Free Pumpkin Beginning Sound Clip Cards

Looking for a fun fall preschool alphabet activity? These free pumpkin beginning sound clip cards feature both letter identification and beginning sounds.

These beginning sounds clip cards make learning the letters of the alphabet fun for little learners who are ready to take their big step into literacy! Plus, they can be used as a handy teaching tool that develops fine motor skills by allowing children to use clothespins to clip onto the cards.

Grab your free pumpkin letter activity download at the end of this post.

ABC Sounds

Teaching the alphabet should be hands-on, and it’s easy to see why. Practicing uppercase and lowercase letters and letter recognition should feel like a fun game!

One thing that is important, we want to empower children by teaching them letters in an order that gives them the knowledge to begin reading as soon as they feel confident enough in the letter-sounds they have already learned.

For some of my preschoolers, decoding basic cvc words happens at the first vowel I introduce. For other preschoolers, this doesn’t happen until the end the school year. It’s important to remember that either is appropriate development for preschool, but learning to read during the preschool years is not typical of most students.

For more information on teaching letter recognition and teaching letters in the correct sequence, check out our letter recognition post.

Pumpkin Books for Preschoolers

Any preschool theme can be amped up by some high quality picture books to read to your preschoolers during circle time. Here are some of our favorite books that will also pair nicely with pumpkin alphabet activities like these clip cards.

Pumpkin Beginning Sound Clip Cards

Pumpkin activities are a given while doing fall preschool activities. Now, it’s time to add some beginning sound activities to your circle time or preschool centers. Go on and add these pumpkin beginning sound clip cards to your lesson plans for preschoolers this fall.

What’s Included

This fall alphabet printable includes one strip for each letter of the alphabet. With short vowel sounds for each of the vowels, this beginning sound practice activity is perfect for preschool and kindergarten alike. It makes for a great hands on activity for your fall literacy centers too!

Additional Materials

• free beginning sound clip cards printable
• clothespins

I offered my preschoolers clothespins for these clip cards. Using clothing pins works on their fine motor skills by testing their pincer grasp. Some younger preschoolers find clothing pins to be frustrating and fell like they get in the way of doing the activity. In that case, you can offer transparent counters to place over each letter.

The Set Up

Print the clip cards on heavy card stock and laminate if desired. Then cut apart and set out on a tray with some clothing pins. Now invite your preschooler to join you in matching some alphabet animals with their beginning sound letters.

How to Use Beginning Sound Clip Cards

This is just one activity you can add to your fall activities for preschoolers. In fact, being a pumpkin theme, they can easily be used as a Thanksgiving activity for preschoolers, too! Either way, it’s a super fun alphabet activity with a cute pumpkin theme.

And, the cards feature my animal alphabet which is included in my Daily Lessons in Preschool Literacy Curriculum!

Whenever I introduce beginning sound activities like this one, I walk my preschoolers through everything about the clip cards. I point out the cute pumpkins at the top, and talk about how these pumpkins are like the others we are studying in our preschool pumpkin theme. They point out the animal on each card, and we talk about the letters that go down the strip.

Then I model for my preschoolers exactly how to do the cards. During this process, I think aloud so my preschoolers can hear how I figure it out.

I might say something like,

Hmmm…this card has an alligator on it. I hear /a/ at the beginning of alligator. I’m trying to remember, which letter makes the /a/ sound?

Oh yeah! Letter A says /a/! I see big A right here on the card so I’m going to put a clip on that letter. Now I need to find small a.

It’s a lot of talking. But it is so effective and it helps preschoolers hear how they can do their own problem solving while figuring out which letters to clip.

It’s ok for preschoolers to use an alphabet print out so they can more easily find the matching upper and lower case letters.

Some preschoolers may struggle with this activity since identifying beginning sounds is developmental. When that happens, I just offer my preschoolers the animal friends alphabet mats that are included in my Daily Lessons in Preschool Literacy Curriculum.

Beginning Sound Picture Cards

The alphabet picture cards included feature alphabet picture cards plus letter chants and chant cards for each letter of alphabet. Each alphabet animal friend has a name and a corresponding hand action for the song/chant.

Our preschoolers love learning through named animals and love hearing the story of each animal and their antics. The alphabet picture cards are included in our daily lessons in preschool literacy curriculum and they are a huge hit with teachers and students alike!

Pumpkin Alphabet Activities

Add some of these free fall printable activities to your preschool pumpkin theme.

• Free Pumpkin Alphabet Matching Cards
• Find and Cover Pumpkin Letter Mats
• Pumpkin Alphabet Sensory Bin
• Alphabet Letter Tracing Pumpkins

Beginning Sound Worksheets for Kindergarten

• Alphabet Tracing Cards with Beginning Sounds
• Beginning Sound Worksheets
• Initial Letter Sound Worksheets

Get Your Free Pumpkin Beginning Sound Activity Here

Thin you want to add these clip cards to your preschool pumpkin theme or fall preschool theme? Just fill out the form below and you’ll find it in your email!

More Fine Motor Alphabet Activities

These alphabet activities will work fine motor skills while teaching initial sounds.

Sarah Punkoney, MAT

I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.

stayathomeeducator.com/