Learning Routines
Use the following routines to teach children about individual letters and letter sounds. See individual activities for suggestions for adapting these routines. You may want to further adapt the routine to meet children’s developmental skill levels.
ABC Learning Center: Letter Sort
Use this routine to help children distinguish letter shapes and recognize the shape of the target letter.
- Give children a cookie sheet and two boxes, one containing some uppercase letters (including the target letter) and one containing some lowercase letters.
- Point to the letter card and say, This card shows an uppercase “F” and a lowercase “f.” In this box, there are some big or uppercase letters. We’re going to find all the uppercase “F” letters and put them here on the left side of the cookie sheet under this uppercase and lowercase “Ff.” We’ll put all the other letters—the ones that are not uppercase or lowercase “Ff”—here on the right side of the cookie sheet.
- As you take the letters out of the box, comment on their shapes. This letter has a straight line. It looks just like the uppercase “F” on our letter card. Where on the cookie sheet should I put it? Choose another letter and talk about how its shape is different from the target letter. This letter has curved lines. It doesn’t look like an “F.” Where on the cookie sheet should we put it?
- When children have sorted all the letters, encourage volunteers to identify them by name.
- Repeat the process as you search the lowercase letter box for the target letter.
Learn About Letters: Letters In Our Names
Help children find the target letter in their names on a name chart.
- Hold up the letter card and say what letter it is. Ask children what they notice about the shape of the big, uppercase letter and the little, lowercase letter. Do they look the same? How are they different?
- Invite children to find the letter on an alphabet chart: Move your hand along all the letters, beginning with “Aa,” and ask children to tell you when you touch the target letter. You can also ask a volunteer to come up to the chart and touch the letter.
- Invite children to look at the name chart. Ask if anyone has the target letter in his or her name. If so, point to the name on the chart and talk about the location of the letter and whether it is an uppercase letter or a lowercase letter.
- Remind children that we always use the uppercase letter when we write the first letter of our names.
- Ask if anyone else has the letter in his or her name and repeat the process.
Learn About Letters: Sandpaper Writing Routine
Use the “Sandpaper Writing Routine” to help children begin to “write” the letter “Pp.”
- Display a large letter uppercase and lowercase letter on chart paper for children to see.
- Place a star at the starting point for writing each letter.
- Demonstrate tracing the letters as you instruct children to trace their sandpaper letters.
- Think aloud as you show children the direction to move their finger as they form the letter.
- Comment on the special features of the letter shape (curved lines, straight lines, etc.).
- Talk with children about the likenesses and differences between the uppercase and lowercase forms.
Learn About Letters: Target Letter and Word Routine
Introduce children to the target letter by showing them the letter in context of the target word, zoom.
- Hold up the target word card. Point to the letters as you say the word.
- Talk about the meaning of the word.
- Point to the first letter of the word as you say the name of the letter aloud. Highlight the letter in a different color or with highlighter tape.
- Cover all of the letters following the first letter on the word card. Focus children’s attention on the letter. Ask children what they notice about the shape of the letter. Ask, Does it have straight lines? Curvy lines? Both straight and curvy lines?
- Hold up the letter card. Talk about the difference between the lowercase and uppercase letter. Have children find the letter on an alphabet chart.
Word Play: Tell Me What You Hear
Recite this chant with words that begin with the target sound.
Listen, listen, loud and clear (cup your hands to one ear)
What’s the first sound that you hear?
Tip, toot, tail, toothbrush (emphasize the /t/ sound)
Tell me, tell me, what you hear! (children say the /t/ sound)
Source for chant: Mississippi Early Learning Guidelines for Four-Year Old Children, Mississippi Department of Education, 2006.