Kindergarten · Reading · RF.K.2.D, RF.K.3.A

Beginning Sounds Lesson Plan for Kindergarten

A ready-to-teach beginning sounds lesson for Kindergarten, built around hearing the first sound in a spoken word, matching it to its letter, and telling look-alike letters such as b, d and p apart. Print the plan, print the practice pages, and you are set.

Approximately 47 minutes

Learning objective

Identify the beginning sound in spoken words
Match pictures to words that share the same starting sound
Say the beginning sound of everyday objects aloud

Materials

Find the Picture That Starts With the Letter Set (set of 6, 1 to 6)
Match Beginning Sound
Circle Beginning Sound
Circle the letter that matches the beginning sound
Print the letter that matches the beginning sound
Match the picture and the letter that begins the word
Pencils, and whiteboard space for the modeled examples

Lesson steps

1. Build the background (5 min)
Introduce beginning sounds in plain language and connect it to a book the class already knows. Write the key term where students can see it all lesson. For Kindergarten, one clear sentence beats a full definition.
2. Read aloud and think aloud (I do) (10 min)
Read a short passage aloud. Stop twice and narrate your own thinking about beginning sounds: what you noticed in the text and what made you notice it. Students are learning the move, not the answer.
3. Guided practice (we do) (12 min)
Read a second passage together. This time students find the evidence and you record it. Push every answer back to the text with "what words told you that?"
4. Independent practice (you do) (15 min)
Hand out "Find the Picture That Starts With the Letter Set". Students read and answer on their own. Circulate and ask individuals to point to the line in the text that supports their answer.
5. Share and close (5 min)
Two or three students share an answer and the evidence behind it. Restate beginning sounds one final time in the students' own words, not yours.

Check for understanding

Ask each student to point to the evidence in the text for one of their answers. A student who has the right answer but cannot find the line has not yet learned beginning sounds.

Differentiation

Extra support. Students who stall: pull them into a small group and rebuild beginning sounds with concrete materials or a simpler text before asking for the written work again. Do not send the page home as homework, it will just rehearse the misunderstanding.

Extension. Students who finish early: ask them to write their own beginning sounds problem for a partner to solve, then check the partner's work. Creating a problem is harder than solving one and it surfaces whether they really understand beginning sounds.

Skills covered in this lesson

Beginning Sounds · Letter Sounds · Match Letter · Circle Letter

Questions teachers ask about teaching beginning sounds

What is a beginning sound?

The first sound you hear in a spoken word, like the s in sun or the d in dog. Kindergartners learn to hear that sound and match it to its letter (CCSS RF.K.2.D and RF.K.3.A).

Does my kindergartner need to read the picture names?

No. An adult says each picture name aloud, and the child listens for the first sound. On Circle the First Letter, M, S and T the child then circles m, s or t and traces the letters.

How do I help a child who mixes up b, d and p?

Practice one look-alike letter at a time and say the sound with a picture, like b for bear and d for dinosaur. Circle the First Letter, B, D and P and the B or D cut and glue sort give these letters pages of their own.

What kinds of beginning sounds pages are there?

75 sheets: circle the first letter, draw a line to the letter, circle the picture that starts with a letter, color the pictures for one sound, cut and glue sorts, trace words and circle the first letter, mazes and two checkups.