Hi everyone, I'm having a really rough time getting my daughter to learn her alphabet and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. She can say her alphabet but she can only identify 4 letters on a regular basis. I didn't have this problem with my son. He picked them up real easy. I guess part of my frustration is that I sent her to preschool for 3 years, paying to have people teach her this stuff while I was working and going to school and now I'm discovering how little she really knows. Anyways back to the whole point, anyone have any suggestions on helping get her to learn these?
As a kindergarten teacher, I would suggest playing letter games with her. Drill the letters and sounds and then play guessing games wiith her identifing the letters out of order. ABC bingo and puzzles are also great tools to help with letter identification. Hope this helps!
I had the same problem!!!! :lol: I purchased a floor puzzle of the alphabet. It is the chunky carboard kind. I tossed the letters around on the floor sporadically, then had him find the letters. I did this by either saying the name of the letter, or the sound of the letter, or a word with the letter in it. I did it in alphabetical order so he could put the puzzle together as we played. He loves to do this.
I made my own alphabet book for my son. I got one of those sticky page photo albums from the drugstore and put in pictures that I cut out from magazines. Each page had a letter that I made on the computer (in a box that I cut out and stuck in there). Then we'd sit together and just name things, "doughnut, Daddy, dryer..." and keep pointing back to the Dd at the top of the page. I did this for him to learn to talk -- eventually I could say, "Where's the doughnut?" and he could point to it, then it got to where I could point to the doughnut and he could say the word. It evolved into "What letter is this?" My point is, start slow with your daughter. Maybe she's a dreamer and when the teacher has been explaining things in preschool she was staring out the window lost in thought. That was my second child! Targeted, one-on-one instruction at your daughter's pace is going to reap huge benefits. It has for us. I'm making one of these books now for my sister's baby, due in December. It's very fun to do!
We also make Letter Books. I take a large piece of manilla paper and cut it length-wise, then fold it in half. Glue a bunch of these together at the fold. Then cut out picutures (i get them from the clip art that comes with Word) and glue one on each page, and write the word below it. We call it "Phillip's (G) Book", and he "reads" it to Daddy later that night. We also work on letters when we go to the library. Our library has a big letter at the bottom of the spine that is the author's initials. So yesterday when he wanted a Curious George book, I told him that Mr. Rey wrote it, and we needed to find the books with an "R" on it. So he goes looking for the books with the correct letter. This is motivating for him, because he WANTS the book! Our "silly sheep" books (ie: "Sheep in a Jeep") has an "S", "Five Little Monkeys" have a "C", and Alfie is an "H". Get excited when you see a particular letter..."LOOK!!! That PEPSI truck has two P's in it, just like your name!!!" If you use daily stuff, they learn without knowing it!
I use all the senses in teaching the alphabet hoping to strike on one that sparks a note of learning with my son....Here is some of what I did with the other two, and what I do with ds #3...... Our opening EVERY day includes using a pointer (ours happens to be an apple pointer) and as we sing the Alphabet Rock (Greg and Steve CD) he points to the alphabet..This includes sight, dancing and moving as well as auditory... (Hearing,Seeing) We fingerpaint the letter...We use sweetened Koolaid (grape or wildcherry) to draw in, chocolate pudding to draw in and lick OUR fingers . You can use flour, sugar and rice or any presweetend drink mix since they usually taste better. In addtion to help the sense of touch, we use play dough. Helps fine motor too. (Touching, Tasting) Then I introduce a key picture to help remember the sound of the letter. The key picture is important imho because it needs to be something FUN AND EASY to remember so that they can associate the sound. Our Mm card has the Moon on it. D will have Dog, Bear for Bears (Teddy and Wild) A(apple for the correct vowel sound), T will be my child's name,etc... Then you build a little curriculum/theme around it. (Hearing,Sound) Then I introduce a nursery rhyme or two OR book that goes with that. Mm is for Good night Moon and Mary Mary Quite Contrary and Mary had a Little Lamb....This is good for teaching prereading skills like rhyming too. Also I have a set of books called *My Soundbox*. It has each letter of the alphabet.. I read how little m goes on an adventure and picks these things up? Can she pick up a magnet and monkeys to take up her mountain? Yes she can. On the other days, we collage the letter M, but with things that start