During the month of February, we are thinking all things sweet around here! Which is a really good excuse to make any activity treat-themed, with a little learning of course. My three-year-old is just beginning to learn her letter sounds, and this has been a really fun way to isolate the beginning sounds of a variety of words and identify the letters. It also helps that the words used in this activity are all very familiar and cute animal names. This takes the guessing out of the game, and the child can focus on the letter sounds. This free Cupcake Beginning Sounds Match is great for early readers to work on beginning sounds in a fun, hands-on way!
*Pair with our Beginning Sound Centers and Activities for Pre-K & Kindergarten!
Cupcake Beginning Sounds Match
Sweeten up your literacy centers with this cute and easy to use cupcake matching game! This free printable activity includes 12 beginning sound animal cupcakes in both uppercase and lowercase. (We opted for uppercase, but you could choose either, or both!)
This game could be used as an independent activity, or even as a group literacy center game! I like to store it in a plastic zip top bag for an easy grab and go game.
How to Prep and Play
To prep this activity, I first printed out the cupcakes on cardstock to make them extra sturdy. I then chose to laminate them before cutting out the individual pieces. That’s it – it’s time to play!
If your child or student is still working on mastering their beginning sounds, you can limit the number of cupcakes displayed at a time.
For my three-year-old, I gave her only three cupcakes to match at a time. As she became more comfortable with her beginning sounds, I added more cupcakes to challenge her!
To play, spread out all of the individual pieces and assist your child or students by first finding an animal and talking about its beginning sound.
Once the sound has been identified, encourage the child to locate the letter.
*Teacher Note: Giraffe and cow are words you will want to chat about with your learners, as they share sounds with other letters! (g and j, c and k). I find this to be great exposure to learning about how the alphabet can be tricky, but so interesting!
Be sure to grab this game and add some extra (sugar free) sweetness into your learning!
Grab Your FREE Copy
Ready to start matching beginning sounds? You can grab your free copy of the Beginning Sounds Cupcake Match by clicking the large, yellow download button at the end of the post!
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