Letta at the Letter Stall

Letta was a bright little sparrow who ran the Letter Stall. Every sign and basket at the market started with a sound, and Letta’s favorite game was to catch that very first sound — the sound a word begins with.

“Braaaead,” Letta sang, stretching the word out long and slow. “Hear it? Buh. Bread starts with buh.” She hopped over to the letter B and gave it a happy tap. The sound buh and the letter B — they were a pair, like a bird and its nest.

A shy caterpillar wasn’t sure. “Maaap,” Letta said, stretching it slow with her. “What do you hear at the very start?” The caterpillar listened hard. “Mmm!” “Yes!” cheered Letta. “Mmm — that’s M.” Saying it slow made the first sound easy to catch.

They played all along the stall. “Cheeeese — ch.” “Appppple — aaa.” “Ffffish — fff.” Say the word slow, listen to the beginning, find its letter. Letta never rushed and never frowned; a wrong guess just meant let’s stretch it one more time.

By the end, the caterpillar was catching first sounds all on its own. “Sun — sss — S!” it said proudly. Letta did a little loop in the air. The whole market was full of sounds waiting at the start of words — and now the caterpillar knew how to catch them.