Alphabet learning for kindergarten

How to Teach the Alphabet

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Teaching the alphabet is the core of what we do in kindergarten for many months! There are many moving parts in the classroom that work together to get kids to learn the alphabet.

How to Effectively Teach the Alphabet in Kindergarten

1.  Just read!  Seems silly to say but the best way to teach kids the alphabet is to just submerse them in it!  As you are doing your normal read aloud, point out the letters and how you are using what is printed on the page to say the words.  And then it’s also fun to read books about the alphabet; below are some of my favorites!

It’s also great to put these books into your writing lab to inspire writing!  They are great jump starters for stories!

2.  Teach the students the letters in their names.  Children have seen the letters in their name more and heard the sounds in those letters their entire life, so it only makes sense to start there.  Be sure to visit our Names Pinterest board for TONS of ideas on working with students’ names!

Follow Simply Kinder’s board Names on Pinterest.

3.  Add music and movement!  So important for little learners and there are so many great videos on YouTube that do this!   I also love to incorporate tunes the students already know into our learning and so the below video is perfect for daily practice!

And then as the school year goes on, you still want to continue to teach the alphabet but the kids get a little bored with the same old songs, so we sing it backward!  (They can do it and so can you!)

4.  Follow your curriculum (or create a map of how you want to teach the letters.)  This is so important because you don’t want to confuse your students.  If your district has a prescribed curriculum, embrace and make it work.  Supplement it where you can with fun and engaging activities.  If you don’t have curriculum, decide how you want to teach the alphabet.  There are many theories on what works, but honestly you will find research that says a letter a day is appropriate and a letter a week is as well.  In my perfect work, we would teach 2 letters a week but that’s a decision you will have to make if you are able to.

If you don’t have a curriculum, our Letter of the Week files can help.  They are fully comprehensive units that have posters, printables, anchor charts, centers, and lots more!  We call it Letter of the Week because it is literally a week worth of activities for each letter, but you don’t have to be a Letter of the Week teacher.  You can definitely use whatever timeframe and all sorts of reading programs and approaches with these printable.

5.  Put learning the alphabet into your centers!  Centers are where the students really practice and get comfortable with the skills you are teaching!  So it’s super important that all year you have the alphabet covered in your activities.  One of my student’s favorite centers is our boring old flashcards on binder rings that I keep in a drawer in my writing center.  (This is of course more of a spring sentence but at the beginning of the year students can draw other pictures and label them with the same letter they pick.)

6.  Track your student’s growth.  Another super important part of teaching the alphabet.  I use Checklist Assessments to record what letters my kids can and cannot say the name, sound and write.  This helps me to be able to pull targeted groups and really instruct on what my students are needing!  

7.  Include crafts and make it fun!  So important to understand that our little learners need crafts and activities to create meaning!  Again so many crafts and activities you can do, but I love Alphabet Hats because they go home with the students and the parents adore them!  (Be sure to click over for a free hat!)

Making it fun does not have to mean arts and crafts either.  Kids love doing Interactive Alphabet Notebooks where they can cut, glue, and assemble all sorts of little flip flaps.  Can kinders do them?  YES.  Our Interactive Notebooks are make with easy cuts that repeat again and again.  You will model the first couple times and then kids will get it.    These are truly a great tool because it is fun and academic.

8.  Practice for fluency!  Once your students have a good basis of the letters, you will want to have them pick up the speed and create some automaticity in their knowledge!  Letter cards or word searches are great resources to do this.  Students can start by just identifying specific letters by circling the or dotting them with a bingo dotter.  This will get them used to seeing the letter all mixed up and then as the year moves on they can read those letters for speed and fluency!

9.  Keep your families well informed. We really need our families to help reinforce what we teach in the classroom and that is especially important when learning the alphabet.  We need our parents to be on the same page with how to form the letters, teaching upper or lower case letters first, and etc.  These Alphabet Brochures can help with that.

Alphabet Bracelets are also a great activity to do in class that lets parents know what letters we worked on in class.

When all of those elements fall into place, teaching and learning the alphabet is a lot more effective!

So I have teamed up with some of my friends to get you more information on teaching the alphabet!

At Simply Kinder we work together to bring you ready-to-use resources to partner with great teaching for any curriculum, a Facebook community where teachers talk all things Kindergarten, and low-prep learning ideas that your students will love. Be sure to stay up to date with all things kindergarten on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and through email. Simply Kinder: where teaching Kinder is definitely better together!

How to Teach Letters to Kindergarten Students Plus 5 Alphabet Activities and a Free File!

