Pumpkin Theme Beginning Sounds Printable Mats
Need a hands-on way to engage your learners and work on key beginning sounds skills? These pumpkin beginning sounds mats are just the ticket! Add this to your fall alphabet activity plans this year!
Pumpkin Beginning Sounds Matching Mats
As students begin to learn more about letter recognition with lowercase letters and uppercase letters, it is important that they practice the sounds associated with these letters. This pumpkin alphabet activity is perfect for working on those initial sounds.
These pumpkin beginning sounds letter mats give students a hands-on, fun fall way to practice recognizing and isolating beginning sounds. They will develop key phonemic awareness skills as they match the correct letter to the picture that starts with that beginning sound.
This literacy activity can be used in a variety of instructional settings. It can be used for independent work, small groups, literacy centers, or as a form of assessment. This can also be incorporated into leveled guided reading or RTI groups.
This letter matching pumpkin activity is great for students in grades preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. Keep reading for more ideas for differentiation to meet the various learning needs of your students!
No Complicated Prep!
These pumpkin-themed beginning sounds mats do not require complicated or time-consuming prep! The steps are quick and easy. Simply print, laminate, and go! Instead of laminating, you can also slide the mats into a write and wipe pocket for added durability.
There are 3 different beginning sound mats with 9 pictures each. Each letter and sound of the alphabet is represented.
These mats come in color AND black and white. Therefore, you can use them even if you don’t have access to color printing or are limited on your colored copies. You can even print black and white mats and let your students color them. This incorporates a little extra fine motor practice and adds fun to the learning!
If you plan to use these for small groups or centers, you can print fewer mats, making prep faster!
All you need for this activity are a set of letter tiles, magnetic letters, letter beads, or any other alphabet manipulative you have.
For easy storage, put the beginning sound mats in a large baggie, file folder, or storage tray for easy grab-and-go access. When you are done with the mats for the season, simply store them with your seasonal activities. Now you can use them every fall.
Setting Up The Pumpkin Beginning Sounds Mats
Supplies needed:
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- Pumpkin beginning sounds matching mats
- Letter tiles or another letter manipulative
- Write and wipe pockets (optional)
Instructions:
- Print the pumpkin beginning sound picture card mats.
- Laminate or slide into write and wipe pockets.
- Gather letter tiles or letter manipulative of your choice.
- Store the entire activity in a large baggie, file folder, or storage tray.
Using the Beginning Sounds Pumpkin Mats
For this activity, students will look at the picture on the pumpkin card. They will then isolate the beginning sound of the word and determine what letter makes that sound. Next, they will take the correct letter manipulative and cover the picture with the manipulative, matching the letter and beginning sound.
Students can take this literacy activity a step further by saying the word aloud, stating the beginning sound, and which letter makes that sound. For students ready for a challenge, have them say a sentence using that word. If they are working in partners, they can take turns telling each other.
You could even provide students with a recording sheet and have them write both the uppercase letter and lowercase letter represented by each beginning sound.
These pumpkin letter mats could be used as a tic-tac-toe game or bingo board. Students could play in partners with different colored letter manipulatives and work to get 3 in a row for tic-tac-toe.
To play bingo, students could all have different mats. As the teacher calls out beginning sounds, students will look to see if they have the corresponding picture, working to get a bingo.
Differentiated Pumpkin Beginning Sounds Matching Activities
There are a variety of ways that these pumpkin matching mats can be differentiated to meet the needs of your students. Since there are 3 different mats, you can start by having your students complete only 1 mat. The more their skills progress, they can work their way up to completing 2 mats and then all 3 mats!
A fun way to engage your students is to turn all 3 mats face-down. Have them draw a mat to complete. This is a fun game for them!
Another way to use this activity is to have the students draw a letter manipulative and find the picture from the 3 mats that begins with that sound. Simply switching up the way students match the letters and sounds works their brain in a different way. They will use their phonics and problem-solving skills as they search from the pictures to find the match.
Students could use these matching mats with partners as well. They could take turns matching letters and pictures or work together to complete the mat. This helps them work cooperatively and allows them to encourage and coach each other along the way.
With so many ways to use this activity, your learners are going to be engaged all fall with these pumpkin-themed beginning sounds mats. I can’t wait for them to master those phonemic awareness skills and start reading like rockstars!
Click the button below to get the Pumpkin Beginning Sounds Matching Mats and incorporate them into your lesson plans!
Here are some more pumpkin themed activities!
Pumpkin Letter Sounds Write the Room
Paperless Pumpkin CVC Matching Activity
Paperless and Editable Pumpkin Sight Word Building Mats
Paperless Pumpkin Addition to 10 Activity