Practice important early literacy skills with this printable Christmas stockings beginning sounds matching activity. It’s perfect as part of your Christmas activities for preschoolers and kindergartners!
This simple beginning sound printable lets your students explore phonemic awareness and phonics at their own, individual levels. I love how easy it is to make adjustments to the Christmas initial sounds game based on what kids’ need.
Bulk up your beginning sounds activities with the free printable! You can use it during whole group time as well as small groups. And, once the kids understand what to do, the Christmas phoneme printable can be added to your centers.
Related: Free Preschool Printables
Be sure to get your own copy of the stockings sound matching game at the bottom of this post. It’s very easy to prep, so you can have it ready to use with your students tomorrow.
Christmas Stockings Beginning Sounds
Read below for some tips regarding prepping and using the Christmas initial sounds printable. Keep in mind, you can change things up depending on your own preferences and the needs of your students. Don’t let my suggestions hold you back!
How to Prep the Christmas Beginning Sound Cards
First, gather any supplies you need to get the printable ready. Here’s what I used (I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post):
- Printer
- Scissors
- Laminator and laminating sheets
And that’s really all you need. Of course, you can forgo the laminator if you want to. I just find it helps ensure the Christmas stockings beginning sounds cards are useable from year to year. Oh, and if you plan to use anything else with the matching game, grab those items, too. Some ideas:
- Magnetic letters
- Letter tiles
- White boards
- Dry erase markers
- Sensory writing trays
Then it’s time to prep! All you need to do is get the printable at the bottom of this post. Then save it to your computer and open the file in the most up-to-date version of Adobe Reader.
Related: Christmas Playdough Mats
Next, print as many copies as you’d like to use. Cut the picture cards apart and finally laminate everything. Now you’re ready to share with your students!
How to Use the Christmas Stockings Beginning Sounds Picture Cards
Explain to your students that they’re going to pretend to hang some stockings on the fireplace. They’re going to match beginning sounds to do this!
Model how to say a word slowly, stressing that initial sounds. Then say the sound in isolation. Do this with another word or two and encourage your students to help out.
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Then bring a few stocking and fireplace cards out. I highly recommend just starting with two or three sets of cards. Especially if this concept is very new for your students.
Hold up one of the Christmas stockings beginning sounds picture cards and walk through saying the word to determine its initial sound. Depending on your students, they can do this with you or they can be your “echo” as you do so.
Help the children determine which of the fireplace cards the stocking car belongs to. Keep in mind that some of the cards might have multiple matches. For example, cake and kangaroo both start with the /k/ sound. So either one would be a match for a card with a picture of a cat on it.
Continue having the kids “hang stockings” until you determine it’s the time to stop. Some children will want to keep going until all of the cards are matched. Others will be done with the activity after just a few. You know your students best!
More Ideas for Using the Phonemic Awareness Printable
Of course, the above description isn’t the only way to use the Christmas stockings beginning sounds printable. Here are a few additional ways to use it:
- Make it into a Memory-like grid game. Place a few of the fireplace cards upside down, along with a few of the corresponding stocking cards. Kids can see if they can find matches as they play.
- Pair the Christmas initial sounds cards with magnetic letters (or other alphabet manipulatives). This takes things a step further by having the children match the cards by sound and then determine the corresponding letter.
- Add the picture cards to a simple Christmas sensory bin. Have your students dig through the sensory materials to find the cards before matching them based on initial sounds.
- Challenge your students to write the corresponding letters once they’ve matched the picture cards. This can be done on chalkboards, white boards, or even in sensory writing trays.
- Ask the kids if they can think of other words that start with the same sounds as some of the pictures. If so, encourage them to make their own matching cards!
- Make a real version of the game using actual stockings. Small stockings would work well! You can label the stockings with letters of the alphabet or simply tape the stocking picture cards to a real stocking. Then pair them with “fireplaces” made of blocks! Or use your creativity to come up with something even better.
How will you use the Christmas stockings beginning sounds printable with your students? Don’t forget to grab the download link via the form at the bottom of this post.
More Christmas Literacy Activities
Here are a few more ideas your students might enjoy this December:
- Christmas Lights Printable Book
- Christmas Letter Tracing
- Pony Bead Christmas Tree (with a literacy twist)
- Christmas Cookie Beginning Letter Sounds Printable
- Christmas Five Senses Book
- Predictable Chart about Christmas Giving
- Candy Cane Ornament Craft (made with kids’ names)
I think those literacy activities are great follow-ups to the Christmas initial sounds game!
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Click on the image below to get our “If It’s Christmas” circle time song and activities pack. It comes with song printables, emergent readers, extension activities, and printables.
You can also find us on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Get the Christmas Stockings Beginning Sounds Free Printable
This free printable is available to members of Fun-A-Day’s (free!) email community. If that’s you, enter your email in the form below to have the download link sent to your inbox. If you’re not a member yet, you can join us by adding your information to the same form. Then you’ll receive the Christmas beginning sounds printable as a welcome gift.
You can open it in a new tab if you can’t see the form above. Please be sure to read my printing FAQ if you run into any issues.
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