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Teaching letters to kindergarten students should be organized and follow a routine so students can reach mastery of the alphabet. Here are some tips on how to introduce and teach letters in kindergarten. 

As we are introducing the alphabet, we help kindergarten students learn to identify the letters of the alphabet at first by looking at the path of motion. When we designed our Engaging Readers units, we not only planned amazing reading comprehension activities, but we also planned our word study as well. We are often asked about how we teach letters to kindergarten students at the beginning of the year.

When kindergarten students come to us at the beginning of the year, they know the names of objects in their everyday life. If you show a student a picture of a car, they will know it’s a car even if you turn it sideways or flip it so it’s facing the other direction. Same with a dog, a bird, a house… they are still the same object. However, with letters that is not the case. When we look at a letter of the alphabet, the meaning of the object changes when it gets positioned differently. Think about the lowercase letters b, d, p, and q. It is important for students to know the names of the letters and recognize letters in the correct formation. This takes a little retraining for our kindergarten friends.

Experts tell us that is important to think about letter formation and to teach students explicitly as you introduce these letters. Research also tells us that students who are confident with their handwriting skills produce a higher quality of writing than those with poor handwriting. (Ruetzel, R July/August 2015 Findings Primary‐Grade Teachers Will Want to Know The Reading Teacher, Vol. 69, Issue 1)  

You can see more on handwriting and the path of motion for lowercase and uppercase letters in this blog post:

• Why Teaching Kindergarten Handwriting is Still Important

How to Teach Letters in Kindergarten: Letter Order

According to Wiley Blevins, there is no consensus on the best sequence for teaching the alphabet. Many teachers believe letters should be introduced in alphabetical order, whereas others believe that a young learner should learn meaningful letters first, such as the letters in their names. When teaching young children letter names and letter sounds, we teach letters that allow them to build words quickly. So, we begin with the letters t, a, b, and h. We then follow a set sequence throughout our curriculum for teaching letters and beyond.

Once students learn about a letter, that letter doesn’t go away. Research tells us that students need 6-8 weeks to build mastery. So, the letter t should show up in your review 6-8 weeks after the introduction. 

How to Teach Letters in Kindergarten: Routine

The best way to successfully teach letters to kindergarten students is to be organized and have a routine. When it comes to student learning, routines are critical. Now, I am all about fun and exciting activities to support learning but it’s important that students know what they are working on and what the next step is going to be. We want to teach letters the same way every single time so students can more easily store the information.

During the first 6 weeks, we introduce the entire alphabet. Each week, we introduce 4-5 letters. Many big boxed curriculums provide a letter of the week study. This is not effective.

Research by Jones and Reutzel (2012) showed that letter‐a‐day instructional pacing was significantly more effective than letter‐a‐week pacing in promoting students’ mastery of the alphabet letter names. They attributed this finding to a total of 6–7 distributed reviews of the alphabet letters in a single academic year, compared to only 1.5 distributed reviews when pacing instruction at a letter a week.

So clearly letter of the week is old and outdated. Letter of the day is a better and developmentally appropriate approach. It is also suggested that students NOT spend an hour a day on letter recognition instruction, but rather just 12 minutes a day… 12! Minutes!  The instruction should be quick and include activities like letter identification, sound identification, sorting letters, finding letters, and writing letters! 

How to Teach Letters in Kindergarten: Quick Daily Lesson

Letter Introduction

When we begin teaching letter recognition and sound, we provide students with a kinesthetic movement to accompany each specific letter. The movement is listed on the back of our sound cards.

Letter Sounds

We identify pictures that represent the letter sound and place the sound cards in a pocket chart.

Letters in a Sentence

I read an alliteration sentence to students and we identify the word that starts with the focus letter. I also have students repeat the sentence with me a few times.

During our lesson, students are also working in their phonics journals.

Teach letters and phonics with our ready-to-go lesson plans and resources. You can find our Engaging Readers phonics lessons here:

• Phonics Lessons for Kindergarten and First Grade

Letter Recognition Activities

After each letter is learned, I provide students with different ways to practice the letters during their literacy center time. It is important for students to have lots of opportunities to apply their learning and strengthen their neural pathways. Here are 5 alphabet recognition activities that are perfect for centers! You can also use these great ideas during small group.

Alphabet Activity #1: Letter Identification Editable Worksheets

These printable and editable worksheets are a great resource for practicing letter identification. You can simply add which letters you want your students to practice, select the themed activity pages, and print. You can easily differentiate these worksheets to meet individual needs.

