Alphabet

Alphabet Avenue

Most early attempts at literacy start out as barely recognizable drawings and doodles. Until children have learned to perceive the attributes and characteristics of letters, they will continue to use and confuse them. On this page you will find research based activities to use at home or in your classroom. Most of the activities are geared toward kindergarten and first grade, but I recently found that they helped older children who had already learned to write in their primary language: Arabic!

Page Index
(Click on links)

Alphabet Chart

Alphabet Find and Color Set

Alphabet Flip Books

Alphabet Following Directions Set

Alphabet Font Sort Zip File Set

Alphabet Match and Color Set

Alphabet Matching Set

Alphabet Mini Book Set

Alphabet Mixed Review Set

Alphabet Partner Puzzles Set

Alphabet Peekover Flip Book Set

Alphabet Readers Zip File Set

Alphabet Song Collection

Alphabet Stickers

Alphabet Trace and Write Set

Alphabet Where's That Sound?

Alphabet Word Wheels Set

Alphabet Workmats Set

Handwriting Activity

Handwriting (Cursive)

Handwriting (Modern)

Handwriting (Standard)

I've Been Working on My Letters (Song)

Let's Deal: Alphabetizing

Letter Lotto

My Little Book of Words for Writing

Promoting Knowledge of Letters and Words

Ways of Learning the Alphabet

Alphabet Activities Database

Aa Bb Cc Ch Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii

Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr

Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

For songs, poems and rhymes to go with each letter
of the alphabet, click on the following link:

http://www.smart-central.com/

For a fabulous website of free and reproducible language arts materials, click on the following link:

http://www.literactive.com/Home/index.asp
(Please note that the handwriting fonts are not standard English fonts,
but since many Europeans and Australians visit the site,
I am including the link.
(This site is located in Ireland.)

For an extensive source of manipulative materials, click on the following link:

www.abcstuff.com

Alphabet Flip Books	All Aboard for ABCs
Handwriting Activity This page is a black-line reproducible for K-1 teachers. It includes the head, belt, and foot line. You'll need to add the word or letters that you'd like the children to trace. We've used it successfully with kindergarten students who were not writing their names when school started.	Promoting Knowledge of Letters and Words This page contains lecture notes from an Apprenticeship in Literacy seminar with Linda Dorn. An explicit discussion of activities to support instruction in primary classrooms is included.
Letter Lotto Download and print the playing cards, mount on vellum, and laminate for use. This lotto game comes in two formats: one to review beginning consonant sounds and the other for letter recognition. Comes with directions for playing and enough cards for six children.	Little Critter Letter Match Little Critter Letter Match Modern Mercer Mayer is my all time favorite author illustrator. Kids absolutely love his little critter books and so do I. He came to San Diego in 1983 for a conference and we had a blast, with an insider trip to the San Diego Zoo and a hilarious visit to my school. He's just as funny in person as he is in his books! I have made an activity for matching capitals and lower case letters. I hope he doesn't mind!! Enjoy! By the way, you'll need to print them in color or the yellow T-shirt won't show.
Sequence With a Smile Use the graphic on the link for sequencing activities (number order, alphabetical order, story sequence, etc.) Allow students to work collaboratively if needed. Accountability Piece: Duplicate the recording sheet so that children can show the work they accomplished during center time. You may want to assemble the recording sheets in a sequencing log. Option: Use the graphic as a template. Fill in some of the boxes. Laminate and allow the children to use wipe off pens or place in sheet protectors. Make a transparency and use in the overhead projector center.	My Phonics Sticker Book When you reproduce this book, you'll need to cut the pages into fourths, collate and bind. Print as many as you need for a group and use with alphabet stickers below. Students can "read' their sticker book, saying the name of the picture and the capital and lower case letters while pointing. This builds 1 to 1 and provides an anchor for automaticity in letter recogntion.
Alphabet Stickers Use with the Phonics Sticker Book above or in your instructional program if you're a reading teacher. Use laser labels (Avery Dennison #5260 or MACO #ML-3025), thirty labels per sheet, 1" x 2 5/8". Some teachers prefer that children draw their own pictures, but emergent readers rarely remember what it was they drew. This method produces a colorful book to read again and again.	Alphabet Trace and Write Set (sample)
Alphabet Mixed Review Set (Sample)	Alphabet Matching Set (Sample)
Long and Short A Concentration	Number Fonts for Sorts
Writing Fine Motor Skill Activities Zip File Set (samples: 2 of 11)	Alphabet Readers Zip File Set (sample)
I've Been Working On My Letters (Song)	Alphabet Workmat Set (Samples)
Alphabet Following Directions Set	Alphabet Partner Puzzles Set
Alphabet Word Wheel Zip File Set	Alphabet Match and Color Set
Alphabet Find and Color Set	Alphabet Where's That Sound? Set
Alphabet Song Collection (27 pages) Please note that not all letters have songs yet!	Font Sorts Zip File Set
Find and Color the Letters Set	Handwriting (Standard Set)
Alphabet Peekover Flip Books Zip File Set (4 of 8)	Snap That Sound! Beginning Consonant Sounds Set of 20
Long Vowel Spelling Posters (Set of 5)	Alphabet Mini Books (Set of 24)
Color, Cut and Paste Set

