Circle the Right Word: Four Animal Cards, A or An

Four cards fill this Kindergarten a or an page, two across and two down, and each one holds a single large animal picture with two white chips beneath it reading a and an. An iguana, a tiger, a bat, a monkey. No word is printed anywhere on the card, so the child has to name the animal before there is anything to decide, then listen to the sound that name begins with and circle the chip that belongs in front of it.

Four cards means four decisions, and that is the right number for a first attempt at a rule the ear makes rather than the eye. Three of these animals take a and one takes an, which is enough of an imbalance that a child who circles the same chip every time will get most of them right and still be caught by the iguana. That is the moment to stop and stretch the first sound aloud. The pictures are large enough to name from across a table.

Print the PDF free and run this as a spoken warm-up rather than silent seat work, since saying the animal is the whole method. Cover the chips, name all four pictures first, then uncover and circle. The eight picture version doubles the cards and moves to vehicles. Nothing has to be written on either page - only circled - so a child whose handwriting is still slow can still show what the ear already knows about a and an.