Science of Reading: ILLUSTRATED SOUND WALL

visual clue-based Secret Sound Wall

The Illustrated Sound Wall is an all-visual representation of each sound in the English language. Featuring 46 custom Clue Buddy illustrations that wrap sound hints into each image.

There are two sizes available. The Large Sound Cards are 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" with two different cards per sheet. The Small Sound Cards are 3-13/16” x 5” with four different cards per sheet.

NOTE: The small Cards have a light blue hole punch guide to put on a metal binder ring for quick reference and easy storage.

Descriptor sentences

On each Large Sound Card is a descriptor sentence that describes the sound being taught.

For example, the /sh/ sound card has an illustration of shells sharing a shack on the shore. The descriptor sentence is, "The shells shared a shack on the shore." Another example is the voiced /th/ sound. The illustration is of a brother bothering his mother and father with a feather. The descriptor sentence is, “Brother bothered mother and father with a feather.”

The Small Sound Wall Cards have the sounds, but do not have the descriptor sentences printed on the card. The Large and Small Sound Wall product files include a PDF with the descriptor sentences.

The whole sentence allows the student to hear the sound in multiple instances in a practical descriptive way.

Complete list of descriptor sentences at the bottom of the page.

secret sound lock labels

Five different sized lock images cover the graphemes of the secret sounds until they are ready to be revealed. Included are little keys you can use to unlock and introduce the secret sounds.

All Cards and Labels have a subtle, light blue cut and/or hole punch guides.

Liquids
/l/ - The lion loves all large lemons.
/r/ - The rabbit is reading in the red roses. 

Glides
/y/ - Yolanda yanked the yellow yarn.
/wh/ - Why is the whiskered whistle wheezing in the wheat?
/w/ - The walrus waiter wears a watch in the water. 
/h/ - The horse in the hay has healthy hair.

Nasals
/m/ - The monkey made a milkshake on a Monday.
/n/ - The gnarly new nest is full of knots.
/ng/ - The ring went “bling bling” in the wrestling ring.

Continuants
Unvoiced
/f/ - Take a photo of the fine fish fiddling for his friends.
/th/ - The thimble thumbs thought of thick and thin threads.
/s/ - The snake sauteed a nice and spicy rice.
/sh/ - The shells shared a shack on the shore.

Voiced
/th/ - Brother bothered mother and father with the feather.
/v/ - The veggies visited Vern on vacation.
/z/ - The zebra zoomed over the zoo on a zipline.
/zh/ - It was a pleasure to measure the treasure.

Diphthongs
/ou/ - The cow on the couch had a flower that was sour.
/oi/ - The boy’s toy made an “oink oink” noise.

R Controlled Vowels
/ar/ - The cart from the mart was full of stars and candy bars.
/er/ - The bird and the turtle searched for the furry caterpillar.
/or/ - The corn was born to explore the store.

Other Sounds
/qu/ - The quest for the quickest quarter.
/x/ - The fox in the tux was excited to fix the axe.

Stops
Unvoiced
/p/ - The penguin placed a pickle on the purple platter.
/k/ - The kitty cat kept candy in the cracked black cup.
/t/ - The tiger tucked a T into its top hat.
/ch/ - The chicken made a batch of chocolate chips from scratch.

Voiced
/b/ - The balls bit the bat on the base.
/d/ - The dog with dots dumped donuts on the desk.
/g/ - The goofy goat gulped the gumbo.
/j/ - The jelly beans jumped from the edge of the jar.

Vowel Valley
/ə/ - The banana wore a hat like Santa.
/e/ - Stinky feet meet in the filthy street.
/ĭ/ - The iguana didn’t fit in the igloo.
/a/ - The ape had a great day baking and decorating cakes.
/ĕ/ - The elephant collected a dozen excellent eggs.
/ǎ/ - The happy apple did magic with a hat and a rabbit.
/i/ - The white rhino liked to ride the bright and shiny bike.
/ŏ/ - The octopus with spots got lots and lots of lollipops.
/ŭ/ - The sun had fun under the umbrella.
/au/ - Paula was always tall, but what caused her paws?
/o/ - The old toad told the toast about roast. 
/oo/ - The foot looked good in a hood.
/oo/ - The moon sang a tune that made the spoon swoon.
/u/ - Cue the cute cube and tube.

We would like to gauge interest in printed posters and banners of our new sound wall with a fully illustrated scene. If there is enough interest, we will make them available in the near future!

We are collecting your email only to let you know if they become available.

You are under no obligation to purchase by submitting the form!

Our intention was to make this fully illustrated scene a printable resource. It is so large, we are unsure how to break it into printable pieces, and then get them to you in a way that makes sense to re-assemble.

Please let us know if a physical printed poster would be useful in your classroom!

Happy Teaching,
Melissa Spence

ILLUSTRATED SOUND WALL INCLUDES:

• 46 visual clue-based Illustrated Sound Wall Cards

• Labels for each category of sounds

• Locks in varying sizes for covering graphemes

• PDF with sound sentences

All files are Adobe PDF format.