Cara Kookaburra’s Sound

Below you will find BONUS ACTIVITIES that come with your purchase of The Speech Sound Set Alphabet Cards.

Note that in this series, only lower-case non-cursive letters are included. Lower-case letters are certainly more difficult to write than capitals, but this resource is about exposing children to the look of the letters that they will be seeing in the sentences of their ‘readers’ (books) when they begin formal schooling.

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About the Sound

There are two cards that refer to the same sound. Why?  Because in early learning, children learn the the letter C (pronounced “see”) and the letter K (pronounced “kay”) both represent the sound /k/. This sound is soft and quick.

Sound Pair

A sound pair is another sound that is made in the same way – only one of the pairs is LOUD (uses voice) and the other is SOFT (uses no voice, is whispered).  Not all sounds have a pair.  When a sound is involved with a speech error, often (but not always) the Sound Pair will also be involved in the same speech error. 

The sounds of Cara Kookaburra (soft) and  Gulping Gary (loud) are Sound Pairs. 

When it develops

This sound is usually produced correctly in wordsaround the age of 3 years. 

How it is made. Tip your head back like Cara Kookaburra and let the back of your tongue lift up. It should hit the roof of the mouth at the back.  As it hits, force out a quick, soft /k/ sound. Keep the front of your tongue down! 

Tips to Help 

This sound is made in the back of the mouth with the tongue tip staying down and the back of the tongue rising up to make contact with the roof of the mouth. You can see this if you look carefully at Cara’s tongue. Tipping the head back can sometimes help a child’s tongue fall into the right position for making this sound. For this reason, Cara Kookaburra’s head is tipped back in the picture. Another tip is for the child to try and hold their tongue down at the front with an icypole stick while raising the back of the tongue.

It is sometimes easier for children to “get” the sound at the end of a word – rather than at the start of a word. They might say, for example,  “bike” correctly before they say “key” correctly. Have a listen for this – and if this is the case, try saying “bike … bike…eeee….bye… key..  key.. key!”

Errors in Productions 

1. It is a common early error for children to say the /t/ sound instead of the /k/ sound in words. Examples are a child saying “tar” for “car” and “teep” for “keep”.  This error is called VELAR FRONTING. It simply means the soft, quick sound that should be made at the back of the mouth (/k/) is produced as a soft, quick sound at the front of the mouth (/t/).  A child usually “grows out” of this error by the age of 4 years. Note that when a child has VELAR FRONTING, you will also notice the error with the way they try and say the /g/ sound.  /g/ being a loud, quick sound that is made at the back is produced as a loud, quick sound at the front of the mouth, /d/.  In this case, a child will say “dough!” for “go!”  A child with velar fronting might be heard to say “The tow and the doose”  (“The cow and the goose”) or  “I dot a tee for the tar” (“I got a key for the car”). 

About the Letter

The lower-case letter used in this set is the non-cursive letter c and k. Both of these letters make exactly the same sound. 

I will often call the letter (pronounced “see”) , the “Curly Cat”.  Many other letters (a, d, g, o)  begin with the Curly Cat shape, so it is a great one to practise!  Here is a picture of Curly Cat along with some space for practising. 

The letter k starts with a down stroke. The letter’s name is pronounced “kay”. 

Did you know? 

This isn’t knowledge that needs to be shared at a preschool level, but you may be interested to learn about the rule associated with when to use the  letter c and when to use the letter k when we are using Cara Kookaburra’s sound. 

We use c before letters a, o, and u  (cat, cot, cup) 

We use k before letters i and e (kind, keep). *koala, kangaroo and kookaburra are exceptions

We use in the blends (cr, cl).

We use ck after a single short vowel (pick, pack). *wok is one of the exceptions

We use k after other vowels ( week, fork). 

Activities

Click the buttons below to download the colour-ins. Learners can be shown how to form the letter, starting at the star. Practise again and again within the outline. Together look at the pictures, name each and LISTEN for the first sound of each word.  Point the first letter in each word. 

Colour-In

Picture Cards

  Each picture begins with the target sound. You can print these out and make cards or just look at them on a device.

1) Cards can be used for  these for a range of games such as SNAP, BINGO or MEMORY.

2) Start a double-spread page in a scrapbook for each sound. Paste in the colour-in (above), practise writing the letter and cut out and paste the pictures on the pages.

3) Combine them with another set from a different sound and do a SORTING ACTIVITY.

4)Make a poster for each sound and paste on the corresponding pictures.

Find the Letter 

View the download on a digital device and point to the target letters or print out and circle/ underline the letters.  Try and encourage scanning of left to right of each line while looking for letters. 

References