My son is almost three and starting to ask a lot about sounds of letters and words in general. What an awesome stage and so exciting to observe him. My favorite letters are the ones that can throw you with their sounds or no sound. The letters C and K happen to be two which my son seems interested in exploring. So we’re off!
Today we’ve been working on a sound map. The basic idea is create a collage of words and/or images beginning with the Letters C and K. On one side of the collage we have the soft ‘SSS’ sound for C like a “circle” and “cinnamon”. On the other side we have the hard ‘Kuh’ sound for K like “kite” and “koala”. In the middle we have those images that overlap in sound like “cupcake”, “crayons” and “cup”.
Here is how we did this activity together:
Gather a few magazines and scissors.
We sat on the floor and I told him that we were on a ‘C’ and ‘K’ hunt. He helped to identify and even cut out the images. We also have a first words box, which was a great resource for images we’d already collected for the letters “C” and “K”.
Our First Words Box
I wrote a big K and C at the top of a large poster board.
Then we started sorting the images. I steered us toward focusing on the hard ‘c’ images because that sound and words are most common. I talked about how words that begin with the letter ‘c’ that are followed by an ‘a’, ‘o’ or ‘u’ have a hard ‘c’. Then how words that start with the letter ‘c’ that are followed by an ‘i’, ‘e’ or ‘y’ have a soft ‘c’. We then moved to the hard ‘k’ and then to the soft ‘c’ images.
I wrote the name next to each image.
I ended with introducing sounds at the end of the word.
This activity was a very hands on and interactive literacy activity. We’ll continue working on and re-visiting this map. Then eventually we will create a “C and S” Sound map and connect it to this poster board. This will give my son a horizontal visual of the sound maps/collages.
Thank you for choosing to visit us. I hope that we inspired you today.
Warmly,
Marnie
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Marnie Craycroft
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i really love this idea- my son is 4 and loves to read but beginning sounds are not his cup of tea. I think this activity may help him wrap his brain around it better. thanks for sharing.
Ohhh, I really like this idea! I think we will do b and d since my daughter is struggling with those two.
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Thanks Rebekah! I am so happy your enjoyed the Sound Map idea. It is a lot fun! ~Marnie
GREAT idea. I think this will be a great activity to do with my son who is REALLY getting the hang of reading now. We like to notice, and laugh, about how silly the English language can be sometimes!
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Fabulous! Love your first words box. Has given me lots of ideas of things we could do with something similar! My daughter (who was 3 in Jan) is also at that stage and wants to know all about letters, sounds and words. We have a letter book (just a large scrapbook) where each of the letters has a double page spread and we do similar type activities in there. Making the sound board showing the similar (and different) sounds the letters can make is a lovely idea. Debs
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Love this! This would be a great way to expand on what I did with my son.
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What a wonderful idea! We’ll try it this week with my 3.5 year old.
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This is such a great idea! I am pinning this one for when my oldest is just a wee bit older! (No rush at all! In fact, please stop time
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Thanks, Crystal! I am so happy you liked the Sound Map!
I love the horizontal visual I/m a visual and so is my son so this just makes sense for our teaching/learning style. I think this will be a great way to teach him the soft versus hard c sound Thanks so much for the inspiration.
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Love. I agree with @Ness that the visual is so helpful. Marnie, where are you going to post it in your home?
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Hi Kim, Not sure yet. Right now we’re still “working” on it. We’re moving in 3 weeks and there will be a play room (yes!) so I hope to find a good spot at our new house?
Wow, what a great idea! I’m trying to do more things with literacy. Thanks for sharing!
I am so happy you liked the Sound Map, Shonda! I look forward to connecting with you!
I absolutely love this!! What a great way to work on sounds and on overlapping sounds when two letters make the same sound sometimes and sometimes don’t. My 2 1/2 already sometimes says K when we’re talking about something that is a hard c, like cat. So, I will definitely be pulling this activity out when he gets a bit older and is wanting to explore letters and sounds even more.
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I do something like this with my kindergarten kids every year. It’s alot of fun and the kids really get into it. So much fun! Thanks for sharing!
Love this idea. Thanks for sharing.
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My twins are Colin and Kate, so I LOVE this particular example of the activity. I can’t wait to try it. I found this while searching for activities to include in a newsletter for The Learning Groove, a music and movement curriculum for young kids founded by Eric Litwin, the author of the first 4 Pete the Cat picture books.
Oh good! How old are you twins? I am a twin. The map works really well. How tough is it that “C” and “K” have the same sound sometimes? I am impressed with The Learning Groove. We love Pete the Cat in our home. Let me know if I can be of any help promoting it. Cheers! ~ Marnie
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