Introducing the Alphabet

One of my favorite things to do is teach letters and sounds to my Kinders...so I guess you could say my favorite thing to teach is READING!  

I just wanted to share a few ways I begin introducing the alphabet.  Many of these I shared in one of my presentation in Vegas this summer.

I like to pull the letter I'm introducing from our mystery bag.  I think it just creates suspense..gets the kids thinking...is exciting and fun!  Each day we put the letter in the pocket chart and sing the alphabet song and we stop at the letter we last put on.  Of course, they usually say, "I know what letter will be next"...and that's totally ok! 

These adorable little letters came from Poco and Pop.

We sing all kinds of songs from Dr. Jean, to Shari Sloane's Letter Pop, and Jack Hartmann.  

I also love Harry Kindergarten on YouTube and Have Fun Teaching.

Some of my favorite Letter Songs to use are from Heidi Songs.  You have to check out her Letter Sounds DVD!  It's the best!  I highly recommend purchasing this DVD.  I use it all the time and my kids remember the catchy tunes she has for each letter and sound.  

I love including pictures of my students on our alphabet cards and name chart.  It gives the students a personal connection to letters.

I use my discovery table from Lakeshore a TON for letters and sounds at the beginning of the year.  Here are a few ways we use it.

This game can be found HERE.

These are just foam puzzles from Dollar Tree and magnetic letters and shapes.  I use magnetic fishing poles a lot too!

Fine motor skills are so super important for young learners especially those who have little to no prior experience using writing tools.  These are great activities for teaching the alphabet.  You can find all of these activities in my Alpha-Frenzy Pack.

Reading is Writing!  I want my students to get started with writing right away and writing the alphabet is a perfect start.  These activities can, again, be found in my  Alpha-Frenzy pack.

We journal each letter of the alphabet through hands-on activities.  This journal can be found HERE.

You can try it FREE HERE to see if you'd like to try it with your kiddos.

I found textured foam at Michael's Craft Store and die-cut letters for my kids to use as tactile letters for tracing. 

I love these cute little anchor charts from Cara Carroll.  I hang these on my board and refer to them often while introducing and teaching each letter.

I found this little "Letters on the Bus" printable from Mailbox Magazine years ago.  Its great for a quick little letter chant and for small groups.  

Finally, there's TONS of fun ideas to incorporate into teaching the alphabet.  A favorite is popping letters out of balloons while listening to Who Let the Letters Out.  Afterward, we put each letter that popped out into a pocket chart in alphabetical order.  

We also love decorating our very own kid-made alphabet that hangs in our classroom all year.  It gives the students a sense of ownership to the alphabet.

I hope you found this post useful!  Hopefully you can take some of these ideas and use them in your own classroom!

Thanks for reading my blog!