Prints as 3 pages: 1 grown-up sheet, then 2 child sheets. Choose “Save as PDF” to keep a copy.
Grown-up sheet — keep this one
Letter & Sound · Reading Foundations

The letter a says /ă/

Lesson 1
a /ă/

This is Lesson 1 — the very beginning. Nothing comes before it, so any child who is ready to start reading can start here.

What this lesson teaches

Today your child meets the letter a and the sound it makes: /ă/, the first sound in apple. When we read, it is the sound that does all the work, not the letter’s name. The name (“ay”) never appears inside words like mat or sat — the sound /ă/ does. So practise the sound far more than the name.

The one thing to get right — say the sound clean

Say the short sound “a” as in apple — not the letter name “ay,” and not “ah-uh.” Keep it short and clean. In a few lessons your child will push sounds together to read whole words, and every stray sound they learn now has to be un-learned then.

The mouth cue — say it together at a mirror

a — open your mouth wide, tongue low and flat, and say /ă/, the first sound in apple. Short and open — like the little gasp at the start of “apple.”

Watch each other’s mouths in a mirror. Seeing what the mouth does makes the sound stick far better than hearing it alone.

How to run the writing page

Big first, small last. Sky-write it huge in the air, then finger-trace the big letters, then pick up a pencil. Always start at the red dot, and say “aaa (as in apple)” each time a letter is finished, so hand and sound get glued together.

Backwards letters are completely normal at this age. Point at the start dot and try again — it fixes itself with practice.

Two games — no pencil, no paper

1. Thumbs up. Say words one at a time; thumbs up if the word starts with /ă/. Try: apple, ant, add, ax — and some that do not: sun, moon, ball.

2. Robot talk. Say a word in two robot pieces, they snap it together: “I say c…at — you say cat!” No letters needed — this one works in the car.

Five minutes a day beats twenty on Saturday. Stop while it is still fun.

In the letter hunt, the other shapes (o, c, e) have not been taught — your child only needs to spot the a’s, not name the rest. On the picture page, name the pictures together first: an apple, the sun, an ant, a sock, a tent, the moon.

Grown-up sheet — Lesson 1, a /ă/ Original text and drawings.
For the reader
My letter page

a is for apple

Name
small a — the one you write
capital A — just to know it

Mouth check: say a – a – apple. Is your mouth open wide? Look in a mirror with your grown-up.

Write it — start at the dot every time, and say “aaa (as in apple)” each time you finish one

12

1. Trace the big letters with your finger.

2. Trace the dotted letters with a pencil. Start at the dot.

3. Now write it on your own. Start at each dot.

For the reader
My practice page

Find a, hear /ă/

Name

Letter hunt

Circle every a. There are 9 to find.

c
a
o
e
e
c
o
a
a
a
c
a
c
a
o
e
e
a
a
e
o
c
a
o

Circle the ones that start with /ă/

Name each picture out loud with your grown-up first. Then circle the ones that start with /ă/.