Inside: Activities to teach the alphabet, letters and sounds to your child.
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Every day, you see your preschooler exhibiting signs that he is interested in literacy and language. He sees the golden arches and immediately says “McDonald’s” He sees a letter in a book and tells you that it is in his name. You find him sitting on the floor “reading” a familiar book out loud to himself.
From the time your child is a baby, he is immersed in sounds all around him. The babbles and coos he makes are imitations of sounds he hears.
As your baby develops into a toddler, he starts to repeat words he hears. At first, your child may only say one to two word phrases, but by the time he is 2-3 years of age, he can speak in sentences and is adding words to his vocabulary at warp speed.
When your child is between 3-5 years of age, he starts to realize that the sounds he says and hears can be depicted by letters. This is the ideal time to introduce letters and sounds and use activities to teach the alphabet to your child.
Start With the Alphabet
The best way to introduce letters is by singing the alphabet song to your children. I am sure your kids have probably already heard the letters of the alphabet sung in order to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”
My two-year-old can sing that song and she doesn’t know yet what the alphabet is or what letters are.
Most likely your children know the version of “The Alphabet Song” that ends with:
Now I know my ABCs
Next time won’t you sing with me?
Years ago, when I first started teaching Kindergarten, I was introduced to a slightly different version (I wish I knew who wrote this version so I could give them credit). This song variation helps children hear each letter distinctly instead of thinking that L, M, N, O and P are all one letter.
“The Alphabet Song”
To the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star”
A-B-C-D-E-F-G (clap one time when you sing the letter G)
H-I-J-K-L-M-N (clap one time when you sing the letter N)
O-P-Q (clap one time when you sing the letter Q)
R-S-T (clap one time when you sing the letter T)
U-V-W (clap one time when you sing the letter W)
X-Y-Z (clap one time when you sing the letter Z)
Now I never will forget
How to sing the alphabet!
Try singing The Alphabet Song to other tunes such as “Are You Sleeping?” or “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” It’s always fun and helps keep the mind engaged to try different tunes and ways of teaching concepts.
Activities to Teach the Alphabet
1) Write each uppercase letter of the alphabet on an index card or small piece of paper. Place the cards on the floor in order one at a time as you sing the song to your child. Place them in rows just like the song shows above. A-G in one row, L-N in one row, O-Q in one row and so on.
2) Give your child the first row of cards (A-G) and let her lay the cards down in order as you sing the first line of the song slowly. Then hand her the second row of cards (H-N) and ask her to lay each letter card down as you sing the second line of the song slowly. Continue this with the rest of the song.
3) Another one of my favorite activities to teach the alphabet is to place the letters A-G on the floor or table in front of your child in a mixed-up order. See if your child can put them in the correct order. If not, help your child put them in order. Then provide her with an identical set of cards that she can match to the first set as you slowly sing the song. Do this for each row of letter in the song. When your child has mastered uppercase letters, do this activity with lowercase letters and then finally matching uppercase and lowercase letters.
4) Place the letters of the alphabet on the floor or table and then mix them up. Invite your child to fix the mixed-up alphabet. Start with only misplacing 2-4 letters at first. Increase the number of letters you misplace as your child gets more proficient at the alphabet.
5) Place the first letters of each row in the song (A, H O, R, U and X) in the correct spot. Then give your child the rest of the letter cards and invite her to put the letters in the correct spot. Another option is to put the vowels (A, E, I, O and U) in the correct spot and then see if your child can use these letters to help them place the rest of the letters in the correct place. It is perfectly fine if she has to sing the song slowly to herself in order to accomplish this task.
6) Give your child all the letters and let her put them in order. She doesn’t have to place them in rows like you did with the song. They can be in one long train if she wants. Use other letter options such as wooden letter blocks for this to keep things novel and fresh.
Activities to Teach Letters and Sounds
7) Hide letter cards or wooden letter blocks around the room and have your child look for them. When he finds them, ask him to tell you the name and sound of the letter.
8) Place a few letters in front of your child on the table or floor. Name a letter and/or sound of a letter to find. To keep your child more engaged, sing this song to tell him the letter to find.
Note: Say the sound of a letter when you see a letter encased in two slanted lines (/b/). Say the short vowel sound if the letter is a vowel.
To the tune of “Where is Thumbkin?”
Where is A? Where is A?
There it is! There it is!
A says /a/. A says /a/.
/a/ /a/ /a/. /a/ /a/ /a/.
Where is B? Where is B?
There it is! There it is!
B says /b/. B says /b/.
/b/ /b/ /b/. /b/ /b/ /b/.
Continue to sing this song for as many letters as you would like.
9) One way to teach each letter individually is to trace and cut out a big uppercase letter from a piece of construction paper. Teach your child the name and sound of the letter. Then help your child find pictures of items that start with the sound of the letter in magazines or newspapers. Invite your child to cut out the pictures and glue them on the big construction paper letter. You can also print off pictures you find online and have your child cut them out and glue them on the letter.
10) Hide letter cards in the room. Give your child clues to figure out the letter you want him to find. For example, say, “I am thinking of a letter. Can you figure out which one it is? The words bear, ball, and broom start with the letter I am thinking of.”
11) Build a tower with the wooden letter blocks. Take turns with your child telling her a letter block to find and place on the tower. Your child will have fun telling you a letter to find and place on the tower, too. You can also tell her the sound of a letter block to find.
12) Place all or some of the letter cards on the table or floor. Use a clean fly swatter and invite your child to “swat” the letters (or sounds) you tell her to. Take turns and let her tell you letters or sounds to “swat.”
13) Place the letter of the alphabet on the table or floor. Give your child pictures or items that start with each letter of the alphabet. Invite her to place the picture or item on top of the letter it starts with.
Modify the song you sang to find letters to include the name of each picture or item.
To the tune of “Where is Thumbkin?”
Where is A? Where is A?
There it is! There it is!
A for apple. A for apple.
/a/ /a/ /a/. /a/ /a/ /a/.
Where is B? Where is B?
There it is! There it is!
B for ball. B for ball.
/b/ /b/ /b/. /b/ /b/ /b/.
Substitute words of items in the song for whatever picture or item you have to place on top of each letter.
Build a Strong Foundation
These are just a few of the many activities to teach the alphabet, letters and sounds to your child. The main thing is to have fun with your child. Learning about letters and sounds can be so much fun. Having a strong knowledge of letters and their sounds is vital because it is the foundation that reading is built upon. Taking time to engage in these fun early literacy activities now will help your child build a strong foundation. A foundation that will guarantee your child will become a dynamite reader!
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