Ideas for Teaching Letters

Amanda (Pre-K):  "I am having a difficult time getting students to learn the new letter of the week...they get caught up on the letter that was taught the week prior. I've heard that teaching more than one letter a week is better because it doesn't let the kids just mimic the letter or what I say that week, they actually learn the letters. What did you use to help them learn letters?"

 

My solution?  Keep track of last week's letter on the board... Put the "Letter of the Week"  really big, then to the left of it (smaller) have "Last Week's Letter" and then to the right have "Next Week's Letter" and you can reference those as well... you can teach past present and future with that too!

I always did 1 letter each week, but never stop referencing the other letters.  Even when you are doing a read-aloud.  How many times can you say and show the Letter of the Week throughout the week?  Love the letter, WEAR the letter, and if you can't afford this super-awesome chalkboard tee, then a sentence-strip crown with the Letter of the Week makes you just as cool.  But seriously, I want this shirt.

Index card + Duct tape = EXIT LETTER!  Have an exit letter, and post it on the door frame.  Stand at the front of the line when they are all lined up and looking at you, and say, "When you exit today, I want you to show some love to the letter 'D'.  What is our letter of the week?"  "D!!!"  "Alright, everyone put your pointer finger in the air, let's air-draw the letter D... now remember, when we leave, show your love to what letter?"  "D"  "Awesome, class... now let's go!!!"  (Then you show your love by slapping the letter D and saying D!!!)

All of that talking took like 15 seconds, and you just said "D" 4 times... so they aren't going to say "F" when they slap it, they'll be saying "D".  And here's the thing... at this point, some of them may not understand the concept of LETTERS, and that there are 26 of them... they may not get that yet... in fact, most probably won't get it.    So, then they are stuck on the routine of saying "D" for an entire week, so it would be really easy come next Monday morning that they show "D" some love, instead of the letter "E".  However, once they actually understand that there are 26 letters and they all look different, and they each have a different sound, and when you put them together they make words, then BAM!  They will start remembering the letter shapes and they'll all of a sudden know half of them before you know it!

Now when introducing the letter of the week, my entire language arts and math lessons (which were back to back) were dedicated to that letter.  Here are some things that we did every Monday...
1.  Introduced the letter and everyone drew it in the air together. "The letter 'D' has 1 straight line, and 1 biiigggg belly that is the curved line."

2.  Read the story of the letter "D"  (use lots of alliteration)

3.  Made the letter "D" on the floor using yarn, then selected students to lie down on the yarn to make "The biggest letter D in the entire world" and took a picture for our alphabet book (used this in the slideshow at the end of the year culmination and everyone loved it!)

4.  On chart paper, had a few sentences written out using at least 1 "D" per student (15 students = 15 letter Ds).  We read once sentence at a time (pointing from left to right/top to bottom... teaching directionality).  Called students up one at a time to find 1 letter "D" and trace it.  Everyone celebrated when the student found the letter "D".  To differentiate, some of the letters can be in the middle or end of words for students who are more advanced.  Students absolutely LOVE to see their names in the sentences you write... so make Diane, Dave, and Donny's day great by writing them into a sentence :-)

4.5  Then we counted the number of letter Ds we found as part of our math lesson.

5.  On the board I had as many pictures of objects that start with that letter and I wrote each of the words under the picture (they were on my white board held up by magnets) and the letter of the week was written in another color, and then the rest of the word in black... ex dandelion.

6.  Any students whose names start with the letter of the week can wear the letter crown... a sentence strip with that letter on it.

7.  Math:  Make a pattern with the letter D... DdDdDdDd... DDdDDdDDdDDd... get it?

8.  I spy... have students find hidden Ds around the room... when they get better at this, have them find objects that start with the letter D... if you want, go on A LETTER ADVENTURE and give your kids magnifying glasses and take them outside where you have hidden some letters.

9.  Science:  Compare and contrast the letter D to another letter of the alphabet. 

Centers:
Art:  Photocopy the outline of the capital and lowercase D.  Use different objects to glue inside the letter... ex. cheerios, feathers, scraps of construction paper, toothpicks, yarn, whatever you can find around the classroom... and then hang them up at the end of the day and reference them all week. 

Math:  Sorting... big box of all sorts of letters, have to sort "D", "Not D"

Reading:  Give each student a little paper book about the letter D and have students circle all of the letter Ds that they can find.  Then they can take the book home and add it to their libraries.

Listening center:  listen to the story of the letter D.

Writing:  2 guesses to what you do here.  You can do it on paper, or you can use chalk outside.

Fine motor skill development:  make the letter D out of play dough.

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Now, here's the trick... squeeze all of that into a 15 minute lesson and you're golden!  Just kidding, but pick and choose which ideas you like and incorporate as many as you can into a 20 minute lesson.  Throw in a rendition of "Who Let the Letters Out" by Dr. Jean and your students will learn more than just the shapes of letters!  Try to use the same sequence of activities each Monday (or whatever day you use) as you introduce your Letter of the Week so that students get used to your letter routine.  The flow of the introduction of the new letter lesson will get quicker and quicker with each repetition.

Please share your AWESOME letter activities by posting a comment below!  Thanks!!!