Beginning Sounds with Forest Creatures — Letter O

The letter O sets this beginning-sound hunt. Among the forest creatures, the child marks every name that opens with the sound O makes — owl. They test each picture by saying it: owl starts with O, so it counts. Listening for an opening sound and linking it to its letter — never spotting a printed O — is the early-reading skill this Kindergarten sheet rehearses.

Matching a sound to its letter is what eventually lets a child decode words, and it starts with beginning sounds like O's. This sheet has the child hear the opening of each picture — owl and the rest of the forest creatures — and connect it to O. A scene of a fox, a deer and a hedgehog offers many first sounds, so the sound-letter link gets rehearsed across a rich mix of words rather than drilled one at a time.

Hunting a scene of forest creatures for the letter O is the kind of quiet phonics that adds up fast. After O, keep the listening going with the A-sound pictures in forest creatures, or the B-sound pictures in forest creatures. The whole forest creatures collection and every beginning-sounds sheet print cleanly or play free online for kindergarten — and the more opening sounds a child sorts, the more automatic the sound-to-letter link becomes.