From
Stormie Child Stars:
1.
Cut a huge star from posterboard and add glitter to its edges. Each
time you do a new alphabet letter, post that letter in the middle of the star,
then place pictures of the children whose names begin with that letter around
the star. Print their names under their pictures, highlighting the first
letter.
2. Make crowns for children to
wear whose names begin with the letter you're learning about. Print that
first letter in a different color and highlight it in some way.
Sorting
Letters: Make two sets of D'Nealian letters on small posterboard squares or
index cards. Let children sort various types of letters at various
times throughout the school year. For example:
1.
Sort upper-case letters that have lines in them (A, B, D,
E, F, H, etc)
2.
On another day, week, or month, sort lower-case letters that have lines in them
(b, h, k, etc)
3.
Another time, sort d's and b's, or a's and e's, or
i's and j's, etc
4. Another
time, sort upper-case letters "with tummies" (B, P, etc).
Then, sort lower-case ones.
5. And so
on!
Teaching Letters: When teaching letter
recognition in the past, here are a couple things I did with ALL the letters:
1. Provide a sign-up sheet for parents to bring
a snack beginning with the letter of the week (you might even make suggestions).
2. For Show-N-Tell, have children bring in a
toy or other item beginning with the letter of the week.
3.
One of my favorite things to do is have children bring in magazine pictures
of items beginning with "our letter." They place the pictures in shoe boxes
(with lids) that have the letter printed on the outside. Once we've focused
on the letter, the box is left in the Language Center. By the time you get
to "Z," you will have 26 boxes with magazine pictures in them. By way of
review days and as a culminating activity, children can look at all the pictures,
name them (focusing on beginning sounds), then glue them on murals. I like
to print the words under the items. (If 26 shoeboxes are hard to get, use
large manilla envelopes.)
By
the way, I offer "Wacky Animals ABC Cards" in the "Teaching Aids"
section of "Stormie's Stuff for Teachers.
Mini Albums: If you have lots of those mini albums that Wal-Mart always gives you when you get camera film processed, use them to create little albums for your Language Center. If you collect enough, you can create an album for each letter of the alphabet. You can get your pictures from magazines. You can use them for almost any theme really (opposites, shapes, numbers, etc).
Children's
Computer Software Suggestions:
Alphabet Express Preschool,
from School Zone: Has a top 5-star rating on
Amazon.com.
From
Donna Coffey, in Kentucky
Secret In A
Bag: Find objects from the classroom (and introduce new items to the children)
that start with the letter you're working on. For example, you might gather
these "letter S" items together: salt, shirt, spoon, saucer, sock, shoe, seeds,
string, soup, and scissors. After discussing these "S" words with the class,
place the items in a bag. Then, have the children name items in the
bag as they remember them. If they can't remember, they ask me for hints
which adds to the excitement. They learn new words and they remember that
they start with "S."
Stormie's extension
to this activity: Have children reach into the bag (without looking) to feel
an "S" item then name it.
From
Donna King, Roxboro, North Carolina
Find
It: I play a game with my class a couple times a week where I hide an object
(or a little laminated picture) that fits our theme and the children have to find
it. The one who finds it has to "tell" me where he found it before
he gets a sticker. I see their language skills improve month by month through
this game. In February I use a heart or a tooth--dental theme; In March
it's a Shamrock, etc. The children love it!
From
MJ, in Texas
Word Cards: Take a 3-4
letter word and find a picture of it. Glue the picture on a notecard and write
the word under it. Then cut the card into 3 or 4 parts, one letter on each
part. The kids match the pictures.
From
Stormie: MJ also reminded me of something I did years ago but need to make
them again: Cut out a set of letters from sandpaper.
From
Cindy Woll
The best advice I got (from a
homeschool mom) was to put pencils and pens away when beginning to teach letter
formation. She suggested pudding, yogurt, cool whip, shaving cream, sand,
rice and other fun mediums, having children use their hands as if they were finger
painting and make letters, shapes, and numbers. If it's something that tastes
yummy they get to lick their hands, get messy, and have fun all at the same time.
From Rochelle
Lloyd
A suggestion that my son loves and
we can do together is the game Boggle. We obviously don't play it in the
traditional way, but I shake it up and he tells me what the letters are.
Sometimes I'll ask him to find all of one letter or I'll go through the rows and
have him tell me the letters.
Extension from
Stormie: Another game you can adapt to preschooler
play although it certainly isn't meant for them is Scrabble. They love lining
the letters up in the little trays. "Matching letters" is an especially
neat game. You can even put Scrabble out for use in your classroom Language
Center.
And
I love these super ideas from Cassie Leatherwood,
in Attalla, AlabamaFrom Patricia
Zammit
We have a phonic sound of the week.
For example, if the sound is "i," children bring in objects beginning with that
sound. They show their object and tell and describe its color, use, etc.
