Overview
The children will help Yellow Yak find things beginning with the letter Y as they practice saying the /y/ sound in words such as yo-yo, yes, and yellow.

Literacy Activities
Help Yellow Yak

• Show the children the Yellow Yak graphic. 
• Explain that Yellow Yak loves having things in his yard, but he only says “Yes!” to things beginning with the /y/ sound.
• Have the children choose one picture card at a time and help them read the word on the card.
  • If the word on the card begins with the /y/ sound, have the children say, “Yes!” and place it by the yellow yak. 
  • If the word begins with a different sound, have them say, “No!” and discard it.

Make a Y with yellow yarn

• Write the phrase yellow yarn on the board and have a child circle the letter Y at the beginning of each word.
• Emphasize that the letter Y makes the /y/ sound.
• Help the children make an uppercase letter Y and a lowercase letter y using long and short pieces of yellow yarn.
• Help the children glue their yarn onto a piece of paper.

More Practice
Identify the target sound in words

• Make a list of words that begin with the letter Y (e.g., yak, yes, yolk, yet, yuck, you).
• Help the children identify the beginning and ending sounds of each word on the list by tapping their head for the beginning sound and toes for the ending sound.  
  • For example: /y/ (tap head) + /ak/ (tap toes) = yak.
• Point out that all of the words have the /y/ sound at the beginning and start with the letter Y.

Write the target letter

• Give the children the yak picture and have them write the uppercase letter Y all over the yak with a yellow crayon.
• Have the children write the lowercase letter y under the yak’s feet to create a yellow yard.