- chalk
MA Standards
Speaking and Listening/SL.PK.MA.1a: Observe and use appropriate ways of interacting in a group (e.g., taking turns in talking, listening to peers, waiting to speak until another person is finished talking, asking questions and waiting for an answer, gaining the floor in appropriate ways).
Head Start Outcomes
Social Emotional Development/Self-Regulation: Follows simple rules, routines, and directions.
Logic and Reasoning/Reasoning and Problem Solving: Classifies, compares, and contrasts objects, events, and experiences.
Language Development/Receptive Language: Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Language 1: Observe and use appropriate ways of interacting in a group (taking turns in talking; listening to peers; waiting until someone is finished; asking questions and waiting for an answer; gaining the floor in appropriate ways).
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 12: Listen to, recite, sing, and dramatize a variety of age-appropriate literature.
Learn About Letters Together: “Here We Go Round the Alphabet”
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Alphabet Awareness, Gross Motor Skills, Letter Recognition, Phonological Awareness (Rhythm and Repetition)
Take children outdoors. Use chalk to write the uppercase alphabet letters on the ground. Make a large circle, writing the letters clockwise. Say each letter aloud as you write it.
- Sing “Here We Go Round the Alphabet” and have children, one by one, walk around the circle.
- Stop the child at random on a letter and ask him or her to name the letter.
- Ask volunteers to find, stand on, and identify the first letter in their names or other specific letters, such as the target letter “V.”
Here We Go Round the Alphabet
(sung to the tune of “The Mulberry Bush”)
Here we go round the alphabet,
The alphabet,
The alphabet,
Here we go round the alphabet,
From A to Z we go.
Adaptation: Challenge capable children to find and stand on all the letters in their first name, in proper order, spelling the name as they go.
Adaptation: Add some physical exercise by inviting children to take turns hopping from letter to letter around the circle, identifying each letter as they hop on it.
Educator Tip: Guided and independent Letter, Sound, and Word practice continues to take place in center activities. It is helpful to set up the literacy center immediately after the direct instruction and repeat instruction before children work in the literacy center identifying letters.