Valentine's Letters Beginning Sounds for Preschoolers -

Valentine’s Letters Beginning Sounds for Preschoolers

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This FREE Valentine’s Letters Beginning Sounds activity is fun, engaging, and perfect for helping your preschoolers recognize and manipulate beginning sounds in words. They need to practice hearing different sounds often, which will prepare them to blend sounds and read in the future.

This Valentine’s Letters Beginning Sounds pack includes six pages with mailboxes featuring the uppercase letters A-Z, plus three pages of envelopes with matching Valentine’s Day-related pictures to represent each letter’s beginning sound. You can get it at the end of this post.

Valentine’s Letters Beginning Sounds

The best way to teach the alphabet is through fun, hands-on activities that keep children engaged and interested. This Valentine’s Letters Beginning Sounds activity is easy to use and will also help your preschoolers develop their one-to-one correspondence and fine motor skills when they choose an envelope with a picture and match it to the correct mailbox.

This hands-on activity will help your children practice beginning sound recognition, letter identification, vocabulary, phonemic awareness, and phonics skills.

This low-prep activity is super easy to prepare. You will need the following materials:

FREE Valentine’s Letters Beginning Sounds printable (found at the end of this post)
Printer.
White cardstock.
Scissors.
Laminator or Dry-erase pockets.
Small basket.

How to Set It Up

Print the mailbox cards and envelopes on white cardstock. Cut them apart and laminate them for multiple uses. Place them on a tray or in a basket, and invite your preschoolers to name some of the pictures, identify the letter that represents the beginning sound, and find the correct mailbox to match it.

I like to make several sets and place them in different centers to entice the children and give them the opportunity to use this activity in different ways.

Introduce the activity to your preschoolers and explain how to use it before you put it in your centers.

You can even use the envelopes during circle time to introduce what’s in each picture and review the beginning sound and the letter that represents it before you let them explore on their own.

How to Use the Activity

Give the child the mailbox cards and envelopes. The child needs to name the pictures in the envelope, say the beginning sound and the letters that represent it, and match it to the correct mailbox.

If you think a particular child is not ready for the full activity, use just a few, depending on which letters and sounds each child needs to work on. It is important that they all feel successful, not frustrated, to build their self-esteem and confidence.

You can also prepare a set of envelopes and write the lowercase letters that represent the beginning sound in the corner of each one. That will help less advanced students to recognize which letter is represented on the envelope.

This Valentine’s Letters Beginning Sounds activity can be used in many ways such as:

Literacy center option.
Quiet Area activity.
Writing center option.
Take-home activity.
Reading center option.
Small group activity.

I like to give my preschoolers options. That is why I often combine an activity with related ones to set up multiple small-group activities that run at the same time. It will depend on your particular group.

If you are interested in setting up multiple groups, check out my other Valentine’s activities below. They all come with FREE printables.

Valentine’s Animals Letter Match.
Valentine’s Bears Counting Mats.
Valentine’s Beginning Sounds Clip Cards.
Valentine’s Day Bingo.
Valentine’s Day Memory Game.
Valentine’s Day Number Puzzles.
Valentine’s Day Tracing Activities.
Valentine’s Day Word Wall Cards.

Extension Activities:

To extend the activity, you can:

Have the child trace or copy the letters.
Match each letter with magnetic, foam, or wooden letters.
Find other words that start with the same sound.

Valentine’s Storybooks

Always add quality storybooks to enhance any preschool theme, and read them to your students during circle time and/or story time. Here are some of my favorite Valentine’s books to get you started. You can find these books at your local library, used bookstore, and on Amazon. If you want to purchase some, my affiliate links embedded in the titles will take you to the right page in seconds.

How to Catch a Loveosaurus by Alice Walstead blends exciting traps and STEAM concepts with hilarity and chaos to encourage reading, learning, and imagination, telling the story about how the kids are on the chase again, this time to trap a dinosaur that escaped from the museum and wants to spread love and kindness.

Dr. Seuss Lovey Things uses the signature Dr. Seuss rhyme to show Thing One and Thing Two sharing, caring, smiling, hugging, and blowing kisses.

The Littlest Valentine by Brandi Dougherty tells the story of Emma, the littlest in the Valentine family, who knows she has what it takes to help the family business get ready for the holiday.

Little Blue’s Truck Valentine by Alice Schertle tells how Little Blue Truck delivers Valentine’s Day cards to all his farm animal friends.

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Rose by Lucille Colandro uses rhyming text and hilarious illustrations to tell how the old lady swallows a rose, some lace, some glitter, and more…to make a special gift for her Valentine!

Pete the Cat: Valentine’s Day is Cool by James Dean is about when Pete the Cat realizes how much fun Valentine’s Day can be; he decides to make Valentine cards for his family and friends.

Happy Valentine’s Day, Mouse! by Laura Numeroff uses his signature character, Mouse, as he makes valentines for all his friends, representing what he loves most about each of them.

Pin It for Later

If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable but want to save it for later, pin it to your Literacy or Valentine’s Day Pinterest board for later.

I hope your preschoolers enjoy this free Valentine’s Letters Beginning Sounds activity, and that it helps you with your lesson planning for February. Don’t forget to grab your FREE pack by clicking on the link below and typing your information for an immediate download.

Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.

Love,