Basketball Initial Sounds Pocket Chart Activity

Inside: a free printable basketball-themed pocket chart activity for preschoolers and kindergartners to practice matching letters with sounds.

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I’ve created a set of baseball name activities and put together a list of books about football, but until now I haven’t done anything with basketball. It’s almost time for March Madness, so now seems like a good time to start!

Basketball Initial Sounds Activity

Do you have any little basketball fans in your classroom? This free printable activity makes practicing initial sounds a total game-changer — no dribbling required.

Skills Covered

This activity covers the following skills:

• Matching lowercase letters with their initial sounds
• Matching uppercase letters with their initial sounds
• Tracing lowercase letters

What’s Included in the Free Printable

The 6-page free printable includes these elements:

• A mini basketball hoop with a picture for each letter of the alphabet (2+ pages)
• 26 lowercase letter basketballs (1 page)
• 26 uppercase letter basketballs and an activity title card (1 page)
• Recording sheets (2 pages)

All pages are in color, except the recording sheets are black & white.

Preparation & Materials

Ideally, you’ll want a mini pocket chart for this activity. Mine is 14″ x 20.5″ inches, and I think it came from Dollar Tree. If yours is a little smaller you can either print the cards at a reduced size or choose just a subset of letters to work on at one time.

To prepare the activity, first cut out all the basketball hoop cards. You can separate them as shown above or leave them in rows so that you have fewer pieces overall.

Next, cut out all the basketball letters that you plan to use. There is a lowercase set and an uppercase set. These “balls” are sized for a 1-inch circle punch like the one shown below. You can also just cut them out with scissors or even leave them as squares to save on prep time.

Then, if you want your students to use a recording sheet, choose uppercase or lowercase and print that out too.

Finally, you can set up the activity: insert the hoop cards in the pocket chart and put the paper basketball letters in a small container nearby.

How to Play

This is a simple matching activity. The pocket chart makes it fun!

1. Close your eyes and choose a paper basketball.
2. Name the letter and say its initial sound.
3. Then, search for the basketball hoop with a matching initial sound. Insert the ball into the pocket chart.

4. If desired, find and trace that letter on one of the recording sheets.

Extension

Of course, you can also play the other way around – start with the hoop and find the matching letter.

Very active children might appreciate getting to use a real child-size basketball set (ad) alongside this literacy activity. After they find each match in the pocket chart, they can shoot a real basket while calling out the letter name and letter sound.

You can also differentiate up or down as needed:

Easier version – start with the balls and hoops already matched in the pocket chart. The child will begin by removing a ball and saying the initial sound and letter name. Then, they can pretend to shoot the ball back into the basket while repeating the sound and letter name.

More challenging version – after matching balls and hoops think of more words that begin with the same initial sound. Also, the child can match both uppercase and lowercase letters rather than just one or the other.

Happy Teaching!