Working on Letters
At any given time in the year, you’ll likely have some early readers who haven’t mastered the names and sounds of letters yet. This is of course fine, but it’s also important to help those readers out! Once they know all the letter names and sounds, they become more proficient at reading simple words and sentences. All of this, of course, leads to improved reading!
Just a Few Materials Needed
The good news is that you can add just a few activities into your routine each day to get those readers recognizing the letters.
You’ll need:
- letters in some format (stickers, tiles, written on cards, etc.)
- a dry erase marker
- a dry erase surface (like the one pictured below or even lamination)
10 Ideas for Working on Letters
The ideas listed below are in random order. You can decide which ones are best depending on your readers who the help. Each activity should only take a few minutes. These can be done at the beginning of Guided Reading groups, one on one or each independently. Check out the images below for a closer look at a few!
- Circle the letter: ____. (Teacher says a letter)
- Trace over each letter, using the dry erase marker, while saying the name/sound.
- Finger trace each letter, to feel the shape, while saying the name/sound.
- Find the letter that is at the beginning of the word: ____.
- Circle/underline the letters in your name/sight word.
- Point and say the name/sound of each letter.
- Circle/underline all the vowels/consonants, state the name and sound.
- Choose a letter, identify a word that begins with that letter.
- Circle/underline matching letters.
- Circle/underline the middle/end sound in the word: ____.
That’s it! You don’t have to implement all of these at once, but test a few out at first. Once the reader has made progress, try out some of the other ideas. You can gradually make your way through all of them until the letter names and sounds are mastered!
2 Responses
Love these ideas on how to “mix it up”. Why didn’t I think of this before… I’ve found a way to use up odds and end sticker letters from my scrapbooking letters!!!
Yay! So glad you’ve got some new ideas. And, yes, perfect use for those scrapbooking letters!