Fun With Letters: Introduction

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Today we're excited to announce the beginning of a new Friday feature, Fun with Letters! Starting April 17th, we'll begin posting letter activites every other week Fridays. This may prove to be a popular feature, as many of you are looking for early childhood activites.

Now, to consider a question quite controversial among teachers...
In what order should the letters of the alphabet be introduced?
There are several different methods, each with their own pros and cons.

Personalized Random Order:
The random, but personalized, technique makes letter work meaningful for your child's first introduction. For example, introduce the letters in your child's name, one at a time, followed by letters from your last name, favorite relatives, and friends. Or introduce letters related to your child's favorite activities: Tt for Trains, Dd for Dolls, etc.

Thematic Order:
This order is similar to random order, however the effort it made to tie the letter to a theme or season. Examples: Pp during October along with a pumpkin unit.

Alphabetical Order:
Letters are introduced in ABC order. This method is typically not preferred by educators. Why? When introduced in order, a lot of instructional time must pass before students are ready to use their developing letter knowledge for reading & writing. The first five letters of the alphabet are 5 difficult letters to master. a & e are difficult to because they are vowels and make more than one sound. b and d are confusing because of their similar appearance. c is a consonant that makes more than one sound.

Many preschools use Zoo Phonics. It incorporates letter sounds, animal names, and motions. Zoo Phonics is designed to be taught in ABC order.

CVC/Phonics Driven Model:
Many early childhood educators favor teaching the alphabet out of order. Typically several consonants are taught, followed by a vowel. This enables students to quickly begin reading and spelling three letter words. These 3 letter words are called CVC words (consonant-vowel-consonant). Ex. Bat, Sam, & Fan. This method also lends itself easily to teaching word families. Ex. Cat, Sat, Hat, Tan, Man, Band.

Remember the Letter People from your early childhood days? Letter people were/are taught in a more phonics driven method.

If you are interested in the CVC techique for learning ABCs try the following suggested order:

Consonants: Bb, Tt, Mm, Ss, Nn, Ff
Vowel: Aa
Now you can begin blending simple words with consonants ex. at, am, an.

Consonants: Dd, Gg, Ll, Cc, Pp
Vowels: Ee, Oo
This will allow your child to begin making such as leg and dog.
Consonants: Rr, Hh, Vv, Ww, Zz
Vowels: Ii, Uu
Consonants:Jj, Kk, Yy, Qq, Xx

So, What Order Will ABC & 123 Use When Posting the "Fun With Letters" Feature?
After discussing the pros & cons, we've decided to feature the letters in alphabetical order. We will begin with the letter A on April 17th. Although this may not be the preferred method for teaching the letters, we believe it will be the easiest for posting. By featuring the letters in order, we hope it will be easier for you, our collaborators, to keep track of upcoming letters & add your submissions accordingly!

We also recognize that many of you are already doing amazing alphabet activities. It seems there are lots of great ideas in your archives just waiting to be shared. The more you share, the better! We'd love for you to start sending us links to your A & B activities.

However, if we get enough interest in going through the letters in the CVC/Phonics method from our readers we'll make the switch...so you let us know what you think!

Alphabet Pointers:
As we gear up to begin our new feature, here are a few more ABC pointers.

Letter Sounds:

Here are suggested words to help teach your child the correct letter sound. Notice the X word ends with X. This is to more accurately model the correct sound X makes.

A as in Apple

B as in Boat

C as in Cat

D as in Dog

E as in Elephant

F as in Fish

G as in Gift

H as in Hat

I as in Igloo

J as in Jet

K as in Kite

L as in Lion

M as in Monkey

N as in Nest

O as in Octopus

P as in Pizza

Q as in Queen

R as in Rabbit

S as in Snake

T as in Turtle

U as in Umbrella

V as in Violin

W as in Walrus

X as in Fox

Y as in Yo-Yo

Z as in Zebra

Fun with Food, Eating the Alphabet:
A fun way to introduce each new letter is by giving your is with a tasty clue. Ask your child to guess the new letter based on the food presented. If you have food suggestions not included on this list please add them in the comments.

Aa: almonds,, apricots, animal crackers

Bb: banana, banana chips, blueberries

Cc: chocolate chips, cherries, carrots

Dd: dates, donuts

Ee: eggs - hard boiled, scrambled, or chocolate ones wrapped in foil!

Ff: figs, Fig Newtons

Gg: grapes, gummi bears, gumdrops, goldfish crackers

Hh: honey

Ii: ice cubes, pass around to hold and/or make colored cubes with a toothpick frozen in each cube. Use the ice cubes for painting on paper.

Jj: jelly beans, Jell-o Jigglers

Kk: chocolate kisses, kiwi

Ll: lemon drops or another lemon flavored candy such as Lemonheads, licorice, Lifesavers

Mm: M&Ms, mini or regular marshmallows, marshmallow fluff sandwiches

Nn: nuts, nectarines

Oo: Oreo cookies, orange slices, oatmeal - hot cereal or in cookies

Pp: pears, potato chips, popcorn, pretzels, pickles

Qq: food shaped like a Qq, or fruit cut into quarters

Rr: raisins, radishes

Ss: sunflower seeds

Tt: tangerines, Twizzlers

Uu: hide food underneath a desk or chair for "under"

Vv: valentine heart candies or cookies

Ww: walnuts, gummi worms, watermelon

Xx: food shaped arranged in a X such as pretzel sticks , licorice, or pickle spears.

Yy: yogurt, yams

Zz: zucchini bread or cooked zucchini slices

Don't forget to enter your comment in the giveaway for a SpellQuizzer program. The program is appropriate for developing vocabulary and spelling skills with students at EVERY grade level! See this post for details. We will be drawing & posting the winner tomorrow!

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