1. Name Those Letters (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool. |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
Student places the writing finger on A on the
arc and echoes the letters after the teacher as
s/he points to each letter. This activity is done
daily at the beginning of all alphabet activities.
It is a warm-up. |
2. Sign Those Letters (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Capital letter alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
Students signs the letters of the alphabet using
the signs provided on the capital letter mat.
Introduce 2-3 signs during a lesson and review
those already learned.
|
| Extension: |
Randomly call out letters and student signs
the letter. |
3. Chugging Choo-choo (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
Student places the writing finger on A on the
arc of the mat and echoes the letters after the
teacher while pointing to each letter. Ask student
to place the pointer finger on Z and put his/her
engine in reverse. Student touches and names the
letters starting with Z and going backwards to
A. Repeat 2 times. |
4. Run-away Train (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
Student places the index finger of his/her writing
hand on A. Student points to each letter while
naming the letter. To prevent having a “run-away-train,”
hold up a stop sign or say, “stop” during
the activity. The student stops and then starts
again touching and naming when the teacher/leader
says, “go” or lowers the STOP sign. |
5. Show Me (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
Student places the writing finger on A on the
arc on the mat and echoes the letters after the
teacher as s/he points to each letter. Ask student
to “Show Me a.” Repeat with 5-7 letters.
Go as quickly or slowly as the student needs to
go. If students are having difficulty, pair weaker
and stronger students for this activity. |
6. Pinky Point: (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
Using the pinky finger of the writing hand,
student points and names the letters of the alphabet.
The rules are same as Simon Says. Students only
move to a new letter if the teacher says, “Pinky
point.” If s/he moves and the teacher did
not say, “Pinky point”, the student
is out. Ex. Pinky point to a. (The students move
pinkies to a.) Point to g. (The students don’t
move their pinkies because Pinky did not say to
move.) |
7. Before and After (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
Ask student to put both arms in the air above
their heads. Demonstrate with your back to the
student that the right hand is the after hand.
Have student lower his/her right arms as they
say, “My right hand is my after hand.”
Ask student to form the pointer fingers of both
hands into a pointer and point to the letter T
on their mats as they say t. Ask the student to
move his/her after (right) hand to the letter
after T. Ask the student to name the letter after
T. Then ask the student to say in a sentence:
“U comes after T.” Continue through
4 or 5 more letters with the same process. |
8. How Many Letters? (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
Ask student to put fingers on first letter,
A, and count together the number of letters in
the alphabet. (26) Ask them to name the first
letter (A), the last letter (Z) and the middle
2 letters (M, N). |
9. Hot Potato (back
to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
The teacher quickly says a random letter; the
student repeats the letters as s/he quickly points
to the letters. |
| Extension: |
Teacher gives the sound of a letter
and the student quickly echoes the sound, names
the letter, and points to the letter. |
10. Alphabet Conversation (back to
top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
Student touches and names the letters of the
alphabet and says them like they were asking a
question after every other letter.
Model: AB? CD? EF? GH? IJ? KL? MN? OP? QR?
ST? UV? WX? YZ? |
| Extension: |
Alphabet Chorus: 2 or more students
are needed for this activity. The teacher is the
choir director. The teacher will hold up 1-4 fingers
and point to one group of students. That group
will touch and name the number of letters that
the “choir director” has fingers showing.
The choir director will point to the next group
and hold up 1-4 fingers. The group will point
to the next letters on the alphabet arc and name
the number of letters indicated by the “choir
director”. |
11. Popcorn (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat |
| Activity: |
The students sit in a circle. The teacher tosses
a beanbag to a student and the student says the
next letter in the alphabet. (Option: Students
can give keyword and sound of letters studied.) |
12. Letters/Keywords/Sounds (back
to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Instant association of letter with sound |
| Materials: |
Lowercase alphabet mats (front or back) |
| Activity: |
Students daily place writing finger on boxes
with letters/keywords/sounds and say letter name,
keywords and sounds. Begin reviewing in alphabetical
order and then progress to a random review during
which the teacher, leader or a student calls out
a letter. The students place their finger on that
box, echo the letter, name the keywords, and make
the sound. Be careful not to put the sound (uh)
at the end of consonant sounds. (ex. (b) and not
(buh). |
| Extension: |
Leader calls out a letter and the student answers
with the keyword and sound. Reverse this activity
to reinforcement spelling by the leader calling
out the sound and the student naming the keyword
and letter name. |
| Keywords: |
Aa: Albert Alligator holds an apple.
/a/
Bb: Brian bumblebee bats the blue ball.
/b/
Cc: See Cameron Cat in a canoe and a catfish, too. /k/
Dd: Dirty Daisy Dog digs a ditch. /d/
Ee: Eddie Elephant exercises. /e/
Ff: Frankie Frog has a funny flashlight.
