Zoo Animals and Letter Match

The Zoo is filled with animals found in the alphabet!  Here is a game to play connecting first sounds with animals in the zoo.

Read the book: Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann

Materials needed: Cut out pictures of animals in the zoo for each letter of the alphabet. On 3x5 index cards write each letter in lower case. (We use lower case first, because most of the words they will learn will be begin with a lower case letter.) Laminate or contact paper the animals and letter cards.

NOTE: When teaching phonetics choose animals whose name begins with a letter sound of only one letter. So you would probably not use “giraffe” if using this tool to support phonetics in the early stages. Because the “g” sound in “giraffe” is the same as “j.”

Instructions: Place the animals and letter in two small baskets. Go through each animal and help the child find the first letter sound of the animal’s name.

NOTE: As children become proficient in their understanding of phonetics you can expand knowledge by looking for last letter sounds. Go through each letter card and sound it out.

Have the child choose either a letter or an animal. Place it on the table in front of them. Repeat the first letter in the name of the animal, or the letter on the card.
Support children as they find the animal or letter to match their initial choice of an animal or letter.

Extension: Once children understand and can do this game on their own, have them work in pairs.