- letter card “Xx”
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Language/L.PK.MA.5 With guidance and support from adults, explore word relationships and nuances of word meanings.
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Alphabet Knowledge Recognizes that the letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 7 Develop familiarity with the forms of alphabet letters, awareness of print, and letter forms.
Learn About Letters Together: Cross Your Fingers
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Follow Directions, Fine Motor Skills, Letter Formation, Letter Recognition
Tell children that sometimes a person will cross their finger when they wish really hard for something to happen.
- Demonstrate how to cross your pointer and middle fingers. Talk about how it makes the letter "X".
- Then tell a time you crossed your fingers when wishing something would happen, for example, you might have had a raffle ticket and crossed your fingers as you waited for the winning raffle number to be pulled.
- Ask, Have you ever crossed your fingers and wished for something or seen someone else do that?
Allow time for discussion; then show children how to cross their middle finger over their first finger to make the sign for good luck. Challenge children to make the letter “X” with other parts of their bodies, such as by raising their arms and cross one over the other or crossing their wrists one over the other.
Adaptation: If very young children have trouble crossing their fingers, help them by physically crossing one finger over the other or help them place the right pointer finger over the left pointer finger to make the "X".