Beginning Sounds with Zoo Animals — Letter L

Hunt the scene for the sound of L. This Kindergarten sheet shows a busy set of zoo animals, and the child marks the ones whose names start with L — lemur, leopard and lion. The trick is to say each picture and listen to its very first sound: does lemur begin the way L sounds? Matching that opening sound to its letter is foundational phonics, done entirely by ear.

Matching a sound to its letter is what eventually lets a child decode words, and it starts with beginning sounds like L's. This sheet has the child hear the opening of each picture — lemur and the rest of the zoo animals — and connect it to L. A scene of a lion, a zebra and a giraffe offers many first sounds, so the sound-letter link gets rehearsed across a rich mix of words rather than drilled one at a time.

Listening for L 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.