Early Literacy Activity of the Month (September 2006)

Mystery Sound is an activity that you can do with one child or a group of children to help them become aware that words are made up of sounds, and help them learn to isolate the first sound in a word.

This activity is a making progress activity, for children who have mastered some of the skills needed to learn to read and write.

This activity is a linguistic awareness activity.  Linguistic awareness refers to a child's understanding of how language works, including the understanding of how sounds come together to make words.

My child is having trouble figuring out the sound that the words start with. How can I help?
If children are having difficulty with this activity, play the game along with them at first. Model for the children how to figure out the sound that each word starts with by saying each word slowly, emphasizing the first sound. 

It will also help to have no more than three sounds from which the children can choose. Before beginning the activity, go over each of the three sounds with the children, and help them to think of words they know that start with those sounds.

How can I make this activity more challenging?
After children have figured out what the mystery sound is, ask them to think of a few more words that start with that sound.

Where can I find this activity? (The links below are PDF files that will open in a new window.)

Mystery Sound for one adult with one child, in English
Mystery Sound for one adult with a group of children, in English
Mystery Sound for one adult with one child, in Spanish