Alphabet and Phonics
Alphabet
Most of these activities are self explanatory! We as teachers use these things all the time. I have added my variations to them as well.
Alphabet Font Game
After I’d printed, laminated and cut these all into individual cards, I used them in several different games in my classroom. I have taken the whole bunch, mixed them up, given every student several cards, and then had the class sort them alphabetically. Sometimes I just pick out two or three letters that we are focusing on and have the students help me look at the differences and sort them. And lastly I have placed them into my Name Literacy center so the students could use the different fonts to spell out the names of everyone in our classroom.
Alphabet Outline
Every year I print these alphabet cards out on card stock. The students get to pick their favorite two letters of the alphabet. We then get out the art supplies and the students glue items (pompoms, foil stars, beads, yarn, popcorn, etc.) on to the letters following their shape. Once a student picks which art supply they want to glue on they have to complete the entire letter with that supply. After the entire alphabet is decorated, I give students strips of card stock. They are to write both the capital and lower case letter they have chosen on the strip, and then draw something that starts with that letter onto the strip as well. When all of this is done we build an alphabet chart onto our bulletin board in the classroom out of all of our materials. I usually break this lesson up into three lessons over three days.
Handwriting
My schools adopted handwriting curriculum is D’Nealian. I found that the pages in the workbook were to small for my beginning Kinders to practice on. So, I made these for them as practice sheets.
Phonics
This snowman phonics game is part of my literacy center in January and February. It is a little time consuming to make. I printed it on card stock and the laminated all the pieces so it would last.
Letter On The _______ Song
This is a song that I had been singing with my students to try and help them make a connection between the letter symbol and sound it makes. I liked it so much that I made a themed set of cards to go with each month of learning through out the school year. The cards are all in D’Nealian print and vary between upper and lower case letters depending on the month. I have a laminated set for each month on a ring. We usually sing three different letters each morning at calender time. As the months change you simply replace the object word you are singing about in the song to match the set of cards. Here is an example of the song using the barn cards to sing with.
Letter on the barn (sung to: Wheels on the bus)
Making Words
Making words is a great activity. I usually start teaching with it after we come back to school from winter break. There are several great books out there to buy with lessons and word lists in them to use. I printed these on card stock, laminated them and hung each one on yarn to be worn as a necklace. This way the students are the movement in the sounding and spelling of each word as we go through a lesson.