H, I, J, K—well, you get the idea! I’m blaming my alphabet brain on alphabet cereal. The cereal isn’t a staple in my cupboard; however, it was on sale last week, so I grabbed a box for fun. Yes, I can be a bit impulsive. But I have to tell you that seeing all those letters first thing in the morning does seem to get my creative juices flowing!
Here’s my alphabet wonder. When you teach alphabet letters and sounds, do you plan specific center activities for each letter? For example, when your students are learning about the letter M, do they work with magnets, mittens, and marshmallows during center time? Sounds like the perfect opportunity to me! Whatcha think?
Happily,
Diane
That is what we do – I use our theme and letter together – like apples aplenty for letter a – I use different things to help us make the letter for example we will try and make g’s on geoboards or use a big tack to poke holes through a big letter T, or used space stamps to make the letter s – follow? and love when I get a new idea! and we did do magnets on m week! thanks!
I do letter of the week and our activities are about that letter. Example Letter Tt, we made Turkey’s, Counted toothpicks, made turkey feed, and traced shapes. The teachers and children enjoyed the activities. We also tippy-toed, walked like turkeys, talked about teeth, number two and ten. As well as made the letter Tt with our finger, hands, and in the air. We also danced to Tooty-ta.
My classroom theme is based around the letter of the week unless it is a holiday week such as Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. I have used the actual letter to make art projects. During H week, we decorated the letter H with hearts. When we did letter I we made the letter I into an icecream cone and then had the kids add ice cream scoops. For the letter K we will be using the letter K to decorate and make into a king with a crown. We also try to read books that start with the letter of the week also.
My favorite teaching resource is my children’s dictionary! When planning out letter units I go there first and make a list of all of the words with that letter that I can find an activity for. That way, I know we didn’t miss any of the important vocabulary building words and I’m not quite so overwhelmed!
We do the letter (sometimes letters) of the week that go with our adoption. And yes, we always incorporate things that match the letter. (Luckily last week was T, so we did a lot of turkey and Thanksgiving items). This week is I, so we are learning about indians. 🙂
Actually, the “letter of the week” idea was something I didn’t care for because I’d see so many teachers “teach” that letter and then move on without reviewing. But this year I am using the letter of the week idea and going the order of how children best learn to write capital letters. Our daily themes and activities go along with that specific letter. This immersion (with lots of review and use of the other letters learned) has allowed for great progress! By the end of the week the children well know how to write the capital letter in the correct formation, recognize the lowercase letter, and knows the sound and etc. An example of a day this past week…keeping in mind that we do other things also but these are the “planned activities” would be
Q is for Queen
Phonological Awareness: picture sort- King/Queen-learning the song about q and u being friends.
Math/Scissors: pattern crown made with primary and secondary color foam squares.
Sensory: Hand painted/printed queens with letter formation practice “Qu”
Art: Self-portrait Queens and Kings
Fine Motor/Scissors: Crowns for children’s heads decorated with Q q and stickers.
I introduce phonic at show and tell time where all the children bring objects related to a particular letter-say R and share it during large group time with the whole class . we also label them and put in our language corner so children can work with these objects in center time.
We do a letter/s of the week according to the adopted series. When doing the letter Tt we write, sort pictures/words starting with Tt, find a theme i.e. teeth, turtles, trains and use literature, writing and science/social studies to go with the Tt theme.
For 2’s we narrow it way down to just getting their name recognized. I did have a student one year who recognized every child’s name in print. Her mother was a second grade teacher…Go Mom!
My schedule is M-W and a 5 day program at my nursery school so we pick 2 letters for the week. We decorate the letters, use toys and read stories about the letter. Right now we are working on upper case letters then in January we will work on lower case letters.
We have a letter of the week, but our theme is our focus. If I can find a word from our theme that begins with our letter of the week, I will include it. (Jaguar for Jj, for example, when we are talking about animals.)
We talk about as many letters each day as we can in both centers and transition activities.
In my ABC center, I always have a letter/sound/object sorting activity. I use the letters that we have already covered and add the new ones as the weeks progress.
I always start the new school year by printing the child’s first name on a pre-lined paper. Introduce the names and each week I start with the first letter of their name. Today each of my children know, reconize, and can spell each others name. Than I take their name one by one and mix the letters to see who can spell their name out and their treat is to eat the letters made of alphabet noodles,cereal, magnet letters, sandpaper letters. Than I will extend the lesson by letting them color the letters that are printed out.
Elizabeth Garcia
This is a really neat idea! I never thought of doing it that way. Thank you for sharing!! 🙂
-Hannah