Letter Lessons that STICK!

I don't know about you, but this year, with all of the craziness that has gone on, my students are having a HARD TIME with letters. When normally I would have just one that was still mastering their letters at this point in the year, right now I have about 6. With major recognition troubles. Some of them don't even recognize the letters in their name. It is a struggle for sure!!

So over Christmas break I picked my own brain to figure out what I needed to do differently. I thought back to my roots in kindergarten where our ONLY objective for the year was to teach letter names and sounds. This may sound like an exaggeration but seriously...that is what it felt like. 

I thought back to all of the things I did to IMMERSE my kids in the alphabet. We had letter show and tell (pick an item from home that starts with the letter), we did rhymes that matched up with the letter of the week, we played games with the letters, talked about them, and used words that started with the letter all week long. By the end of each week that was all we needed. It was a natural, lovely way to learn the alphabet. 

Why not do that again? You may all be doing that but I know in the rush to teach EVERYTHING I have lost myself a bit and have not taught the alphabet this way in a long time. So I put everything together in a lesson plan format that would help me focus in on one letter at a time to get things rolling. 

We start with an anchor chart. I teach small groups, 6 students at a time, for 30 minutes each day. I don't have time to build it with them so I make it ahead of time. With a whole group I would do this live every day and add a bit each day. Here is an example of one of my letter anchor charts. 

We use this every day and say all of the words each time. I ask them to look at the words and tell me which words have more than one letter a in them. They love to play that game! 

Next up I print and laminate the letter so they can hold it, trace it, and use it as a prop in our letter games. I use the lowercase letters the most but I have them in capitals too. 

I use lots of pictures to show examples of words that start with the /a/ sound and words that don't start with the /a/ sound. I love using real pictures and not clip art. Although I am a huge fan of clip art too! 

Ant, astronaut, apple are examples and bear, pig, and leaf are non-examples.

We practice writing the letter on white boards and on some hand writing sheets too. This includes lots of tracing and then independent writing too. 

I invite my students to bring in items from home that start with the /a/ sound. Real show and tell (I have to be honest here) drives me crazy. Students bring in whatever just so they can be the star of the show for a minute (which I totally understand!). But it always felt like a non-productive 10 minute activity each day. With a focus, we get some really interesting items and keep our eye on the ball!

I included this letter to be sent home or an editable option if you want to make your own. Signing the bottom and sending it home is the simplest option! 

We can't just talk about letters all day, even though that is the whole point! But students would grow weary very quickly if you just skill and drill them on the letter and sounds. I made sure to include all of my favorite math and science activities too. 

For math time we work on addition towers using blocks and active math. Both have the first sound /a/ and both are really fun! The hands on math and the gross motor skill activity keep students engaged and happy! This helps with behavior too! For science we introduced absorption in a hands on center. Students work with water, sponges, droppers, and paper towels to explore absorption. Again, the focus is on the first sound /a/, with a fun little twist! 

Rhyming is a really important part of a solid reading foundation. We spent the whole week saying this fun rhyme. Walking in line to lunch, walking to and from reading groups, and of course all together at our small group table. Sometimes I think they think I am crazy, but my littles that haven't talked all year are completely enthralled in these activities and it is so fun to watch them participate! 

There are so many more activities included but I don't want to bore you. In the classroom I would hit each letter HARD the first 26 days of school and then go in more depth with main vowels and consonants after that. Either way, these units have you covered!

You can see a complete PREVIEW for this unit HERE. I am keeping all of these alphabet units 50% off until I finish the whole set. My goal is to tackle a big chunk over spring break, so hopefully by the end of this school year I will have all 26 letters done. HERE are the letters I have completed so far. 

Thanks for stopping by today. I am really excited about these units and for my students that have been struggling they are finally helping. Yay! That is exactly what I was hoping for! 

Save this post for later. Pin it here!