with M. Sometimes he cuts, sometimes he doesn't want to, so I always have things pre cut.. We glued on Movie pictures, mouse, magnet.. I don't just use magazine pictures because sometimes they are not fun enough, I use small toys that I find at the bottom of the toy box or if I can't find them I buy them at the dollar store and use my punch outs/stickers from my scrapbooking stuff. I have a HUGe ziploc back where I keep all the letters toys separated into separate bags. (I did this at the beginning of this year in a separate bag). I may not do x or q. It depends. For example, I had a baby shower for a friend and had some tiny baby bears, blocks and baby rattlers and roses left over from a corsage I made. I put them in the respective bags to glue on this letter. Other things I had in the house for E were some plastic elephants, envelopes (with child's name and address), plastic eggs bought after Easter last year. For our Mm we ate some marshmellows this time. We made a miniature marshmellow snowman. Two marshmellows on top of each other. Rainsins for eyes,mouth..some pretzel sticks for feet.. All right, All right, You getting any ideas here :shock: BTW the letter is HUGE as huge as my child. I got them 50% off from Lake shore Learning. After he collages the letter, I take a picture of him holding the letter, 8 1/2 by 11 and put on the wall for HIS alphabet. We then will take off each letter that I have up now and replace it with his picture holding each letter that we did. I have bean bags with the alphabet that we throw at each other, he can't throw it and hit me or his brothers until after he says the name of the letter :wink: Another one i do too, not with ALL the letters but they wish we did. :lol: We EAT the letters too. Yep, we need to do that too. So he spreads white premade icing with a plastic knife (nothing sharp) on plain graham crackers.. Then we use scissors (clean new pair please) to cut red string licorice to form letters. We make a couple and eat them. (Touch,Taste) I did it once with gingerbread dough..You could really do this with any sweetened dough that you had..I hadn't tried forming prepacked sweetened cookie dough, but I think I will try that with him this year. We stay on the letter about 4 to 5 days,then I introduce another main letter. However, I'm working on ALL of the letters too, but not focusing on them until we get to them. So like this week after I introduced M,...I just flip through the flash cards and showed A, B, C and D.... I didn't introduce the Key Word (because we are not working on those letters sounds just recognition right now)... Then I made a match the baby letter to the Mama letters. Thats what we call them right now. I use the terms uppercase/lowercase right now, while I say Mamma and baby.... I do upper case on one side and lower case on the other side..and draw real big dots... I do this about once a week. This week our letter is T.. We will work on it all week. Then again at the end I will show him the ABCD , then EFG.....Another practice session of matching the letters dot to dot. My goal this year is introduce 5 consonants then one vowel. Then I will show him CVC words. Just as they don't have to have recognition of all the letters of the alphabet to begin reading in Kindergarten, the same, imho applies to PreK. A few more tips are to: Buy raised letters, (we do this too) and let her feel the letter. Run her finger along it and around it. We push pin our letters or the key picture that goes with it. He pushed pin the moon on black construction paper. I had some stickers that are stars.He added some chalk designs and we hung it up. Most kids loved food, mine included. We have used Nutter Butter Bites, cheeze its, cheese,licorice, pepperoni, sweetened cereal, candy corn, jelly beans, miniture marshmellows, BIG marshmellows,dyed eggs to make green eggs and put some dye on the ham too (it was fun, but theyweren't sure about eating this one :lol: ) Oh and we make peanut butter edible play dough that lasts for days..Real fun one too. .ANYTHING she likes to form letters and glue Use those things Girl! Of course the idea being to eat some along the way. My children love food and toys and this makes learning fun. We don't do food on every toy, but we can use macroni, beans,feathers,stickers and anything else I have to collage. Ok, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.........I could tell you pages more! I just love this age! Does any of this help? TinaTx
I love Tina I love Tina I love Tina I love Tina I love Tina Wow, woman! I am having difficulty with my 5yo dd with writing letters right now. She picks up things quickly but gets bored easily so I am in such need of ideas. So far I get the farthest with paint, but adding an "eat it" element might just be the thing we need. Also, the bean bag.....priceless! I can see our rain or snow days being spent on nothing but letters/phonics. Do you make your own? or purchase them and write the letter on it with marker? I'm thinking we could do that with all sorts of stuff, not just letters. You just might make my Christmas card list this year! :wink:
