This module is about identifying letters and sounds. Although there will be some writing in this module, it focuses on recognizing letters and developing your child's alphabet knowledge.
Alphabet Knowledge is the ability to name, recognize shapes, write, and identify the sounds of the alphabet (Mason, 1984). According to the National Early Literacy Panel (National Center for Family Literacy, 2008), having a good grasp of alphabet knowledge will impact your child's school success for years to come! It is recognized as the strongest, most durable predictor of later academic success.
As parents, we can support this alphabet knowledge at home by helping our children become comfortable with letters. It is simple to add alphabet knowledge to everyday learning and activities. One way is to have letters all around the house.
How many of you remember having those magnetic letters on your refrigerator? That is still a great way to expose your child to letters. They can use alphabet sponges in the bathtub, alphabet puzzles, and alphabet books. By doing these simple things and the activities included in this module, you are laying the foundation for your child's future reading success.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this module, learners will be able to:
Understand the importance of alphabet knowledge in their child’s later success in literacy.
Identify strategies to support their child’s growth in alphabet knowledge.
Does my child recognize their own name in print and can write their first name?
Can my child work with and manipulate letter sounds?
Does my child know the name for most of the letters of the alphabet and some letter sounds?
Does my child know the difference between uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers?
Recognizes their Own Name in Print and Can Write their First Name
Names are very meaningful to children. They are proud of their name, AND it's often one of the first words they recognize. Additionally, being able to read and write their name is a key life skill.
While at school, they probably will see their names on desks, cubbies, snacks, chairs, carpet squares, folders, attendance charts, helper charts, and the alphabet wall.
What can you label at home? What about a personal cup, jacket, coat, or monogram on their clothes? Some parents buy large letters and put their child's name on their wall.
How can you help your child with this skill? Exposure! Label everything with their names so they can begin to claim ownership of that very important word!
Let's look at some activities you can do at home to practice this skill. All the activities we share with you will support your child's development of the skills in this module. They are not designed for your child to do by themselves. All the activities are designed for you to do WITH your child.
Can my child “read” his/her name when seen in the environment:
On a cubby?
On papers?
On a nametag?
Can my child write their name on paper or pieces of work?
Can my child tell others how to spell his/her name?
How Do We Help Our Children Read and Write Their Names? Repeated Practice!
Activities for Reading and Writing their First Name
Below are the activities you can do with your child to support their skills in letters and sounds and reading and writing their first name. Click on the title to reveal the activity content.
This activity will help your child identify the letters in their name. First, write your child's name large and neatly on a piece of paper. Then, you create two groups: letters in my name and letters not in my name. You can do this on a sheet of paper, on a table, or even on the floor.
Next, you will need the letters in your child's first name and a few that are not. You may use the ones provided, or you can write each letter on paper or use the magnetic letters you find at your local dollar store. Then put all the letters in one pile. Tell your child about the two sorting groups and how they will sort the letters.
In the beginning, you may need to pick one letter at a time and ask your child to put the letter in the correct group. After several practices, your child may be able to pick up one letter at a time and group them without much help. However, we still recommend that you sit with your child and talk about what is happening as they sort the letters.
Letters in My Name Handout
Safety scissors
The next activity is Name Puzzle. You can create this by using a sentence strip or card stock. These can be found in the school supply at your local dollar store. The first step is for the adult to neatly write the child's name on the sentence strip. Make sure you leave space to cut between each letter. Then cut in between each letter in a unique zig-zag pattern. You have created a name puzzle that can be put together over and over again and stored in the envelope or Ziploc bag.
Paper or Sentence Strips Handout
Markers
Safety scissor
Bag/envelope to store
The next activity is Rainbow Trace. Write the child's name neatly on the manuscript paper provided, or make or buy some at a local dollar store. The child then uses crayons or markers to trace their name in multiple colors, creating a rainbow.
Paper or Sentence Strips Handout
Markers
Crayons
Can work with and manipulate letter sounds
We can’t read words and word parts until we can hear and say them!
Phonological awareness is a specialized type of listening skill that focuses on the sounds in words. It is one of the first skills your child will need in their toolbelt for learning to read. It’s also one of the first steps to building their confidence with sounds (and, later, words!). This first step in learning to read is done only with sounds and no letters or written words.
The good news is that phonological awareness practice can be incorporated into your family’s busy schedule. These fun and quick activities allow you to help your child build their reading skills and develop a stronger bond with you at the same time.
