At the beginning of year, most children are unable to recognize a consonant in the middle of a word. That is why they have to work on the discrimination of sounds, recognize the easier sounds first, then step by step more difficult ones.

1 - To hear a syllable at the beginning of word.
You can start with the syllable "CA", as in words like cat, cab, camel. It is necessary to make many games before proposing a a worksheet. For instance you ask whether the sound CA can be heard in the word ribbon and test a whole list of words.Children have to raise the hand when they hear the sound CA.
They can also suggest words .Then you will do the same exercise with other syllables,as “RI”, “RA”, “BA”… .

2 - To hear a vowel at the beginning of a word
For instance words starting with a "A" ; you put words in a box and children have to sort out those which start with a "A". You can ask children to color and cut out of a sheet words starting with a "A".

3 - To recognize a vowel in a word
This is more difficult. Start with monosyllabic wordsand let children find out what they hear in words like: rat, cat, street, word, rice, pot…Then you go to words like carrot and explain that they include 2 syllables, CA and ROT.Children like to work on their First Name and you can do rhymes which they will remember easily.

4 - To hear a consonant at the beginning of a word
Some consonants are easier to hear than others: “S, T, P, ”are easier than "D". You can proceed as for a vowel, with oral games before going to a worksheet.

5 - Hear a consonant within a word
This is a major difficulty.
- You can pronounce words very slowly and emphasize the consonant you are working on .
- Ask children to repeat the consonant alone several times, then a word including it .

6-Then you can study the syllables including the consonant."Do you hear a "T" when I say "cactus"?You don't hear a "T" when I say "cac" but you hear one when I say "tus".

To summ it up:
- progress gradually: slowly at the beginning,let children play at many group games,
- repeat often, including some times the the easiest things, it is a training over the year .
- Some children will not reach the most difficult level this year but will continue to work to get it the following year, when they are 6 to 7.

1-To hear a syllable

You have below worksheets, arranged by increasing order of difficulty in reduced size. To see any complete and detailed worksheet in format pdf , click on it.

color the objects which start with “MA”
Another similar worksheet : color the objects which start with “PA”

Another worksheet : cut out and stick the words starting with “CA” and those starting with “DO”.
Another worksheet : cut out and stick only the words starting with “CA” .

Cut out objects. On a sheet stick those whose name start with "BA " .
This worksheet in A4 size is for two children. Cut out the images and stick those which start with “Ra” at top, those which start with “Re” at bottom.

Same type of worksheet with RA-RE-RI-RO-RU but more complete in A4 format
Same type of worksheet with PA, PI, PO.- LA, LI, LO.

Cut out the first syllable of each word and stick it below matching word -Sounds R,T,F,P. Another worksheet of the same type with sounds “M” “P” “R”

2-To hear a vowel

To hear « A » and « I » in a word
Cut out the words with th sound "A" and stick them on a side, cut out the words with th sound "I" and stick them on the other side

To hear a long « A » and a short « A »
When you hear a long « A » at the beginning or inside a word, color the matching image green, when you hear a short « A », color the image yellow.

to hear "o" as in "bone" and "u" as in "cup.

3-To hear a consonant

You have below an outline of exercises about consonants, arranged by increasing order of difficulty. Click on a worksheet to see it in detail in pdf format.

To hear a consonant at the beginning of a word.
The sound “F” is easy to recognize. Color pictures that start with “F”
Same worksheet with “R”. Same worksheet with “T”.
To hear a consonant at the beginning of a word: "M" and "P". Separate pictures where you hear the sound “M” at the beginning and those where you hear “P”

To hear a sound at any place in a word : to hear the sound "S" . Color when you hear “S” .

To hear the first letter of a word
Write the first letter of the name of each instrument and unscramble the letters of the word “piano”.

4-To hear various sounds

Color only the pictures where you hear the sound [CH]

Color only the pictures where you hear the sound [SH]