Free Teaching Resource
Initial Sounds - Fingerprint Art Activity
A cute way to keep track of the single sounds that have been introduced to your students.
Use this fun alphabet activity when introducing single sounds to your students.
Each time a letter and/or sound is introduced, students use a single fingerprint made with an ink pad or paint and create an image that starts with that sound. Once their fingerprint dries, have the students add features to the print to finish off their image.
For example:
- A – apple (students use a red fingerprint and then add the stalk and green leaf)
- B – bee (students use a yellow fingerprint and then add the black lines, wings, and antennae).
How to prepare this resource:
- Decide which template you would like for your students to use. The first has only two strips, making the area for each image to be smaller. The second template has three strips with more room for your students to create the images.
- Cut out the strips and glue them together, making one long strip from a to z.
We have included a page of example words that you might like to use with your students that begin with each initial sound (except for x – we have it as the final sound).
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Common Core Curriculum alignment
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.2.C
Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.3.A
Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sound or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.B
Orally produce single-syllable words by blending sounds (phonemes), including consonant blends.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.C
Isolate and pronounce initial, medial vowel, and final sounds (phonemes) in spoken single-syllable words.
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.2.D
Segment spoken single-syllable words into their complete sequence of individual sounds (phonemes).
- CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.A
Know the spelling-sound correspondences for common consonant digraphs.

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English Language Arts and ReadingAlphabetPhonological AwarenessReadingFoundational Language SkillsWorksheetsTemplatesESLBuddy ActivitiesReading Center ActivitiesPhonemesDetectivesInitial Sounds
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Resource Updates
We have included a list of example words that you might like to use with your students that begin with each initial sound.
Addition by Natalie Nov 5th, 2020
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