Recommended Reading

I would strongly recommend that teachers read two excellent sources for a better understanding of letter identification in young children. Please note that I didn't say letter "recognition." There's a big difference! Recognition implies automaticity or "knowing" without having to think about it. We recognize our names, but we would have to "identify" unfamiliar and unknown words. The same holds true for children who are just beginning to explore the world of print. They often recognize many of the letters in their own names, but have to work hard to learn to identify unfamiliar letters. Lecture over. Here are the two book titles:

Clay, Marie (1993). Reading Recovery: A Guidebook for Teachers in Training. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. (Pages 23-28, and 55-56 discuss learning to look at print with concrete suggestions for the teacher, particularly for children who seem to have difficulty with remembering letter names.)

Dorn, Linda, French, Cathy, and Jones, Tammy (1998). Apprenticeship in Literacy: Transitions Across Reading and Writing. York, Maine: Stenhouse. (Pages 92-95 discuss multiple ways of learning about print and pages 111-114 describe a literacy corner for exploring letters.)

Shared Reading of the Alphabet Chart

Click on the above link to download a list of alternatives for reading the ABC chart. This develops stronger perception and encourages children to take a more critical look at the letters of the alphabet. Mount your chart on vellum, laminate and keep it handy near your shared reading area.

Purpose: To provide children with a special set of cues that can be used during reading and writing activities.

Materials: Use a large ABC chart for shared reading in the group. Reduce the chart (or download the Alphabet Chart from this page) and place a copy in each child's writing folder to be used as a personal resource during journal writing.

Collect a large variety of quality ABC books to use for read-alouds and shared reading. Read one a day, particularly at the beginning of the year. Cover some of the letters with Post-its and ask children for predictions before removing the stickers. Share a variety of ABC books with your child or group to promote flexible knowledge about letters and sounds.

A student-generated big book of the Alphabet with letters and picture cues may also be used for shared reading activities.

Procedures: Gather the children around or in front of the large ABC Chart. Point to each letter (upper and lower case) and each picture and you lead the children in a shared reading of the chart. Read the letters fluently and pause at appropriate points to allow the children to lead the reading of the letters or to say the pictured cues. Read the chart daily until your child or group is able to read the chart independently. The chart soon becomes a familiar resource for associating letter and sound cues during reading and writing events.

Let's Deal!
(Alphabetizing Flash Cards)

My first grade team had a flexible way of having their students practice alphabetical order. We purchased multiple sets of colorful sight word flash cards that are produced by several publishers. The picture is on one side and the word on the other. (We laminated them for durability.) Each child was given 5-10 cards each day to alphabetize as part of their daily seatwork during reading groups. It was a good way to practice alphabetizing while reinforcing sight word vocabulary at the same time. You can differentiate the activity by raising the bar for some students with alphabetizing to the second and third letter. Struggling students or children with poor fine motor skills only had 5 cards each day and none began with the same letter. We encouraged the children to look at the alphabet line on their desks or the one on the wall. Before they copied the words onto a paper, they had a predetermined buddy/parent helper, etc. check them. It was painless that way since they could just rearrange the cards if needed. It can be used as a portable center since they can do it on the floor or on the top of their desks.

Some teachers sort the cards into 3 groups and put them into color coded, numbered envelopes. It's easy to keep track of who completes each envelope. Just copy a class or group list and put it on the front of the envelope. Kids can circle or check their name upon completion. It's good to have the whole alphabet in front of them or available for reference. You'll hear some at-risk students singing the alphabet song as they work on this activity! I love it!

