Beginning Sounds with Zoo Animals — Letter C

Listen for the first sound in cheetah. On this sheet the child is handed the letter C and finds every one of the zoo animals whose name begins with its sound — cheetah, camel and chimpanzee all open with C. Saying each word, catching its opening sound, then tying that sound to the letter C is the Kindergarten letter-sound link this practises, set among a lion, a zebra and a giraffe.

Producing the match — deciding that cheetah begins with C — asks a child to do real phonics: hold the sound C makes in mind and test each picture's opening against it. Because the zoo animals include names that begin other ways, the child cannot guess; they have to listen. That careful sound-by-sound checking against the letter C is precisely what Kindergarten reading is built on.

Listening for C across a scene of zoo animals turns phonics into a game, and finishing one letter invites the next. Try the A-sound pictures in zoo animals, or the B-sound pictures in zoo animals. Browse all the beginning-sounds worksheets or the entire zoo animals set, free to print or play online for kindergarten, and watch how quickly a child starts catching the first sound in a word on their own. Before finishing, sound out cheetah slowly so the C at the very front of it rings out clear and sure.