Description

What’s That Sound? is designed with the Science of Reading in mind, giving you a powerful, hands-on tool to build phonemic awareness and phonics skills in your classroom. This activity goes beyond simple letter recognition—it connects sound-symbol relationships with articulatory gestures, helping students understand how sounds are formed and why they matter for reading and spelling.

Each card includes:

• Lowercase letter for visual recognition.
• Picture cue of an object that begins with the target sound for meaning-based connection.
• Lip position diagram and instructions so students can see and feel how to form the sound correctly.
• Production clues explaining where and how the sound is made (e.g., voiced/unvoiced, tongue placement).
• Word lists for practice to reinforce decoding and encoding.
• Writing space for students to generate their own words, promoting orthographic mapping.

This resource supports explicit, systematic instruction and is perfect for small groups, intervention, or whole-class phonics lessons. It helps teachers by:

• Providing multisensory engagement (visual, auditory, kinesthetic).
• Reducing guesswork with clear, step-by-step articulation guidance.
• Aligning with evidence-based practices for early literacy.

Activity Time: 

• Depending on how many sounds it ranges from 10m-20

Student Will Practice:

With What’s That Sound?, your students will:

• Identify and connect letters to sounds using visual and auditory cues.
• Learn correct mouth and lip positions for accurate sound production.
• Understand sound formation clues (voicing, airflow, placement).
• Practice decoding and spelling with provided word lists.
• Apply learning by writing their own words that begin with the target sound.

This activity builds phonemic awareness, phonics knowledge, and orthographic mapping skills, giving students the foundation they need for fluent reading and confident spelling.

What’s Included:

• This resource gives you everything you need in one place.
• You’ll get 29 pages total: a cover page to keep it organized, tips for adding multisensory learning to your lessons, and 26 pages—one for each lowercase letter. Plus, I’ve included a visual reference page with fun cues to help reinforce how sounds are made: a cloud for puff sounds, a slinky for stretch sounds, and a vibration wave for those throat sounds. It’s all designed to make teaching phonics clear, engaging, and hands-on.”

Benefits:

• Your kids are going to love this because it makes learning sounds so clear and interactive. They’ll see the letter, the picture, and even how their lips should look when they say the sound. It’s not just guessing—they’ll understand how the sound is made and why it matters. Plus, they get to practice with real words and then create their own, which really helps lock in those sound-letter connections. It’s hands-on, it’s visual, and it builds confidence in reading and spelling.
• For you, this resource takes the stress out of planning. Everything is ready to go and aligned with the Science of Reading, so you know it’s evidence-based. You’ll have clear articulation tips right on the page, which makes modeling sounds so much easier. It works for whole-class lessons, small groups, or interventions—whatever you need. And because it’s multisensory, it keeps your students engaged while you’re hitting those foundational literacy skills.

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Have a question?  Need Support?  You can email me directly at florettakelleytutoring@gmail.com