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Little Knight First Sound Finder

First Sound Finder

Practice matching the first sound of a word with a letter. Designed for pre-k through first grade.

First Sound Finder

Click any letter to start.

    A a

    Which picture starts with the sound for the letter A?

       

      You found a picture for every sound in the alphabet!

      Learn more about this activity. 

      • The first sound is the easiest to hear

        A beginning sound, also called an initial sound or initial phoneme, is the first sound you hear when a word is spoken. Isolating the beginning sound is a less complex task than isolating the middle or ending sounds.

      • Linking letter names and sounds matters

        Naming a letter and knowing the sound it spells are different skills, both of which need to be taught. Knowing each letter's sound is critical when learning to read words. Pairing the sound with a printed word builds the bridge into phonics.

      • Use it screen free as a scavenger hunt

        After working through the alphabet on screen, send children to find a real object for every sound. Finding a real thing that starts with /m/ is a different kind of thinking than picking from four pictures.

      How to use First Sound Finder

      First Sound Finder helps children hear the first sound in a word and connect that sound to a letter.

      1. Name the pictures first. Before playing, name all 26 pictures together. Children need to know what each picture represents.

      2. Say the sound, not the letter name. When talking about a letter, say its sound: /m/, not “em.”

      3. Have your child say the picture name. Encourage your child to say each picture name aloud and listen for its first sound.

      4. Use mistakes as learning opportunities. If your child chooses the wrong picture, compare the sounds. For example: “Fish starts with /f/. We need /t/. Let’s find a picture that starts with /t/.” Stretching the first sound can help: “ffffish” or “/t/ /t/ turtle.”

      5. Take it off the screen. Try a sound scavenger hunt! Find something that begins with each sound around the house, classroom, or community. Children can write or draw what they find.

      A few things to know

      Picture names are hidden at first. This keeps children focused on listening to the sound rather than matching letters to printed words.

      Some letters are tricky.

      • C and K can both represent /k/.
      • Q is usually followed by u.
      • X most often represents /ks/ at the end of a word, as in box.
      • Y can be a consonant (yes) or a vowel (happy).
      • Vowels have short and long sounds. This chart uses short vowels because they are taught first.
      • C and G also have “soft” sounds. The chart uses their more common hard sounds: /k/ in cat and /g/ in guitar.

      Frequently Asked Questions

      Want to Learn More?

      Many of the resources below are drawn from the Science of Reading and Dyslexia Toolkit on the Indiana Learning Lab, developed in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education.

      For Families:

      For Educators:

      Why It Works

      Research supports explicit instruction and practice in alphabet knowledge. Learning letter names also helps children connect letters with the sounds they represent. Letter naming is one piece of early literacy learning and works best alongside instruction in letter sounds, phonemic awareness, and decoding.

      References

      Ehri, L. C. (2022). The Reading Teacher, 76(1), 53–61. 

      Moats, L. C. (2020). Speech to Print (3rd ed.). Brookes.

      National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel.

      Piasta, S. B., & Wagner, R. K. (2010). Reading Research Quarterly, 45(1), 8–38.

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