/f/
Gg: Guppy Goldfish golfs. /g/
Hh: Hal Hippo is a hockey star. /h/
Ii: Isabelle Iguana is an iceskater.
/i/
Jj: Jolly jellyfish enjoys jam. /j/
Kk: Katy kangaroo kicks and kicks. /k/
Ll: Leo Lion licks lemon lollipops. /l/
Mm: Morris Mouse is a mighty magician.
/m/
Nn: Nine eggs in the little nest? No!
1,2,3 /n/
Oo: Oscar Octopus says /o/.
Pp: Polly Parrot baked a pumpkin pie.
/p/
Qq: Quiet Quail walks quickly. /kw/
Rr: Rita Rabbit raises two real roses.
/r/
Ss: Silly Spider spins a silky spider
web. /s/
Tt: Tony turtle tells time. /t/
Uu: The ugly umbrella is up. /u/
Vv: Vince Valentine plays the violin.
/v/
Ww: Willy Worm wiggles in the warm sun.
/w/
Xx: Max Fox sits in the box. /ks/
Yy: Yo Yak yanks his yo-yo back. /y/
Zz: Zelda Zebra zips the big zipper.
/z/ |
13. Finger Exercises (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats |
| Activity: |
As student names the letters of the alphabet,
s/he writes the letter on an imaginary chalkboard
in the air using just the index finger of his/her
writing hand. (Option: Student can write the letter
on the palm of his/her not writing hand with the
finger of his/her writing hand while saying the
letter.) |
14. I Spy with My Eye (back to
top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool
Letter-sounds |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats |
| Activity: |
Take turns naming something in the room that
begins with each letter of the alphabet starting
with a and continuing in alphabetical order. |
15. Making Beautiful Music (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats |
| Activity: |
Designate one or more students as the high voices
and one or more students as the low voices. When
the high group is pointed to, they will say as
many letters in their high voices as the leader
holds up fingers. When the low group is pointed
to, they will say as many letters in low, deep
voices as the leader holds up fingers. |
| Option: |
Students can say one letter every time the teacher
lowers a finger while pointing at them in the
same rhythm and speed as the finger is being lowered.
Practice with a few letters to ensure class understands.
Say the alphabet Making Beautiful Music. |
16. Snap and Clap (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool
Letter-sounds |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats |
| Activity: |
Student repeats the letters of the alphabet
clapping when they say a consonant letter and
snapping when they say a vowel. (Point out that
consonants are blue and vowels are red on the
mats.) |
17. On Your Back! (back
to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Capital alphabet mats and capital letters. |
| Activity: |
Student chooses a partner. The first student
in the pair picks a letter from the container
and does not show it to the other student. The
student who picked the letter draws the letter
on the back of the other student with his/her
finger. The student tries to guess the letter
that is being drawn on his/her back. They trade
turns after the letter is guessed. |
18. Turn-over (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats |
| Activity: |
Write a letter on the board and the first student
starts with that letter of the alphabet. Each
student says a letter going in alphabetical order
(Teacher writes S on the board and the students
go down the line with each student saying only
1 letter STUVWXYZABC…) until the teacher
says, “Turn-over!” and writes a new
letter on the board. The next student begins again
starting with letter on the board. Each student
has an alphabet mat in front of him/her. |
19. Make the Arc (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats and letters |
| Activity: |
The student places the letters in the center
of his/her mat and turns the letters right side
up. Student is led to find the first letter of
the alphabet (A) and place it on the arc at the
bottom of the mat. Then the student is led to
find and place each letter of the alphabet on
the arc on the mat on top of the matching letter.
After placing the 26 letters, the student touches
and names the 26 letters again. As student places
the letters back into the bag, student says the
letter names again. If a student continues having
difficulty, pair that student with a stronger
student. When the stronger finishes his/her arc,
s/he helps the weaker student by pointing to the
letter on the arc. The weaker student names and
finds the letter. |
| Extension: |
When a student is ready, the mat is turned over
to the back and the student places the letters
on the arc in order without matching. |
20. Who Am I? (back
to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mat, capital letters |
| Activity: |
The teacher or leader places a plastic capital
letter in each student’s hand behind the
student’s back. The student tries to figure
out the letter s/he has by the feel. |
21. Lettero (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Capital letter alphabet mats and capital letters |
| Activity: |
Each student picks 9 letters from his/her set
of letters. If student has difficulty counting
to 9, count together and pick letters while counting.
