Sound books oh sound books. How you have grown on me. The first set I had was a full page version that used up lots of copy paper and took a lot of printing, copying, and arranging (due to me inevitably forgetting to collate. Or not collate? You see my problem).

Also, I had been taught to have two entire sets ready for each student: One for them to take home and one to keep at school. Years later I have adapted them to fit my preferences and the needs of my students. The ones I have designed still follow the letter groupings of the originals passed down to me. They use one piece of printer paper each and I have one set ready per student. Here is how I use them. Keep in mind there are a multitude of variations to this method, so make it your own!

Sound books can be prepped before school is even in session. I create a set for each student, knowing that some students are well passed learning letter sounds. Some students will make sound books anyway, as an independent activity. Others will make sound books and I’ll use them to introduce letter names. Still others will never touch their sound books and I might end up moving them into another student’s folder, for extra practice. Speaking of folders, let me explain how I organize sound books.

The Setup

Each student has a folder. Each folder has room for a set of sound books. I make these folders from construction paper. My morning students have green folders and my afternoon students have blue folders. You could choose to have one color for first years, another for second years, and a third color for third years.

To make them I fold the construction paper in half horizontally. I use a label maker to print each student’s name. I place the names on their folders so that they line up from left to right, starting over when a name reaches the far-right side. Then I cut the top of the folder so that the names behind that folder can be seen. This is best demonstrated with pictures. See above.

The folders are kept together with small sandpaper letters, a writing pencil, yellow marker or highlighter, and 3 rubbing crayons.

The Lesson

When I invite a student to the lesson, I bring the whole tray over. I look in the student’s folder to see which sound book they are on. Depending on the student, we’ll review the letter sounds they have been introduced to, or move right into the new sounds.

Sandpaper Letters

I’ll pull out the sandpaper letters and introduce the sounds. Typically, I’ll do this by tracing the letter with my finger and saying the sound of the letter. Then I’ll let the student do the same, encouraging them to make the sound and trace the letter at least three times. I use my best judgment and knowledge of the student to decide whether or not to get picky with letter formation or the way they trace the letter. Because this is a sound lesson, I want to isolate the sound. However, students who recall the letter sound by tracing the sandpaper letter benefit from tracing the letter with consistency, in which case I will focus on letter formation. 

The Second Period

Anyways, the second period of the lesson is where you get the real bang for your buck. For most students, this is where we spend the bulk of our time. If a student is reviewing letter sounds or picking them up quickly, we might breeze through this and get the sound book out. Before we move to that though, here are my favorite ways to spend time in the second period:

• Classic: “Show me which letter says /m/”
• Classic Variations: “Tap /m/ with your pinky finger”, “Stamp /m/ with your thumb”, “Pound /m/ gently with your fist”, “Trace /m/ with your finger”
• Find It Game: Tell the student which letter to turn over (face down) by its sound. Once all the letters are turned over, have the student mix them up. Tell the student which letter to find by sound.
• Feel It Game: Tell the student which letter to place under the rug by sound. Once all of the letters are under the rug, tell the student which letter to find by sound. The student will touch or trace each letter without looking at it, until they find the one they are looking for.
• Body Parts: “Touch /m/ with your elbow”, “Touch /m/ with your nose”, “Touch /m/ with your shoulder”

Sound books are also a second period variation. I’ll get the sound book out of the folder now and turn to the first page. Then I’ll “read” it by pointing to the center of the page and repeating the sound of the letter that will go on that page, then point to each successive picture and name it. Ex. “/m/ /m/ monkey, /m/ /m/ mouse…” The student is tasked with selecting the matching sandpaper letter. The sandpaper letter goes under that page and the student gets to pick a color to rub over it.

Once the letter is on the page, I’ll ask the student to read the page with me and then read it to me. When the book is finished, I’ll have them write or trace their name on the cover and then read the whole book to me.

One tricky part of sound books is that some of the pictures will be foreign to children. Like I said before, letter sounds are being isolated with sound books. So when a student doesn’t know what a picture is or substitutes another word for the one intended, I usually give them the correct word. As they get more comfortable with sound books, I might point out that all the words on a page start with the same sound, to prompt some critical thinking. Most often, I save this conversation for when a student has mastered letter sounds and is making sound books independently or as an introduction to letter names.

Author’s Chair is a big deal in our classroom and sound books are one of the first activities that end up in our Author’s Chair Basket.