Brooke, ROFL...you are too much :lol: I have done both...with teaching 3 kids how to read..I have ALL kinds of good JUNK. Index cards are my best friends. So I make some letters, and have some made up. If my letter does not match my key picture, I draw it, or I cut out picture from a magazine on the index card.... I used the index cards for my numbers...I wrote the number on front, and used dots on the back for the amount. I also used the other stickers I had. Dora the explorer, frogs, Jimmy Neutron...I put thoses in his Ziploc Bags I made last year. Want to hear some more? I also laminate his name as well as any number, shape, word or letter. You know the package of laminating sheets you can get from Wal mart? Well they are my junior partners too. I print his name real big on the computer, laminate it. Then he uses a dry eraser to trace over and over. Its fun..A lot more than holding a fat pencil at times and writing on paper. Same applies for letters and numbers,sight words... I also blowed up balloons, took a sharpie and wrote letters (here again numbers,short sight words work too) on them and he popped them ONLY after he could say whatever it is was. In the meantime, he has to jump around hitting them all back into the air. I had too much fun on that one. You know what else i did this year? At the end of the year, Target puts their summer stuff on sale. They have this HUGE floor size checker game. You know all pieces made of rubber,etc. Well for my first grader, I put words on index cards (my Jr. partner) and taped on all the checkers. Before he could move a checker, he had to say the word and we played checkers in the floor I was impressed at myself for that one :lol: I might try that one with No. 3, because he likes games too. We just pretend we are doing something. Also, Target sold a golf set. All the pieces again were real soft and there were only 3 little holes to go through. I'm still perusing that one since we set that up when it was cold , rainy and nasty. Brooke, I had both older sons and my 3 one do pushpins everyday. Yep its not real fun at first, but if they won't do any other fine motor skills, it packs a lot for the punch. I have Jumbo size picture coloring books and I get them to do that. He doesn't have to finish it all one day. Starting off they usually don't, but by Kindergarten, they can. He lays in the floor and uses a push pin and traces the outline of the picture. My older two didn't like to color or cut.So I had to do something to work on those fine motor skills everday. We couldn't eat peanut butter play doh every day even though they wanted too. Writing is just real hard. DO NOT let a day go where she doesn't do anything forfine motor skills. We bead also. We put sweetened cereal on licorice..I don't what it is about food, but i don't know yet of a preschooler that objects or misses the point :lol: Other fine motor things we have done: Buy big bag of jelly beans and sort them by using a pair of tweezers into medicine caps. I usually have a tons of those caps in my drawer. Its not as easy as it sounds..Eating a few along the way. Can't forget plain M&Ms for sorting too! A Q tip dipped in paint for writing with is fun, it beats a pencil a lot of days. My middle used a feather he found. It'll work! Don't forget shape books to help make her writing letters fun. A goes inside an Apple. B for us goes inside a bear. C is inside a Cat..I try to use the same shape book as my Key picture association. I learned by the middle child to let them use markers instead of pencils. A stubby short crayon is relentlessly good for those fine motor skills like the pushpin. They have no choice but to hold tighter and correctly. AND I bought some HUGE FOAM dice and wrote the letters on them. We rolled diced and guest the letters. AND another one I do is I buy a whole bunch of cheap plastic easter eggs and put capital letters or small letters inside and then write on the inside of a 18 egg carton. Right now the one I have is for numbers. I put numbers inside, he has to *crack open* egg, tell me the number and put it in the egg carton on the correct number. I didn't do this with my second, but with my first we made stick *alphabet people* out of pipe cleaners.. Fine motor skills, plus he had to pay attention to how the letter was formed... We did the whole alphabet.... You can take precut shapes that make a picture and put letters on them and have her build a castle or whatever it was you drew. She glues the pieces together while saying the letters or words. Decorate around the picture on construction paper. I also bought a blank puzzle from Hobby Lobby for cheap and wrote letters on them... Ok....I have more ....any ideas you can use, have at 'em!!!! Eww... I could really get going on this!!!!! :lol:
Thank you ladies for all you wonderful suggestions. I particularly like the balloon and checkerboard ideas. Tina, where do you buy your bean bags from?
