We home school and do the Letter of the Week preschool curriculum and included this activity as a way to say goodbye to letter "S" with a really quick assessment to see if I'm my daughter (age 4) could hear and identify the /s/ sound. Just pull up some clipart from Google images (that isn't copy written) of different object/items/characters that start with letter s and have the kiddo circle (if they can make a circle otherwise maybe just give a poke/dab) to those that they hear start with /s/ and place an "x" on those that don't (or just a "no no" slash, whatever shape they can do if x isn't mastered yet) and you'll know real quick if they can identify it or not. You could use the exact same words that you use on your word cards, but I decided to use some that weren't on our word cards to see if she could identify the sound /s/ and not just recognize the words from those we'd worked on that week. We reviewed the word cards of the week as we usually do before beginning any activities with letter s and then began with this closing activity:
I decided to place my sheet in a sheet protector so I could use the sheet again if desired. I then let her pick her color of bingo dauber (girls love choosing colors of course)
I then explained we are on a sound hunt, we are looking for pictures that start with a /s/ like we've been playing with this week. If they don't make an /s/ sound we get to give them an x and if they do they win and get a circle!
"Can you find any pictures that start with a /s/ sound?"
It's super quick and it wipes off easily. I was able (and needed) to assess her the next day again. A sheet protector would be good even if they totally mastered it the first time, because that repetition just clinches an idea and at preschool age they aren't bored at repetition (like adults so easily fall prey to) but look for it and thrive :)
So this is her second go at this activity and she did much better the second time.
So if you need a quick assessment, here ya go :)
