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Alphabet Avenue
Most early attempts at
literacy start out as barely recognizable drawings and doodles. Until children
have learned to perceive the attributes and characteristics of letters, they
will continue to use and confuse them. On this page you will find research based
activities to use at home or in your classroom. Most of the activities are
geared toward kindergarten and first grade, but I recently found that they
helped older children who had already learned to write in their primary language:
Arabic!
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Recommended Reading
I would strongly recommend that teachers read two excellent sources
for a better understanding of letter identification in young
children. Please note that I didn't say letter "recognition."
There's a big difference! Recognition implies automaticity or
"knowing" without having to think about it. We recognize our names,
but we would have to "identify" unfamiliar and unknown words. The
same holds true for children who are just beginning to explore the
world of print. They often recognize many of the letters in their
own names, but have to work hard to learn to identify unfamiliar
letters. Lecture over. Here are the two book titles:
Clay, Marie (1993). Reading Recovery: A Guidebook for Teachers in
Training. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. (Pages 23-28, and 55-56
discuss learning to look at print with concrete suggestions for the
teacher, particularly for children who seem to have difficulty with
remembering letter names.)
Dorn, Linda, French, Cathy, and Jones, Tammy (1998). Apprenticeship
in Literacy: Transitions Across Reading and Writing. York, Maine:
Stenhouse. (Pages 92-95 discuss multiple ways of learning about
print and pages 111-114 describe a literacy corner for exploring
letters.)
  
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I've Been
Workin' On My Letters
(Lyrics: Cherry
Carl Tune: I've Been Workin' On the Railroad)
I've been
workin' on my letters,
Every day in school.
I've been workin' on my letters,
And I think they're really cool.
Have you
heard my teacher singing
Alphabet songs with me?
Have you heard my teacher making
Sounds from A to Z?
Don't you
want to know,
I'm a dynamo?
I can write them fast or slow-ow-ow!
Write them in the air,
Write them everywhere,
I can write some words to share.
I can use them all for writing,
I can use them all to read a book,
I can use them all for spelling . . .
Words like tell and took!
And singing
. . .
Fee-fi-fiddly, alphabet!
Fee-fi-fiddly, I'm not done yet!
Fee-fi-fiddly, I'm set . . .
'Cause I know the alphabet!
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Handwriting Activity
This page is a black-line reproducible for K-1 teachers. It includes
the head, belt, and foot line. You'll need to add the word or
letters that you'd like the children to trace. We've used it
successfully with kindergarten students who were not writing their
names when school started.
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Shared Reading of the Alphabet Chart
Click on the above link to download a list of alternatives for
reading the ABC chart. This develops stronger perception and
encourages children to take a more critical look at the letters of
the alphabet. Mount your chart on vellum, laminate and keep it handy
near your shared reading area.
Purpose: To provide children with a special set of cues that
can be used during reading and writing activities.
Materials: Use a large ABC chart for shared reading in the group.
Reduce the chart (or download the
Alphabet Chart
from this page) and place a copy in each child's writing
folder to be used as a personal resource during journal writing.
Collect a large variety of quality ABC books to use for read-alouds
and shared reading. Read one a day, particularly at the beginning of
the year. Cover some of the letters with Post-its and ask children
for predictions before removing the stickers. Share a variety of ABC
books with your child or group to promote flexible knowledge about
letters and sounds.
A student-generated big book of the Alphabet with letters and
picture cues may also be used for shared reading activities.
Procedures: Gather the children around or in front of the large ABC
Chart. Point to each letter (upper and lower case) and each picture
and you lead the children in a shared reading of the chart. Read the
letters fluently and pause at appropriate points to allow the
children to lead the reading of the letters or to say the pictured
cues. Read the chart daily until your child or group is able to read
the chart independently. The chart soon becomes a familiar resource
for associating letter and sound cues during reading and writing
events.
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Let's Deal!
(Alphabetizing Flash Cards)
My first grade team had a flexible way of having their students
practice alphabetical order. We purchased multiple sets of
colorful sight word flash cards that are produced by several
publishers. The picture is on one side and the word on the other.
(We laminated them for durability.) Each child was given 5-10
cards each day to alphabetize as part of their daily seatwork
during reading groups. It was a good way to practice alphabetizing
while reinforcing sight word vocabulary at the same time. You can
differentiate the activity by raising the bar for some students
with alphabetizing to the second and third letter. Struggling
students or children with poor fine motor skills only had 5 cards
each day and none began with the same letter. We encouraged the
children to look at the alphabet line on their desks or the one on
the wall. Before they copied the words onto a paper, they had a
predetermined buddy/parent helper, etc. check them. It was
painless that way since they could just rearrange the cards if
needed. It can be used as a portable center since they can do it
on the floor or on the top of their desks.
Some teachers sort the cards into 3 groups and put them into color
coded, numbered envelopes. It's easy to keep track of who completes
each envelope. Just copy a class or group list and put it on the
front of the envelope. Kids can circle or check their name upon
completion. It's good to have the whole alphabet in front of them or
available for reference. You'll hear some at-risk students singing
the alphabet song as they work on this activity! I love it!
This is a good lead-in to using the dictionary. If your kids have
personal writing dictionaries, have them add new words during your
guided reading or skill lessons. Ask them where they will find the
first letter of the word: at the beginning, middle, or end of the
alphabet and refer to your alphabet chart. This will quickly
eliminate turning countless pages while looking for the right
letter!
