- magnetic letters or letter cards (multiple sets)
- paper
- word cards down, engine, hill, ramp, up, zoom
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/Alphabet Knowledge: Attends to the beginning letters and sounds in familiar words.
Literacy Knowledge/Alphabet Knowledge: Identifies letters and associates correct sounds with letters.
Literacy Knowledge/Print Concepts and Conventions: Recognizes words as a unit of print and understands that letters are grouped to form 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.
Word Play: Make a Word
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
ELA Focus Skills: Letter Recognition, Speaking and Listening, Word Recognition
Review with children the words they learned in this unit. Hold up each word card and have children identify it.
Spread out the magnetic letters/letter cards on a table or the floor. Then model how to use them to match the letters and spell a word.
- Pick a word card and read the word (hill.)
- Point to the first letter of the word and have children identify it.
- Say, I need the letter “h.” Look for and hold up an “h.”
- Demonstrate reading the letter and placing it on a piece of paper.
- Continue until you have found all the letters of the word.
- Line the letters up on the paper to spell the word. Look at the word card to check to see if you are correct, checking letter for letter. Guide children to understand your actions by nodding your head and looking pleased.
- Read it aloud and say, I made the word hill!
Invite children to work in pairs to make words. Give help as needed.
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.