Same First Letter Sound

Learners connect familiar words from their own vocabulary with specific sounds to help them with strengthening their spelling associations.

Materials Needed: whiteboard, marker

1. Choose a vocabulary word from the week’s unit.
2. Write the word on the whiteboard, then go through the word letter by letter.
3. For each letter, ask the learner/s to tell you what sound the letter makes.
4. Have the learner/s verbally generate a list of words that start with the same sound.

Example: During the unit on community:

Teacher: What is this word?

Learner/s: Bank

Teacher: What’s the first letter?

Learner/s: B

Teacher: What sound does the letter B make?

Learner/s: /b/

Teacher: What are other words that start with the /b/ sound?

Learner/s: Boy, baby, ball, etc.

Expansion (with a small group) 1: Materials Needed: ball

Use a ball toss to encourage all of the learners to speak. For each letter, have every learner say a word that starts with the corresponding sound when they catch the ball. Encourage the learners in the group to help one another if someone has problems generating a word.

Expansion 2: Have the higher level learners spell some of the words out loud.