- lowercase
- uppercase
MA Standards:
English Language Arts/Foundational Skills/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 Shape (“Ii”)
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Letter Formation, Letter Recognition
Use the “Air Writing” routine to help children recognize and begin to “write” the letter “Ii.” After the routine, ask children, How can you move your bodies to make a letter “Ii?”
Air Writing Routine
- Display the letter card. 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, I am going to hold up my index finger to make an uppercase “I.” The lowercase “i” looks similar, but it has a dot. How can I show a dot? Have children make a circle with their thumb and index finger and place it over the lowercase “i.”
- Comment on the special features of the letter shape.