- paper bag
- pictures of objects beginning with letter sound /s/; pictures of things that begin with other letter sounds
MA Standards:
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.2.c: Identify the initial sound of a spoken word and, with guidance and support, generate several other words that have the same initial sound.
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.3.a: Link an initial sound to a picture of an object that begins with that sound and, with guidance and support, to the corresponding printed letter (e.g., link the initial sound /b/ to a picture of a ball and, with support, to a printed or written ”B”).
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Literacy Knowledge/Phonological Awareness: Identifies and discriminates between sounds and phonemes in language, such as attention to beginning and ending sounds of words and recognition that different words begin or end with the same sound.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 8: Listen to, identify, and manipulate language sounds to develop auditory discrimination and phonemic awareness.
Learn About Letter Sounds Together: Bag of Sounds (/s/)
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Phonological Awareness, Speaking and Listening, Vocabulary
Hold up a seed and ask children what the first sound is that they hear in the word seed.
- Then show children a paper bag filled with pictures of objects. Say, Some of the pictures are of objects that begin with the /s/ sound and some are of objects that begin with other sounds. Explain that you want children to pull a picture from the bag, name it, and use it in a sentence. Say, If it begins with an /s/ sound then use it in a sentence. If it doesn’t begin with an /s/ sound, then put it back in the bag and pull another picture until you get a picture that begins with /s/.
- Demonstrate by pulling a picture from the bag and naming it (sock). Repeat the word, emphasizing the beginning /s/ sound. Say, The word sock begins with the /s/ sound just like the word seed. Listen to the word in a sentence. This is my s-s-sock.
- Have children repeat the process of pulling a picture from the bag, naming it, and using it in a sentence.
Educator Tip: Guided and independent letter, sound, and word practice continues to take place in center activities. It is helpful to set up the literacy center immediately after the direct instruction and repeat instruction before children work in the literacy center identifying letters.