English For Lower Primary Ghana

Meet the Letters

Letters help us read and write words. We can see letters in books, on signs, and on food packets. Each letter has a name. We can say the name when we see it.

Letters also have sounds. A sound is what we hear when we say a letter in a word. We will learn to match letter names with common sounds. This is fun because letters help us talk about things we know, such as a ball, a cat, and a mango.

Letter Names and Sounds

A letter name is what we call a letter. For example, B is called “bee”. A letter sound is the sound we hear in a word. The letter B often makes the sound /b/, as in ball.

We use capital letters and small letters. They can look different, but they have the same name and sound.

• A a says “ay” and often sounds /a/ in ant.
• B b says “bee” and sounds /b/ in ball.
• C c says “see” and sounds /k/ in cat.
• M m says “em” and sounds /m/ in mango.
• S s says “ess” and sounds /s/ in sun.

Say the letter name first. Then say the sound in the word.

1. Look at the letter.

2. Say its name.

3. Say its sound.

4. Say the word.

A Letter and a Word

Look at the word cat.

1. The first letter is C.

2. The name of C is “see”.

3. C makes the /k/ sound in cat.

4. The word begins with C, so the answer is C.

Now say it together: C, /k/, cat. The sound is like the first sound in “cup”.

Play with Letters

Draw a big B and a small b. Say “bee” and then say /b/ for ball.

Circle the letter that begins mango: M S C.

Match each letter to its word: A with ant, B with ball, and S with sun.

Colour all the C c letters on a page. Say “see” and /k/ each time you colour one.

Can you find a letter M or m near you and say its name and sound?