Beginning Letter Match with Weather

Which letter makes the first sound? This sheet asks a child to match each weather picture to the letter it begins with. Among sun, rain and snow and others, the child listens for each word's opening sound and links it to the right letter. That listening-and-matching is beginning letter-sound work — the phonics foundation under early reading — and the familiar pictures keep it all about the starting sound.

Matching a picture to its beginning letter rehearses letter-sound correspondence — the link between a sound and the letter that spells it, which Common Core's foundational reading skills put at the heart of Kindergarten. A child who can hear a word's first sound and find its letter is building the decoding foundation that early reading depends on, and pictures make the practice concrete.

Children who like matching weather to their beginning letters get quicker at hearing first sounds each time. When this feels easy, match the letters in beginning letters with winter, or try beginning letters with activities. You can also browse every beginning-letter worksheet or the whole kindergarten collection — each sheet prints cleanly or plays online for free, and the more a child matches, the surer their grasp of letter sounds grows, building the phonics foundation that reading words rests on.