Letter Sounds U to Z

One picture per letter for U to Z. Each cell shows the capital and small letter together, a picture, and the word underneath — U is for umbrella, V is for van, W is for watermelon, X is for fox, Y is for yarn, Z is for zebra.

The end of the alphabet is the awkward stretch — almost nothing a child knows starts with U, V, X or Y. Umbrella and van are the honest ones; fox stands in for X the way it has on alphabet charts forever (the sound is at the end), and yarn and zebra close the set.

Children this age are not reading the labels, and that is fine. The routine to build is say-and-point: say the letter, say its sound, say the word, point at the picture. Ten seconds per cell, and the letter-sound link does the rest of the work over the following weeks. Coloring the pictures afterward is optional and entirely encouraged.