- letter card “Uu”
- word card up
- up
MA Standards:
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.
Foundational Skills: RF.PK.MA.2.c: Identify the initial sound of a spoken word and, with guidance and support, generate several other words that have the same initial sound.
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Alphabet Knowledge: Recognizes that letters of the alphabet have distinct sound(s) associated with them.
Literacy Knowledge/Alphabet Knowledge: Attends to the beginning letters and sounds in familiar words.
Literacy Knowledge/Early Writing: Copies, traces, or independently writes letters or words.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 8: Listen to, identify, and manipulate language sounds to develop auditory discrimination and phonemic awareness.
English Language Arts/Composition 18: Use emergent writing skills to make letters in many settings and for many purposes.
Learn About Letters Together: Target Letter (“Uu”) and Word (up) #1
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Letter Recognition, Vocabulary
Educator Prep: Before gathering, place signs with pictures of words that begin with the letter “Uu” around the room (umbrella, uniform, use, underground, uncle, until, ukulele, etc.)
Tell children they are going to learn about the letter “Uu.” Use the Target Letter and Word Routine to introduce children to the letter. Have children work in teams to hunt down the letter “Uu” around the room.
Target Letter and Word Routine
- Show children the word card up. Point to the first letter of the word as you say the name of the letter aloud. Highlight the letter in a different color.
- Cover the “p” on the word card. Focus children’s attention on the letter “u.” Ask what they notice about the shape of the letter.
- Ask, Does it have straight lines? Curved lines? Both straight and curved lines?
- Hold up the letter card. Talk about the similarities and differences between the lowercase and uppercase letters.
- Introduce children to the long and short sounds the letter makes. Emphasize the /u/ sound at the beginning of the target word up. Have children produce other words that have the same initial sound.
- Have teams work together on the hunt. Prepare a map of the room for each team. Have each team use their clipboard with the diagram of the room to record their “Uu” findings. Once they find a “Uu,” have them draw a “U” on that place on the map.
English Language Learners: Children may have difficulty with the short /u/ sound. For example, often the letter sound /u/ in Spanish sounds much like English pronunciation of the vowel sound in June. Partner children with native English speakers and have them practice together saying the words under, uncle, and up.
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.