Visual and Motion clues for letter sounds

When children learn letter sounds we often provide pictures/words to help them remember what sound is associated with the letter. (/a/ /a/ apple) Many children need more than this to remember those connections.

Teachers use a see it, say it, write it approach which adds in the muscle memory of writing the letter while saying the sound. But, even with this there are still children who struggle to make these connections. So what can you do?

I posted on my Teachers Pay Teachers store a kit that has visual and kinetics cues to help children master their letter sounds. In the kit there is a list of the 26 words and the motion to associate with the word (example– /j/ /j/ jump rope while swinging your arms like you are jumping rope)

If you choose to practice letter sounds this way, I encourage you to only use the letter sounds and not their names. That is the key… we need children to connect the letter sound to the visual letter. Providing a cue word and motion is helping with the recall of the letter sound!

Letter of the Day- Ii

Today we are on the letter Ii. When you work on vowels, focus on the short sound of the vowel, in the case of the letter Ii it is the sound you hear at the beginning of iguana, inch, insect and in the middle of chip, hit, and tin.

Jack Hartmann Ii song

Printing the letter Ii

Capital I- start at the top, go downnn, cross at the top, cross at the bottom

lowercase i- go downnn, jump up above the line and then put a dot (make sure it is not attached– that’s a lollipop, or a big huge scribbled circle… just a visible dot)

Today’s activities: Iguanas!

I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufmann Orloff— Alex really wants an iguana. His friend is moving away and needs to rehouse his iguana. Alex writes his mom note explaining why he should have an iguana.

Write your mom/dad/sister/brother/imaginary friend/whoever, a letter explaining why you need something you really want. This is a great opportunity to practice writing a letter. Let your child write this in any form/method they choose. You do not have to write it for them. Have your child read you the letter and explain what it says. Then write back

6 Insane Iguana Facts

Pick one or more facts about the iguana and use it in a picture of iguanas. Compare these facts to facts you know about other animals, such as a pet you own or your favorite type of animal.

Complete a direct drawing of an iguana. Here are two options KidArtX and Art For Kid Hub

Word Work Wednesday- backyard

Today I thought we would work on beginning sounds a bit. Here are a few ways to do this in the backyard.

Letter cards/magnetic letters

Give your child 5-7 consonants. Find items in the backyard that begin with that sound. For example:

b- bird, d-dandelion, g- grass, h-hammock, s- sunshine, t- table, w-wheelbarrow

Show your child how to make an acrostic poem about the backyard

• Bunny
• Apple core
• Cardinal
• Kites
• Yellow flower
• Ants
• Rainbow
• Dandelion

Children enjoy making acrostic poems using their name as the first letters

• Leaf
• Onion grass
• Robin
• Inchworm

Have fun playing with beginning sounds. This is a great skill to work on in the car. What letter does sign start with? Can you find something that starts with /t/? How many items can we count that start that same as car /c/?

Word Word Wednesday- sound match and sentences

Hi everyone! I thought today would be a good day to get your kiddo moving while learning. You will need a set of alphabet cards, you might still have the set we made for the letter matching game. I suggest using just the lowercase for this activity.

Ok, this game doesn’t have a name… we need one, but let’s just go with it for now.

• Have your child choose 5-8 letters each time you play the game. (some letters will be very hard to do, so don’t worry if you can’t find an items for all the letters).
• Have your child pick a letter card. Next have your child tell you the letter’s name and sound. Then have your child find an item that begins with that letter sound. To expand on it, have him/her state it in a sentence “_____ begins with _____” or “_____ is for ______”.
• Continue until you have finished all letters.
• To clean up the cards, you can play the game in reverse. Ask your child what sound each item began with and they bring you the letter card and say the sound. “What sound does fish begin with?” “/f/”

b is for bowl, c is for cup

t is for table, f is for fish

Have your child choose one item that he/she labeled and write a sentence about it. After your child has drawn a picture and written a sentence, have your child read the sentence to you.

A great way to get your child writing is to provide a sentence starter. You can do this a few different ways.

• Provide a sentence starter “I like to _____________”, “I see the_____________” and have your child finish the sentence using phonetic spelling.
• Provide a list of sight words that can be put together to make a sentence. Provide words such as: I, the, see, like, the, my, can etc. This can be challenging if your child is not confident in reading the sight words.
• Create a sentence starter based on a topic you are working on, your child enjoys. “My favorite insect is________”, “The red car can_____________”, “I want to eat _______________” etc…

ABC card activities

These activities can be done over time as well as over and over. Have your child create alphabet cards. I made mine on sheet of printer paper torn into smaller pieces. Have your child write out all the capital letters in on setting. Remind them that letters start at the top. In another activity time, have your child write out all of the lowercase letters. If you do not want your child to practice this printing activity, then print the letters out and have him/her cut the pieces into small squares or rectangles.

ABC match game

capital letters

Spread the capital letters out on the floor on one side of the

lowercase letters

room. Then spread the lowercase letters on the other side of the room. Have the parent/older sibling sit in the middle of the room. Have your preK child go pick a capital letter, then run across the room and find it’s match. They then need to bring the letter to you and tell you either the letter name or sound. Keep going until you have matched all the letters.

If your child is struggling with this, give them half the letters at a time. If they are still struggling, you can have them match capital or lowercase not capital to lowercase.

If your child needs a challenge, have the draw a picture to go with each letter and match the capital, lowercase and beginning sound picture. Remember that vowels should be the short vowel sound a=apple, e=egg, i=igloo, o=octopus, u=up.

This same game concept can be played with numerals on one side of the room and photos of that many items on the other side 5 and 5 butterflies.

If you try this activity, drop a comment and let me know what you and your child thought. Make sure to click on the follow button and follow along and get all these fun posts.