Student places a letter in each square of the
grid on the mat. The teacher/leader draws letters
from a bag of letters and shows the class the
letter or writes the letter on the board. When
a letter is called, students push that letter
to its place on the arc. When a student has all
9 letters called, the student calls, “Lettero.” |
22. Sound off (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Capital letter alphabet mats and capital letters |
| Activity: |
Each student chooses 9 letters and places them
in the grids on his/her alphabet mat. The leader
draws a letter out of his/her bag and says the
keyword and sound (not the name of the letter).
If student has the letter that makes that sound,
s/he moves the letter to the strip at the top
of the mat. Play continues until a student has
all 9 letters drawn. The student says, “Sound-off!” |
23. What’s Missing (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats and letters |
| Activity: |
The student places the letters in the center
of his/her mat and turns the letters right side
up. Student is led to find the first letter of
the alphabet (A) and place it on the arc at the
bottom of the mat. Then the student places each
letter of the alphabet on the arc on the mat.
After placing the 26 letters, the student touches
and names the 26 letters again. Students now work
in pairs. One student closes his/her eyes and
the other student removes a letter from the arc
and holds it so the other student cannot see it.
The student opens his/her eyes and “proofs”
the arc to find out which letter has been taken.
The letter is returned when it is guessed and
the other student gets a turn. As student places
the letters back into the bag, s/he says the letter
names again. (This game increases in difficulty
by the student taking up to 4 letters from the
arc and the other student guessing the 4 missing
letters.) |
24. Capital to Lower Case Matching (back
to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Lower case mats and lower case letters |
| Activity: |
The student places the letters in the center
of the mat and turns the letters right side up.
Student finds and places each letter of the alphabet
on the letter/keyword/sound boxes on the front
of the mat. After placing the 26 letters, the
student touches and names the 26 letters again.
Student names letters as s/he puts them in the
bag. |
25. Twenty Questions (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats and letters |
| Activity: |
The student places the letters in the center
of his/her mat and turns the letters right side
up. Student finds and places each letter of the
alphabet on the arc on the mat. After placing
the 26 letters, the student touches and names
the 26 letters again. The leader picks a letter
out of a bag and the class guesses the letter.
The only answers the teacher can give are “yes”
or “no.” They can ask if the letter
is in the first half of the alphabet or they can
ask if it is a vowel or a consonant; but they
want to guess the letter in as few questions as
they can. Lead them to ask questions. As you answer,
students put eliminated letters back in their
bags. This game requires scaffolding in the beginning
if students do not know how to ask questions.
Count the number of questions and graph each time
students play. The goal is to discover the letter
in the fewest number of questions. |
26. Spelling (back
to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool
Letter-sounds
Application of letter-reading and spelling |
| Materials: |
Lower case alphabet mats and lower
case letters |
| Activity: |
The student places the letters
in the center of the mats. Student finds and places
each letter on the arc. The student touches and
names the 26 letters again. Ask students to find
the letter a and put it in a grid in the center
of their mat. Now ask them to put the t in the
grid after the a and read the word. Ask student
to add letter to make sat. Change sat to pat,
pit, sit, pit, tip, tin, tan, nat, not, nut, cut,
cot, cat. Only change one letter with each new
word. Ask student to place the letters back into
the bag, saying the letter names again. |
| Extension: |
a. |
Practice spelling cV words using:
no, go, so, wo, we, be, he, me. |
| b. |
Practice spelling Vr words using:
car, far, bar, jar, mar, tar, par, park, bark,
mark, lark, dark, hark, hard, lard, card, cart.
or: or, nor, for, fork, cork, corn, born,
horn, morn, corn, cord, ford, fort, forth, north
wor: work, word, worm, world, worst |
| c. |
Practice spelling Vce words using:
ate, date, fate, gate, hate, late, rate, mate,
made, fade, face, lace, mace, race, pace, pane,
cane, lane, mane, name, came, dame, fame, game,
lame, same, tame, time, dime, lime, rime, rite,
bite, bide, hide, tide, ride, rice, dice, lice,
mice, nice, rice, price, pride, bride, bide, bode,
rode, code, cone, bone, lone, tone, tote, note,
vote, use, fuse, fume, fune, dune, tune |
| d. |
Practice spelling VV words. Write
ee on a small piece of paper and use in spelling:
feet, meet, beet, sheet, sheep, deep, keep, keel,
feel, feed, heed, need, reed, seed, weed, wee,
see, bee, fee
Write oo on a small sheet of paper. Tell student
the sound (oo) like in book. Practice spelling
the sound using: book, look, took, cook, hook,
hood, stood, good |
| e. |
Multiple syllable words can be spelled
one syllable at a time. Ask students to say magnet.
