Master Consonant Letter Sounds for Reading Success

You will learn how to make the special sounds that consonant letters create! Consonant sounds are the building blocks that help you read new words. When you see letters like b, t, m, or s, you can make their sounds with your mouth. This skill connects to Letter Names Sounds and Familiar Word Recognition and helps you become a better reader.

Consonant letters are all the letters that are not vowels. You use different parts of your mouth to make their sounds. Your lips help make sounds like /b/ and /m/. Your tongue touches your mouth to make /t/ and /d/ sounds.

When you practice these sounds, you get ready for Blending Sounds Into Words. Each consonant has its own special sound that you can learn!

You use your voice, lips, tongue, and air to make consonant sounds. For the /b/ sound like in "ball," you put your lips together. For the /t/ sound like in "top," your tongue touches the roof of your mouth.

The /m/ sound like in "mom" uses your lips together too. The /s/ sound like in "slide" lets air flow through your teeth. Practice makes these sounds easier!

Consonant: Any letter that is not a vowel, like b, c, d, f, g, and many more letters you see.

Beginning Sound: The first sound you hear when you say a word, like the /b/ sound in "ball."

Letter Sound: The special noise each letter makes, like how /m/ says "mmmm" and /s/ says "ssss."

Voice: The sounds you make in your throat when you talk or make letter sounds.

Lips: The part of your mouth that comes together to make sounds like /p/, /b/, and /m/.

Tongue: The part inside your mouth that touches different places to make sounds like /t/, /d/, and /n/.

Air: What comes out of your mouth when you make any sound - you can feel it with your hand!

You can practice consonant sounds anywhere you go! Look for letters on signs and make their sounds. When you see the letter "r" like in "rain," make the /r/ sound.

Play games where you find things that start with different consonant sounds. This practice helps you get ready for Breaking Words Into Individual Sounds and other reading skills.

You do not need to know other topics before learning consonant sounds. This is one of the first steps in learning to read! You just need to be ready to use your mouth to make different sounds.

Once you learn these sounds, you will be ready for more advanced skills like Decoding Single Syllable Words.

Learning consonant sounds connects to many other reading skills. You will also learn about Writing Letters For Consonant And Vowel Sounds to practice writing the letters you hear.

Associating Vowel Sounds With Spellings teaches you about the other important letters. Letter Sound Pairs and Writing helps you connect sounds to writing.

After you master consonant sounds, you will learn Recognizing Consonant Digraph Sounds and Identifying Long Short Vowel Sounds. These skills build on what you learn here!