Match the Letter to the Picture: U to Z

Six capital letters, U to Z, run down the left side of the page. Six pictures run down the right in a mixed-up order: xylophone, zebra, van, yarn, umbrella and watermelon. The child says each picture's name and draws a line from each letter to the picture whose name starts with it.

To do this, a child has to pick out the first sound of a spoken word and link it to a written letter. That usually starts to come together around ages 4 and 5, and it is one of the building blocks of learning to read. The last six letters of the alphabet turn up less often in early words than A or S, so this page gives them extra practice.

X is the tricky one. Xylophone starts with a z sound, the same sound as zebra, so a child who is listening carefully may want to join both pictures to Z. Say that xylophone is a special word spelled with an X, and let your child match it last, when X is the only letter left.