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Promoting Knowledge
of Letters and Words
This page contains lecture notes from an Apprenticeship in
Literacy seminar with Linda Dorn. An explicit discussion of
activities to support instruction in primary classrooms is
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My Little Book of
Words for Writing
This is a handy little
reference book that is meant to support early and emergent readers
and writers. It contains Dr. Edward Fry's first three hundred high
frequency words. Each letter of the alphabet has its own page with
a colorful graphic that serves as an anchor for the sound. I would
suggest laminating the cover and then binding the book at the top.
 
(sample) |
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Letter
Lotto
Download and print the playing cards, mount on vellum, and
laminate for use. This lotto game comes in two formats: one to
review beginning consonant sounds and the other for letter
recognition. Comes with directions for playing and enough cards
for six children.
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Little Critter Letter Match
Little Critter Letter Match Modern
Mercer Mayer is my all time
favorite author illustrator. Kids absolutely love his little
critter books and so do I. He came to San Diego in 1983 for a
conference and we had a blast, with an insider trip to the San
Diego Zoo and a hilarious visit to my school. He's just as funny
in person as he is in his books! I have made an activity for
matching capitals and lower case letters. I hope he doesn't mind!!
Enjoy! By the way, you'll need to print them in color or the
yellow T-shirt won't show.
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Sequence With a Smile
Use the graphic on the
link for sequencing activities (number order, alphabetical order,
story sequence, etc.) Allow students to work collaboratively if
needed.
Accountability Piece:
Duplicate the recording sheet so that children can show the work
they accomplished during center time. You may want to assemble the
recording sheets in a sequencing log.
Option: Use the graphic as
a template. Fill in some of the boxes. Laminate and allow the
children to use wipe off pens or place in sheet protectors. Make a
transparency and use in the overhead projector center.
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My Phonics Sticker Book
When you reproduce this book, you'll need to
cut the pages into fourths, collate and bind. Print as many as you
need for a group and use with alphabet stickers below. Students
can "read' their sticker book, saying the name of the picture and
the capital and lower case letters while pointing. This builds 1
to 1 and provides an anchor for automaticity in letter recogntion.
(sample)
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Alphabet
Stickers
Use with the Phonics Sticker Book above or
in your instructional program if you're a reading teacher.
Use laser labels (Avery Dennison #5260 or MACO #ML-3025), thirty
labels per sheet, 1" x 2 5/8". Some teachers prefer that
children draw their own pictures, but emergent readers rarely
remember what it was they drew. This method produces a colorful
book to read again and again.
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Ways of Learning the Alphabet
Check Linda Dorn's book, Apprenticeship
in Literacy, page 93, for a discussion of looking at
letters and concrete suggestions which include looking
at:
The name of the letter
Show your child a letter card
and ask him/her to tell you the name of the letter.
The way the letter looks
Talk about the shape of the letter. What is the composition of the
letter . . . circles, sticks, tails, etc.?
The sound the letter makes
Show your child a letter card and ask him/her to make the sound
that the letter produces. Remember that each vowel makes two
sounds.
The feel and look of the letter in our
mouths (look in a mirror)
Focus on the pronunciation of the letter and the production of the sound. Where is the tongue, and what is it doing? Where are your
teeth? (It helps to look in a mirror for this exercise.) I purchased
a round makeup mirror with a stand at the local drugstore for this
purpose. It was easy for children to handle, easy to store and the
magnified side is great.
The movement of the letter as it is written
(talk it through in steps)
Talk through the method of producing the letter in printed
form.
A word or anchor that children associate
with the letter
Example: A, a,
apple gives children an anchor to use as a memory tool.
The way the letter looks within a word
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Mrs.
Word Bird
¯
(Lyric: Cherry Carl Tune: It’s a Small World")
Mrs.
Word Bird wants to eat.
Fill her tummy with a treat.
Look for pictures here and there –
Under every chair!
Look
for bathtub and bacon and butterfly,
You’ll find baby and books if you really try.
There is block, boat and bee,
This is fun you’ll agree.
If you’ll find just one for B.
Variation:
other verses to follow for other letter sounds.
Reproducible Copy with Picture
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Alphabet
Activities and Worksheets
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The following database has alphabet matching
worksheets, poetry, songs and shape books. "Where's That Sound?"
addresses phonemic awareness skills and listening for the location of the
specific sound. When you print these out, change your printer
setting to grayscale and draft and then change the copier to the lightest setting so that
you get a good copy for the children to color, while conserving your ink.
I
have added colorful picture books for you to
reproduce on vellum, laminate and bind for whole group or independent reading.
There are new
Student Reading Books that are good for phonemic
awareness and learning a few basic sight words. These are also available in a
separate database on Little Book
Lane, which makes them easier to locate.
I have most of the "Pictures for Sorts and Stuff." I'm in the process of adding
words to each database.
I'm also working on Word Wheels for each
letter. These are self-checking and reproducible in color for a center
activity.
New to this section is the handwriting practice sheets.
I've also added Workmats for each letter sound.
Print them on vellum and laminate for durability. Use for tracing practice,
building letters with clay and other manipulatives. Hope you enjoy them!
Another new item is Following Directions
sheets and Match and Color for each sound. My sister worked with a special day four and
five year old class last summer and asked for some new things. That's where the
idea for Workmats and Following Directions came from.
Please note that this section is not finished. I've been working on adding to
"Word Way" and will try to spend more time on this page in the future. I hope to
have at least 15 activities for each letter and sound. If there's something you
need right away, let me know at
carl1404@msn.com
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Writing Fine Motor Skill
Activities
Alphabet Mixed Review
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