.BAssociate the long and short sounds with the common spellings (graphemes) for the five major vowels.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.K.2.CWrite a letter or letters for most consonant and short-vowel sounds (phonemes).

How to use them

  1. Model one picture out loud: "Fish. Ffff-ish. I hear /f/ first. F spells /f/." Then let your child try the next one.
  2. Have your child say each picture's name out loud, not just in their head. Hearing their own voice makes the first sound easier to catch.
  3. Start with the write pages that have a letter bank (A to E, F to J and so on), then move to the mixed pages, which have no bank.
  4. Use the sort pages with letters your child mixes up, like b and p or t and d. Cutting and gluing gives a short, hands-on break from pencil work.
  5. Check the work with the answer key together. If a picture got a different name, talk about both names and their first sounds.

Teaching tips

  • Stretch the first sound if it can be stretched: mmmouse, sssun, fffish. Bounce the ones that cannot: /b/ /b/ bus.
  • Blends still count. Tree and truck start with t, frog starts with f. The child only needs the first letter.
  • Watch for children who name the last sound they hear instead of the first. Cover the picture and say the word with them, then ask, "What did your mouth do first?"
  • Vowel pictures can be harder. The vowel page mixes the short sound (apple, egg, octopus, umbrella) with a few that say the letter's name (ice cream, unicorn).
  • A picture can be called two things: a rabbit can be a bunny. The answer key lists the name the page uses.

Questions teachers and parents ask

What are beginning sounds?

The beginning sound is the first sound you hear in a word. In sun it is /s/, in moon it is /m/. Children learn to hear that sound and then match it to the letter that spells it.

When do kindergartners learn beginning sounds?

Most children work on beginning sounds in the first half of kindergarten, alongside letter sounds. Hearing first sounds usually comes before hearing ending and middle sounds.

What if my child does not know what a picture is?

Tell them the name and move on. The answer key on page 2 lists every picture name. The goal is hearing the first sound, not guessing the picture.

Do words like tree and frog count as starting with t and f?

Yes. The first sound of tree is /t/ and the first sound of frog is /f/. Children only need the first letter, even when two consonants come together at the start.