- chart paper
- marker
- lowercase
- uppercase
- slanted
- straight
MA Standards:
RF.PK.MA.1.d Recognize and name some uppercase letters of the alphabet and the lowercase letters in one’s own name.
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.
Literacy Knowledge/Early Writing Copies, traces, or independently writes letters or words.
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: Letter (“Yy”)
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Letter Recognition
Use the Air Writing Routine to help children form and write the letter “Yy.”
Air Writing Routine
Display the letter “Yy” on a card or chart paper.
- Stand with your back to children so they can imitate you as you “air write” the uppercase and lowercase letters.
- Instruct children to place their hands up high.
- With your pointer or index finger, trace the letter in the air from top to bottom the way you would write the letter.
- Think aloud as you show children the direction to move their finger as they form the letter. Say, Start at the top right and draw your finger down to the left making a slanted line. Then bring your finger to the top left and draw your finger down to the right to meet the first line. Now, where the lines meet, draw a straight line down to make a stem.
- Comment on the special features of the letter shape.
- Talk with children about the difference between the uppercase and lowercase forms. Say, Now, do the same thing, only smaller, to make a lowercase “y.”
Educator Tip: Guided and independent letter, sound, and word practice continues to take place in center activities. If desired, you can set up the literacy center immediately after the direct instruction and repeat instruction before children work in the literacy center identifying letters.
Adaptation: For very young children, you may need to hold each child’s hand and make the “Yy” shape in the air with the child several times. Then ask him or her to do it alone.