Now ask them to say the first syllable: mag. Help
them to break it down into sounds and move a marker
for each sound in the first syllable. Then move
the corresponding letter for each sound below
the marker. Next say the second syllable and lead
the students to break the second syllable into
sounds. Have them move a marker into the top row
of boxes to represent each sound. Then have them
move the corresponding letters below the sound
markers. When students are ready, they can write
the letters in the bottom row of boxes. |
| f. |
Students sign the letters as they
spell words. |
27. Battle (back
to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Capital letter alphabet mats and capital letters |
| Activity: |
Students play in pairs. Each student picks one
letter from his/her bag and names the letter.
The student whose letter is closer to Z, says,
“I win because ___ is closer to Z than ___.
The student with the winning letter puts his/her
letter on the alphabet strip at the top of the
mat. The student with the losing letter puts his/her
letter at the bottom of his/her mat. The student
with the most letters at the end of the game is
the winner. |
28. Auditory Sequential Memory (back
to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats and letters |
| Activity: |
The student places the letters in the center
of the mat and turns the letters right side up.
Student finds each letter of the alphabet and
places it on the arc on the mat. After placing
the 26 letters, the student touches and names
the 26 letters again. The teacher says a series
of 2-7 letters (not in alphabetical order). Student
repeats and picks up letters and places them in
his/her bag. Student does not pick up letters
while they are being named. |
29. Four in a Row (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Alphabet mats and letters |
| Activity: |
Students play in pairs. The pair has 1 set of
plastic capital letters. Each student has a container
or a “shield” to hide his/her letters
from the other student. Each student closes his/her
eyes and picks 7 letters and places them where
the other student cannot see them. The goal is
to get 4 consecutive letters is a row (alphabetical
order—ABCD). The remaining letters are in
a pond. The first player discards one letter to
the pond and takes one letter from the pond. The
first player to get “4 in a Row” says
“4 in a Row!” and shows his/her 4 letters. |
30. Dominos (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
Capital letter alphabet mats and capital letters |
| Activity: |
One set of letters is given to a pair of students.
The students place the letters in the center of
a mat and turn the letters right side up. Students
place M and N and on the arc. Students close their
eyes and pick 5 letters each. MN is the “spinner
domino.” The first student must play the
letter before or after MN (LMNO). If the student
does not have L or O, then s/he goes to the “bone
yard” and takes the needed letter and plays
it. Each player can only play one letter during
a turn. If the needed letter is not in the “bone
yard,” the student takes no letter and misses
his/her turn. The goal is to be the first player
to play all of his/her letters. |
31. Letters Up-7up (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool
Letter-sound |
| Materials: |
1 set of capital letters |
| Activity: |
Seven students start out at the
front of the room. The rest of the students
are given 1-2 capital letters. Students at their
seats close their eyes and hold up one letter.
The students who are “up” take one
letter from one student. When all seven have
taken a letter, the leader says, “Heads
up! 7 Up!” The students who are seated
hide their letters. Students at their seats
take turns calling on students who are “up.”
When a student who is “up” is called
on, s/he must do an action that starts with
the sound of the letter that s/he took. If the
student can guess the action and the letter
was taken from that student, then the student
who is up sits down and the one who guessed
is now up. |
32. Alphabetizing (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition Alphabet as a sequencing
tool |
| Materials: |
5 index cards |
| Activity: |
Write on index cards: ant, bear, cat, dog, elephant
Ask students how the room is organized. Are books
and toys and paper put in the same box? Or do
books go in one place and papers in another? Why?
Let them discover that alphabetical order is the
same way. It is organizing words so we can find
them quickly. Guide class to put the 5 words in
alphabetical order by the first letter. |
33. Dictionary (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition Alphabet as a sequencing
tool Dictionary use |
| Materials: |
Dictionary |
| Activity: |
Lead students to discover that dictionaries
are in alphabetical order. Write the word dog
on the board and tell students to look at the
first letter of the first word. Ask students where
this letter is in the alphabet? If the word begins
with this letter, where would the word be in the
dictionary? Would the word be in the first or
second half of the dictionary? Discuss the first
letter of the word and ask a student to open the
dictionary to where they think the word might
be. Show the students guidewords and lead students
to use first letter of the word to decide if they
should go toward the front or back of the dictionary.
Locate 2-3 words. |
34. My Book of Words (back to top)
| Objective: |
Instant letter recognition
Alphabet as a sequencing tool |
| Materials: |
(7) 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of paper folded in half
and stapled plus colored paper for the cover. |
| Activity: |
Students write a title (Jane’s Dictionary
or Bryan’s Book of Words) on the cover and
their name as the author and illustrator. Write
one letter of the alphabet (capital and lower
case) on each page and draw or paste pictures
that begin with that letter. Title page: title,
their name as author and illustrator. |
|