One of my goals as a teacher of any age is to meet my students where they are at. I often say to audiences of teachers when I speak that their responsibility is to teach the child in front of them. That means that we are teaching at all different levels all day. Especially when we are working on literacy or numeracy skills, this can get daunting. One of my secrets for differentiating lessons is to have a vast toolbox of materials I can use for small group and teacher table activities. These are short one-on-one or small group activities that can target specific skills, allowing me to teach the child in front of me genuinely. Inexpensive materials like these printable sound matching clip cards are how I do this.
A few weeks ago, I made these sound matching cards which you may have seen me post about on Instagram. Some of my students did wonderfully with these cards finding multiple initial sound matches and using the tiny clothespins to mark them. Others were nowhere near ready, but I have noticed skills develop in the weeks since, and the need for the first step in initial sound matching emerged. That’s why I made these simpler sound matching cards. The ability to match initial sounds is a foundational phonological awareness skill that is vital for early literacy. You can read more about these skills here.
There are only two options for sound matching. This phonological awareness activity won’t overwhelm your students, even beginners.
Say all three pictures and clip the smaller picture whose initial sound matches the initial sound of the big picture.
Do a few more, or maybe more… the point is that you can do as many or as few as your student needs.
Why are there no letters on the cards?
This activity is all about sound discrimination. Before children can attach letters to the sounds, they need to recognize, manipulate, and match up sounds. That said, there is plenty of room on the card to add letters if your students are ready for that step in the future. It should be noted that there are 33 initial sound matching cards. I created cards for every single consonant sound, including soft c and g, as well as the short and long vowel sounds, and I did not create sound matching cards for blends.
How To Use Sound Matching Clip Cards
I like to use them one one-on-one with students first. We do sound sorting as a group once a week, so my students are familiar with matching up initial sounds, but not with cards. After using them with most of my students one-on-one, they become part of my regular literacy center rotation.
Want your own?
Download the 33 cards ( that’s 11 pages) for just $2.99 and print them out at home right now!
$2.99
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