A or An: Word Cards with the Article

Every word on this kindergarten sheet of vehicles is printed with its article in front of it, and there are eight cut-out cards, two by four: on this print a helicopter, a submarine, a bicycle, a skateboard, an ambulance, a sailboat, a jeep, a canoe. The article is part of the label, in the same lettering as the noun, so the card reads as a two-word phrase. The child cuts the cards apart and says each one exactly as it is written, article and all. There is nothing to choose and nothing to write; the page shows the right form and the child says it.

Most a-or-an pages ask the child to pick the article, and get it wrong half the time. This set does the opposite: it shows the correct phrase and asks only that it be said, so the ear gets a helicopter and an ambulance as whole sounds before any rule is taught. The rule follows from the ear, not the other way around. Which words draw an depends on the eight the sheet happens to print, since it is one draw from the vehicles pool, and a set with only one an is still doing its job. The teacher listens for the article being said, not dropped.

Color print, card stock for a class set, and keep the cards for a pocket chart where the article stays attached to its noun. The picture word cards base set is the same eight-card layout without the article, and the one and many cards move on to plural forms. Circling a or an as an answer is the a or an worksheet family, not this one.