WOW!!! :shock: Tina, thank you for the treasure trove of ideas!!! My son knows his alphabet, but sight words are our nemesis. We can apply many of your ideas to sight words. We made a sight word "train" last year. Each box car shape had two words on it. But involving all the senses will definitely work better for ds. I've learned he needs to touch, feel, move, etc. to really grasp things. Tasting is a big hit, too! Many thanks! Blessings, Anne
Best I can remember my bean bags came from a teacher supply store....... I actually made some one time with old socks with my first one....Then I saw the need to buy some and with the 3 kids writing the letters on them I could get my moneys worth..figured I could still sale them cheap to some nice homeschooler
Anne... Put the words on small fish shaped construction papers. Take on a paper clip and use a magnet on the end of pencil to lay those words out on the floor and fish for the words..Throw the one back in the *pond* that you miss... Play word bingo I have a game called Spell Time I bought from Walmart...It comes with like 5 lower case letter tiles. I use that to spell those sight words instead of writing them all the time.. Make a crossword puzzle on the crossword puzzle maker on line...Real simple type your words and it makes a puzzle with them instantly... I also wrote one assignment last week like this for the word *after* _ft_r . He had to fill in the letters. Of course the whole page looked like that. My middle son liked to spell the words with pinto beans. My oldest didnt' like it...He just shaped the beans to make the letters... Clap each letter , then say the word.. Stomp each letter and jump at the end to say the word. Look for the word in a newspaper and circle it..... Can you make part of a recipe from the sight words? Read the recipe and make chocolate chip cookies: some words I used: *After, stir, then, mix, while* How about walk on the words..make them on index cards and walk on them..we played where you to have JUMP over one I called out.... Wad up paper(you know masking tape and paper) then write words on each wad, they dont' have to be big and shoot hoops.. Use the wastebasket for the hoop...If you throw from this line you make 1 point, 3 points from this line...etc.. (it works with addition too LOL) I got one idea from this huge ball I saw at the store. It had different story parts on the ball.. So I figured if i wait a little longer and get a couple of huge light beach balls I could write some letters and words on those two and bounce those around some....The cheap plastic balls that are lightweight are good for that too..YOu can play hockey or golf around the house..Just hit on 'em. Alll three of the boys love that... Just a few more thoughts...
Your library should have a book called Alphabet Theme-a-Saurus. There's at least a week's worth of stuff for each letter. I used that , plus Mailbox magazine and my daughter knew her letters and their sounds quickly.
Tina, Thank you for the additional ideas! Funny you should mention the fish with magnets, I used that for letter recognition. Just didn't think to use if for sight words - duh! Ds really liked fishing for letters and then saying the letter aloud before the fish could be a "keeper". All the other ideas sound great, too. Thanks! Blessings, Anne
Another alphabet game we played... was "Go Fish!" Ds loves this card game, we have 2-3 store bought sets he's gotten as gifts, so I decided to make our own alphabet "Go Fish!". I made two sets of colorful alphabet cards (each card has the uppercase and lowercase letter and a picture of something that begins with that letter). He loved it and his letter recognition skills really improved quickly. You could save a lot of time and buy two identical sets of alphabet cards. HTH Anne
Thanks again for the suggestions! I sat down today and created our own alphabet uno game, with index cards, and the kids loved it. Our power went out for 4 hours and the kids sat and played it to pass alot of the time.
