What sound and letter games actually help a child before they can read?

Before a child reads a single word, the ground is laid in play: hearing that words are built from sounds, and learning which letter goes with which sound. Rhyming, clapping the beats in a word, spotting the first sound in a name, playing with letter tiles. This early sound and letter play is one of the strongest head starts a child can get, and it looks nothing like a worksheet.

For parents of little ones: which games did your child actually enjoy? Which felt like play rather than drill, and did any of it carry over once real reading began?

Lillory begins right here, with the sounds and the first letters, as a game rather than a lesson. But the kitchen-table games that worked for you belong in this thread too.