Can your child sing alphabet rhymes and point to the letter when he/she says it?
Can your child identify pairs of rhyming words out loud?
Identifying rhyming words is an important concept in preschool and kindergarten because the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds in words is important to learning to read and write.
Learning rhyming words helps children improve their oral language skills and lays the foundation for spelling and writing. Identifying and producing rhyming words develop predicting skills that lead to reading comprehension.
We provide some fun activities to help you practice rhyming words.
Can your child clap out (identifies) syllables in words?
Activities for Working With and Manipulating Letter Sounds
Below are the activities you can do with your child to support their skills in letters and sounds and working with and manipulating letter sounds. Click on the title to reveal the activity content.
How many of you still remember those nursery rhymes or songs you learned in preschool? If you’re the parent, you probably have already learned that you can’t escape these songs and nursery rhymes, and guess what? They may seem old and outdated, but there are benefits to singing nursery rhymes and other rhyming songs with your child.
They provide quick learning opportunities that become the foundation for your child’s learning to read. By singing songs or reciting nursery rhymes, you are boosting your child’s language and literacy skills because they are learning new words and beginning to understand how words are formed by hearing the sounds and syllables in words.
You can have so much fun with nursery rhymes. As you recite nursery rhymes, you can speak with animated voices, and soon, you will notice your child talking and reading with expression, too.
When children become familiar with a nursery rhyme or rhyming book, they learn to anticipate the rhyming word. You can stop and let them insert the missing word. This prepares them to make predictions, another important reading skill.
Because rhyming is fun, it adds joy to learning to read.
We provide a few handouts of some old favorites to prompt your memory and use with your child.
Thumbs-Up, Thumbs-Down is an activity to practice identifying rhyming words. The parent/caregiver will read the set of rhyming words. The child will give a thumb-up if the pair rhyme and a thumb down if the pair does not rhyme. This sheet is not for the child to use. It is for the adult to read the word pairs.
The adult will read the bold word and give the child a choice of the two words listed next to the bold word. The child is asked to pick the word that rhymes with the bold word.
Let’s use the first one as an example. Here’s what you will say: “Tell me a word that rhymes with say. Fee or bay, which one rhymes with say.”
This activity can be used to practice rhyming words. Start by making a set of cards. Cut out each card on the dotted line to make a set of cards. DO NOT CUT ON SOLID LINES. Say the names of each picture. Find a smaller picture that rhymes with the large picture.
Rhyming Clip Card Handouts
Safety scissors
Bag or envelope for storage
This activity is used to practice rhyme production. The adult will read the clues. The child will not see this sheet. Explain to your child that they will find body parts that rhyme with the word you give them. Read the sentence to your child. Let them guess the body part in ( ). Provide help if they need help.
Exposing your child to rhyming words is one of the easiest ways to help your child learn to manipulate sounds.
Remember at this stage, practice is all oral – no written words, no letters!
Identifying syllables in words is a phonological awareness skill. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize, distinguish and manipulate word parts that make up words.
Being able to hear and identify syllables will help your child learn to read and spell. A fun way to develop this skill is clapping syllables. Clapping syllables means you will clap when you hear each word part. For example, my name is Sandra. My name has two parts or two syllables—San-dra. So, we would clap two times.
There are two fun handouts to practice counting and clapping syllables.
Are You Ready for School and Circus Animal Syllable Clap Handouts
Crayons, markers, or coloring pencils
Knowing the name for most of the letters of the alphabet and some letter sounds
Children need to know most of their letters and some of the letter sounds before entering kindergarten. Letter names and sounds are the cornerstone of learning to read. The more letters children recognize and identify by kindergarten, the better their future reading achievement will be. Learning letter names can help with learning letter sounds, which benefits overall reading skills. However, starting simple is key. We suggest that you start with a few letters at a time and expose your child to those letters in a variety of ways.
Can my child identify letters at the beginning of words?
Can my child point to letters in print and say the letter name and/or sound?
Does my child know what sound words begin with?
Activities for Learning the Names of Letters and Some Sounds
Below are the activities you can do with your child to support their skills in letters and sounds and learning the names of letters of the alphabet and some letter sounds. Click on the title to reveal the activity content.