Oh, boy, the balloons were a big hit, Tina! DS was thrilled! He couldn't read two of the 12 words, so I reviewed them with him and told him he could pop them at the end of our lesson if he remembered them. (He wanted to pop them right then when he repeated them after me!) When we finished the lesson a few minutes later, he read both words successfully and popped the balloons. Whooo-eeee, it was loud, but he had fun and most importantly -- he learned! We've also done the "No Mas" game I read about somewhere in the forum (can't find the post right now - maybe I read it at A to Z?). I write each sight word on a popsicle stick and we take turns pulling them out of a cup and reading them. Since I can read them all, I give ds a chance to pull ahead by reading my popsicle stick and keeping it. (He has no siblings, this would be a great game for 2 or more children.) Tina, could you please post the recipe for peanut butter edible play dough? We'd love to try it out! Thanks! I'm working on making a sight word "Go Fish" game and some bingo game cards. In the meantime, we are trying out different ideas that don't require prep work. Blessings, Anne
Anne... Great!!!! Thats how to do it!!!!!! I tell you what, we have had more fun learning lately Especially me I only have boys so I have had to *evolve* a lot of games that are *sit down type* to something *stand up and jump or kick a little* KWIM? I don't know what I would do if I had a girl the same way :shock: , I guess she would FIT IN!!! Heres the recipe for edible peanut butter....I generally let them play on the kitchen table since it a LOT cleaner than our school table..(Since they eat some as they play along the way) EDIBLE PEANUT BUTTER PLAY DOUGH (makes 15 portions) Supplies: Large Mixing bowl mixing spoon waxed paper measuring cups Ingredients 1 3/4 cups peanut butter 2 cups powdered sugar 1 3/4 cups honey 2 cups powdered milk 1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl 2.Stir the mixture until if forms a dough 3. Place a portion of dough on a square of waxed paper. Knead it until it achieves a play dough consistency. 4.Play and Eat!! It makes a lot and its soooo easy...Also the play dough will be *oily* after working with it for a while..It will stay several days like this. I have enough for ALL 3 kids PLUS some..We put in the refrigerater to keep..Last time I made it, I tried to cut it down some by *guess estimation*..It worked good and still tasted good too... Anne for the popsicle sticks what I did was have my sons match up the *tail* to the correct mouse.. I made a simple shape...It was a a half moon laying horizontal. (The best way I can describe it without drawing a picture).. I use a black marker for one eye (your looking at it from the side) and an ear... Then I wrote the *sight word or letter or number on it*... He had to look for the tail (popsicle sticks) that had the same word, say it, then he could glue on the tail on the end of it...They enjoyed this too!. Really any simple animal or a variety of animals would do..We just like the mice and hung them around the room when they were done.. Enjoy the recipe... Blessings TinaTx
Tina, Thanks for the recipe, we will give it a try! I'm sure ds will love it, as all things edible are a hit. (Well, steamed vegetables aren't edible in his book, but you KWIM!) :lol: Blessings, Anne
We used a workbook called the 'Learn the Alphabet Arts and Crafts' book. It really helped my daughter learn her letters. It is really meant for a classroom but with a few supplies, you can do it for one child too. The book suggests doing one letter a week, but we did one a day or as she learned them. But the idea is to work with their senses. For example, decorate the letter E with colored Egg whites (sounds gross but it was really neat), or the letter Y with Yarn. And then there is another page where you practice writing the letters and make a Kite for the letter K etc. Anyway, I hope this helps. It was pretty useful for us.
