Beginning sounds bingo

A listening game for first sounds. The grown-up says a letter and its sound, like "B, /b/". Children say the names of the pictures on their board and cover the one that starts with that sound: a balloon, a butterfly or a bird for B.

How to play

1. Print the boards. Before the first game, name every picture together, so everyone uses the same word.
2. Cut out the letter cards on the last page and put them in a bag.
3. Pick a card. Say the letter name and its sound, and stretch the sound: "mmm".
4. Children cover the picture that starts with that sound. Each board has at most one picture for each letter.
5. Four covered pictures in a row, a column or a diagonal win.

Why some letters are missing

The game has 22 letters, not 26. We left out letters where the picture would trick a child who listens for the sound: giraffe starts with a j sound, kite sounds the same as car and cat, xylophone starts with a z sound, and many children call the quilt a blanket.

For a harder game, show only the lowercase letter, or say only the sound without the letter name. Our first letter worksheets use the same pictures.