This encourages parental involvement and the children are delighted to have the
attention of everyone for a minute.
From
Nisha Thukral, in India
Letter Recognition:
Alphabet on Bells: Hang five bells from a hanger. Attach a letter to
each bell with thread. Ask a child to ring the bell that's with the letter
A, B, C, D, E, etc. They get to enjoy the sound of the bell as well as learning
to recognize the letter. We also ask children to "ring the bell with the
letter A 2 times" (or more), thus learning number concepts also.
From
Lori, in Alabama
Sorting "Alphabits"
Cereal: This involves fine motor skills with children picking the pieces up,
and cognitive skills when they sort the ABC's. It's a great reinforcement
activity. Let children eat a few pieces when they are correct 
.
From Cassidy
F., Montessori teacher in Flower Mound, Texas
We
use the "salt tracing tray": Place salt in a tray. (The tray that
I use is dark in color so that it contrasts with the salt.) I show the children
how to trace a letter with their fingers using sandpaper letters, then I show
them how to trace it in the salt on the tray. Once they've been shown how
to use it, they may choose to work with it whenever they would like.
From
Pat Stajek-Vorwerk, Jackson, New Jersey
Hi
Stormie, I have been introducing letters of the alphabet to my 4 yr. olds.
One of the things that they really enjoy is forming letters with small wooden
dowels, or pick up sticks, and yarn.
From
Kimberly S
Word Matching: For my
Pre-K students, I cut out 30 circles from white paper. I then then printed
simple short words on 15 of them. I made duplicates of those words on the
other 15 circles. I glued the first 15 circles onto a piece of colored poster
board. The children matched the loose words to the ones on the poster board.
The best part about this activity is that I used words that would help develop
critical thinking skills, words such as "ship" and "snip," where the children
had to be careful in recognizing whether the word had an "n" or an "h."
We spent 20 minutes on this activity and the children wanted to do it again.
I think this is a great language builder, and while they cannot read (nor do I
expect them to), it is great exposure to words, recognizing words, etc.
June's
ABC Tricks Game: Click on letters below to see
how my friend, June Waege,
teaches uppercase letter recognition. (Don't
worry, you won't get lost. ABCD goes to EFGH which goes to IJKL and so on,
then XYZ returns you to this page)
From
Tonya L. Svoboda, Virginia
Language Activity:
I created a story board from a piece of plywood, about 24" x 24," and covered
it with black felt. Then I made characters for various stories out of paper
or felt, and glued sandpaper to the back of them. Sometimes if I found a
cheap book, I would cut the characters right from the book and laminate them,
and then glue the sandpaper onto the laminated back. Now, while reading
or telling a story from memory, I can stick the characters and pictures onto the
story board. ("Action" characters that move around alot will most likely
need a popsicle stick glued to them as well.) My daughter is not such an
avid story "listener," but she is mesmerized when I use the story board and she
remembers the story better. Once kids know a story by heart, they can use
the characters on the story board themselves to tell a story to the class, which
will build language and logical thinking skills and encourage creative thinking.
Kids can take turns telling a story in their own way, with different events and
outcomes if they wish. You could ask them "What do you think (character's
name) should do next?" And then you can have the character do whatever the
children suggested on the story board.
From
Julie Walker
Mini ABC Booklets: Using
my computer, I divided a piece of paper into 4 equal-sized boxes and placed a
black and white picture in each box that begins with the "letter a"
that the children colored. I also printed out the picture word beneath the
picture. They then cut out the four boxes (by simply cutting on the lines
running between them). After the cutting, they had 4 pages to their mini-booklets.
I gave them the same sized cover sheet for their booklets with a black and
white letter "Aa" on it, again for them to color. I helped them
staple their booklets together. Then they "read" their stories
about the "letter Aa." They really enjoyed making this cute little
book.
From
Carrie K
Bingo Dabbers: After we have
done several activities with our letter of the week, I give the children newspaper
pages and bingo dabbers and let them find that letter. (You can find bingo
dabbers at the Dollar Store.) When the children are finished dabbing (finding)
our letter of the week, I provide tempera paint and water and let them use them
again!
From
Christian Legg
I'd heartily recommend the
late 1960's book entitled "Silly Verse for Kids" by Spike
Milligan (RIP) for helping pre-schoolers' development of language skills,
particularly rhyme and rhythm (example: ""In
the ning nang nong, where the cows go bong!").
From
Debby, Alachua, Florida
Printing Practice:
I have the children practice printing their letters in shaving cream.From
Keri Cottrell, Vancouver, Washington
Stand
on the Letter: Using chalk, print letters on cement, and then prompt the children
to stand on specific letters. Make enough letters so that everyone will
find standing room.
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Reminder
from Stormie: If you would like to begin collecting ALL my current classroom
ideas (each on a 4 x 6" index card), as well as new ones that I create, you
can do so by ordering my "Activity Cards." Click here
to check them out.
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