This is a good lead-in to using the dictionary. If your kids have personal writing dictionaries, have them add new words during your guided reading or skill lessons. Ask them where they will find the first letter of the word: at the beginning, middle, or end of the alphabet and refer to your alphabet chart. This will quickly eliminate turning countless pages while looking for the right letter!

My Little Book of Words for Writing

This is a handy little reference book that is meant to support early and emergent readers and writers. It contains Dr. Edward Fry's first three hundred high frequency words. Each letter of the alphabet has its own page with a colorful graphic that serves as an anchor for the sound. I would suggest laminating the cover and then binding the book at the top.

(sample)

Ways of Learning the Alphabet

Check Linda Dorn's book, Apprenticeship in Literacy, page 93, for a discussion of looking at letters and concrete suggestions which include looking at:
The name of the letter
Show your child a letter card and ask him/her to tell you the name of the letter.

The way the letter looks
Talk about the shape of the letter. What is the composition of the letter . . . circles, sticks, tails, etc.?

The sound the letter makes
Show your child a letter card and ask him/her to make the sound that the letter produces. Remember that each vowel makes two sounds.

The feel and look of the letter in our mouths (look in a mirror)

Focus on the pronunciation of the letter and the production of the sound. Where is the tongue, and what is it doing? Where are your teeth? (It helps to look in a mirror for this exercise.) I purchased a round makeup mirror with a stand at the local drugstore for this purpose. It was easy for children to handle, easy to store and the magnified side is great.

The movement of the letter as it is written (talk it through in steps)
Talk through the method of producing the letter in printed form.

A word or anchor that children associate with the letter

Example: A, a, apple gives children an anchor to use as a memory tool.

The way the letter looks within a word

Mrs. Word Bird ¯
(Lyric: Cherry Carl Tune: It’s a Small World")

Mrs. Word Bird wants to eat.
Fill her tummy with a treat.
Look for pictures here and there –
Under every chair!

Look for bathtub and bacon and butterfly,
You’ll find baby and books if you really try.
There is block, boat and bee,
This is fun you’ll agree.
If you’ll find just one for B.

Variation: other verses to follow for other letter sounds.
Reproducible Copy with Picture

clipart/sc1cl7a.gif

Alphabet Activities and Worksheets

The following database has alphabet matching worksheets, poetry, songs and shape books. "Where's That Sound?" addresses phonemic awareness skills and listening for the location of the specific sound. When you print these out, change your printer setting to grayscale and draft and then change the copier to the lightest setting so that you get a good copy for the children to color, while conserving your ink.

I have added colorful picture books for you to reproduce on vellum, laminate and bind for whole group or independent reading. There are new Student Reading Books that are good for phonemic awareness and learning a few basic sight words. These are also available in a separate database on Little Book Lane, which makes them easier to locate.

I have most of the "Pictures for Sorts and Stuff." I'm in the process of adding words to each database.

I'm also working on Word Wheels for each letter. These are self-checking and reproducible in color for a center activity.

New to this section is the handwriting practice sheets. I've also added Workmats for each letter sound. Print them on vellum and laminate for durability. Use for tracing practice, building letters with clay and other manipulatives. Hope you enjoy them!

Another new item is Following Directions sheets and Match and Color for each sound. My sister worked with a special day four and five year old class last summer and asked for some new things. That's where the idea for Workmats and Following Directions came from.

Please note that this section is not finished. I've been working on adding to "Word Way" and will try to spend more time on this page in the future. I hope to have at least 15 activities for each letter and sound. If there's something you need right away, let me know at carl1404@msn.com

Aa set
(52 pages)

Another Aa Worksheet

More Aa Worksheets

Aa Color, Cut, and Paste
(1 of 2)

Animal Food Recipe Link:
http://members.tripod.com/AngieCooks/kids/AnimalFood.html

Astronaut Pudding Recipe Link:
http://www.recipegoldmine.com/childrecipe/childrecipe157.html

Ants on a Log Recipe Link:
http://www.weekiwis.com/ants.html

Ants in the Sand Recipe Link:
http://www.recipesource.com/misc/kids/00/rec0060.html

Link to Literactive Aa handwriting:
http://www.literactive.com/Download/work_files/ABC_US_05.pdf

Link to Animal Fair Song: http://www.smart-central.com/animalfair.htm ¯¯

	Another Bb Worksheet
More Bb Worksheets (1 of 2)	(2 of 2)
	Bb Color, Cut and Paste
B Pictures for Sorts and Stuff	B Book
Bb Boa Constrictor Shape Book	Bb Word Cards