Sometimes flashcards can have a bad reputation. Why? Because…who remembers sitting still looking at flashcards that our mom would hold up and put in a “right” or “wrong” pile depending on our answer? However, flashcards can be a fantastic tool because they are portable, efficient, and versatile. Be sure when using flashcards to keep it fun and interactive - we don’t want it to feel like you are drilling your child.
You can use them for identification activities. For example, you can put them up around the house. You can call out a letter and have your child find that letter.
You can make two sets and create a memory game. You will start with the cards face down and have your child find pairs. Be sure to talk about the letter when they find the pair.
You can use flashcards to identify a letter of the week. Stick the letter on the fridge or wall near where the kids play. (Somewhere they are likely to see it regularly.)
You can do activities centered around the letter of the week. For example, look for the letter in books or magazines. You can find the letter of the week while shopping or riding.
During this activity, you will pick a few letters at a time (not the whole alphabet!) to ”hide” around the house. We suggest one room at a time. The child will take their recording sheet and look for letters. When they find the letter, they will trace it on their recording sheet. We provide alphabet flashcards that you can use for this activity.
Alphabet Flashcards (above)
Alphabet Hide and Seek Tracing Handout
Safety scissors
Clipboard for tracing sheets
A writing tool—pencil or crayon
For the next activity, Alphabet Play-Doh Mats, we provide a mat for each letter of the alphabet. Using Play-Doh, have your child roll the Play-Doh out to create a ”snake” and make the different lines and curves of the letter. Have your child practice making a letter (uppercase and lowercase) with Play-Doh. You may want to put the template in a sheet protector so you can use it over and over. Discuss the name of the letter and the sound it makes. There is a guide picture in the top corner of the letter mat to help you provide a word associated with the letter.
REMEMBER, these skills and activities take practice. So, repeat these activities over and over until your child has mastered them.
Play-Doh
Play-Doh mats
This activity practices identifying initial sounds in words (the first sound occuring in a word). You will read the sentence at the top and say the name of each picture. Then have your child circle all the pictures that begin with the same initial sound as the spoken name of the picture at the top of the page. You may want to use these pages in sheet protectors or not have the child write on them so you can use them over and over.
Remember, these pages are interactive and should be used with your child while discussing the letters and letter sounds.
What Sound Does it Begin With? Handout
Crayon or pencil
You can use the articulation video and these cards to practice correct articulation of the letter sounds. You can cut them out to make flashcards or you can leave them as a page.
Letter Sound Cards
Safety scissors
Knowing the Difference Between Uppercase Letters, Lowercase Letters, and Numbers
When your child begins kindergarten, they will spend a lot of time talking about letters and numbers. They will have class time focused on letters – identifying letters, learning the corresponding sounds, and writing them. There will be time focused on numbers, also. These skills are so important for young learners. Being able to identify items as letters or numbers is an important skill as well.
We encounter both letters and numbers in print – it’s important for a child to know the difference when he/she sees them. Working on this at home will give your child a leg up when they start kindergarten.
Does my child know the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters?
Can my child match uppercase and lowercase letters?
Can my child identify numbers and know they are not letters?
Activities for Learning the Difference between Uppercase and Lowercase Letters and Numbers
Below are the activities you can do with your child to support their skills in letters and sounds and learning the difference between uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. Click on the title to reveal the activity content.
These alphabet clip cards will practice matching uppercase and lowercase letters. Cut on the dotted lines to make a stack of cards. DO NOT CUT ON THE SOLID LINES. Have your child find the lowercase letter that matches the uppercase letter on the card. If they struggle, provide help. Talk about it. Discuss the letter you are looking for and how they are different/the same, etc.
Alphabet clip cards
Safety scissors
Clothespin or paper clip
This sorting mat can be used to sort symbols into three groups: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers. Have your child cut out letters and numbers from old magazines, flyers, newspapers, church bulletins, or junk mail. Then have your child sort them into three categories: lower case, upper case, and number. They can glue them down or leave them unglued and use the mat over and over.
Remember to do this activity with your child. Discuss their choices and help them if they need help.
Old magazines, flyers, newspapers, church bulletins, or junk mail
Sorting Mat Handout
Safety scissors
Glue
Summary
Letter recognition is a critical skill. It is one of the first steps your child will take in learning to read and write. Remember, studies show that the ability to name the letters of the alphabet during Pre-k and kindergarten is a predictor of children's literacy skills later in life. Use the activities in this module over and over to help your child practice, practice, practice!
