Christmas Literacy Centers for Kindergarten – Beginning Sounds

We all know that tasty gingerbread men are a great way to get kids excited about the start of the holiday season. But did you know they can also help your students practice identifying the beginning sounds in words?

That’s right: you can use these delicious little treats to help your students practice matching letters with beginning sounds and even as a fun way to practice spelling!

Introduce them to the sweet taste of letter-sound recognition with our Gingerbread Man Beginning Sounds Sorting Set. Your students will love searching through the Christmas cookies to find the gingerbread men that belong in each letter jar.

🍪A Tasty Way to Develop Letter-Sound Recognition

Each student will pick 1-5 cookie jars and say the sound of the letter on each. Next, students will need to search through the gingerbread pieces to find pictures that start with the same beginning sounds. Once they find a gingerbread man that matches the letter sound on their jar, they will place it on the jar and write the word (phonetically) on their recording sheet.

For student accountability, we have also included a recording sheet for them to complete during their time with this activity. The recording sheet prompt encourages students to spell/write the words phonetically.

Knowing letters and their corresponding sounds is critical when learning to spell or read. By doing this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding that different letters have different sounds.

Differentiate Your Kindergarten Beginning Sounds Activities

A team of dedicated, experienced educators created this resource to support your Phonics lessons. 

In addition to individual student work time, use any of our other alphabet games to enhance learning through guided reading groups, whole class lessons, or remote learning assignments. 

If you have a mixture of above and below-level learners, check out these suggestions for keeping students on track with the concepts: 

🆘 Support Struggling Students

• Complete the activity in a small group or one-to-one learning environment.
• Reduce the number of beginning sounds cards or jars required to complete the beginning sounds sorting activity.

➕ Challenge Fast Finishers

• Students use words from the letter jars to use in sentences or stories.
• Students write a list of their own words that match the letter groups. 

Download Your Kindergarten Letter Sound Activities

Use the dropdown icon on the Download button to choose between the PDF or Google Slides version of this resource. 

Print on cardstock for added durability and longevity. Place all pieces in a folder or large envelope for easy access. 

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This resource was created by Lisamarie Del Valle, a teacher in Florida and Teach Starter collaborator.