How Can I Help My Child Learn Letters and Sounds?
Letter / Keyword / Sound
(in the order they are taught)
t - top - /t/
b - bat - /b/
f - fun - /f/
n - nut - /n/
m - man - /m/
i - itch - /ĭ/
u - up - /ŭ/
c - cat - /k/
o - octopus - /ŏ/
a - apple - /ă/
g - game - /g/
d - dog - /d/
s - snake - /s/
e - Ed - /ĕ/
r - rat - /r/
p - pan - /p/
j - jug - /j/
y - yellow - /y/
l - lamp - /l/
h - hat - /h/
k - kite - /k/
v - van - /v/
w - wind - /w/
x - fox - /ks/
z - zebra - /z/
qu - queen - /kw/
Review each letter's name, sound, keyword, and how to form the letter correctly with your child often. It is very important that your child has the correct pencil grip and learns to write the letter correctly. Practice makes "permanent" so it is important that they learn it correctly. Correct letter formation will make the writing process much easier for your child. The Fundations paper, the pencil grip information, and the letter formation guides are linked here.
These activities are perfect for your child right now!
Help your child identify things that begin with each of the letters. When you're in the car, or the store, talk about the sound that objects begin with. Point them out in signs (Target starts with "t"). Choose a letter and cut pictures out of magazines that start with the sound. Glue them onto a piece of paper and put them in a small three ring binder. If you do a page for each letter, you'll have an alphabet book when you are finished!
Spend thirty minutes each evening reading to your child. Playing stories on CD players or iPods are another great option at bedtime. The Lone Tree public library has many books on CD and many more available online as ebooks.
Eat dinner as a family as often as possible and talk with your child about their day and their friends.
Magnetic Letters I would recommend buying a set of lowercase & uppercase magnetic letters from Lakeshore Learning and have your child use them on a cookie sheet. I prefer the red and blue ones because the vowels are red and the consonants are blue. Later you can build words with the same letters and it is much easier for the kiddos to see the patterns in words with the vowels all the same color.
Have them name the letters for you (out of order).
Have them match uppercase to lowercase and arrange them in pairs on the cookie sheet.
Have them put the letters in abc order.
Have them put all of the lowercase letters that they've learned so far on the cookie sheet
Have them touch the letter and tell you the name. Rearrange the letters and have them tell you only the sound. Go back again and help them come up with a word that starts with each letter. For the vowels it can be really tricky so be sure you use words that start with the short sound.
Here are a few to help you out: a: ant, apple, Anna, alligator, astronaut e: Ed, end, envelope, empty, egg i: igloo, itch, insect, India, iguana o: olive, octopus, ostrich, ox u: up, umbrella, under, umpire, underline
Give them a word and have them find the letter that they hear at the beginning of the word.
Help your child to identify which letter and which sound they would find at the beginning of the name. You can use the names of all of the people in your family, all the people on your block, students in their class, their friends, etc. You can do this same activity as you drive around naming what you see.