Alphabet Activity #2: Alphabet Games

These fun games are perfect for reviewing letter knowledge. Students pull out a card and say the letter name. There are special cards that make this game even more engaging. I love the multiple themes so this activity can be used throughout the year and not lose its excitement.

Alphabet Activity #3: Sequence Letter Identification

Another fun way to practice lower case letters. There are also multiple sets of this game so you can add in initial sounds, blends, digraphs, and vowels later in the year! Check out the bundle, HERE!

Alphabet Activity #4: Kindergarten Literacy Centers Letters and Print Concepts

These literacy centers are non-seasonal, easy to differentiate and follow a predictable format. Perfect addition to your literacy stations!

Alphabet Activity #5: Digital Letter Practice

If you have a technology center, these digital letter practice activities are great for the beginning of the school year. You can use these on Seesaw or Google!

ABC Songs

Alphabet songs are also a great way for students to practice letter identification and sounds. Here are a few to check out.

ABC Books

Of course, kindergarten teachers have lots of alphabet books! I have a blog post with some of my favorite alphabet books. You can check out the list and snag some free printables here:

• Alphabet Books for Kindergarten Plus a Free File!

Free File!

These free alphabet printables are perfect for your little learners! These alphabet posters show letter-sound associations and the correct formation of letters. Plus, they align with our Engaging Readers phonics program and Science of Reading curriculum. Note: There is another set of alphabet posters that show correct letter formation. You get both sets! Just add your name and email below. 

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Deedee Wills

My teaching career allowed me to experience teaching in different classroom environments and grades. My heart belongs to early childhood education. My job is to make teaching FUN, ENGAGING, and EASIER. Welcome!

CHILD DEVELOPMENT: ABC Grammar

Welcome to www.RazvitieRebenka.com.

You are in the "ABC-Grammar" section. In this section you will find all the articles that develop materials, cards, posters, DIY toys, puzzles, coloring books, logic puzzles and much more collected on this site for learning ABC and Grammar with your child.
All material for classes with your child, which you will find in this section, you can download absolutely FREE.
Everything that you will see in the "ABC-Grammar" section was created for use at home, in kindergartens and mini groups, at school in primary grades.

In this section you can find exclusive teaching materials for classes created by the site's author.
Please do not remove the site name from the educational material that you will download. If you use educational materials from the site www.RazvitieRebenka.com, please provide a link to this site.

1. How to teach a child the letters of the Russian language? An interesting way to help you teach your child the letters of the Russian language at home. We make cards together and play games that will help memorize the letters of the Russian alphabet in a playful way.
2. Do-it-yourself ABC Book For Children How can you make an ABC book with your own hands? There is a wonderful way to make educational books for your Child. To do this, you need a regular file folder.
3. Learning the vowels Task: Find, Count and Guess the color. You ask what does the count and color have to do with it? Everything is very simple. Logic tasks that will help you easily remember the vowels in the alphabet.
4. Video Lesson "Letters of the Alphabet" Wonderful educational cartoon for children.
5. Video Lesson "Singing the Russian alphabet" One of the best and easiest ways to learn the letters of the alphabet is to sing a song of letters. Try it, I assure you, your baby will appreciate this video.
6. We study the letter "A". Or what the letter "A" looks like A wonderful selection of educational material. Color the letter , trace it around, connect the dots and see what happens, find in the picture and count how many letters "A" you see.
7. Video Lesson "Learning to read" ABC for children - video lesson for children.
8. Letters of the Alphabet. Puzzle Cards Learning letters can be turned into an interesting game. Multi-colored cards with letters of the alphabet will help you. But these cards are not simple. These are puzzle cards. Cut out neatly small squares with the image of letters on the card and ask the child to choose the correct letter for each card.
9. My first Alphabet A poster depicting Russian letters.
10. How to teach a child to read in syllables? One of the fun ways to make a study guide at home. A cheerful and colorful train will help us.
11. Video Lesson "ABC in the Circus" A fun and entertaining video for kids that will tell your little one what letters are.
12. Alphabet Cards Letters of the alphabet in the form of separate cards that you can color yourself. Each card has a letter and an object or animal that starts with that letter. With the help of these cards, you can not only introduce the child to the letters of the alphabet, but also replenish the vocabulary with new words.
13. Video lesson "ABC for Children" Video lesson "My first ABC". Learning letters together. Developing video lesson for a child.
14. Learn to Read Three Letter Words An interesting and entertaining game for your children. If you are learning letters, then the game "Learn to read by playing" is suitable for you. If you are learning new words, then this game "Learn to read by playing" is for you. If you are learning how to make words from letters, then this game "Learning to read by playing" is for you. You need to print the cards, stick them on cardboard or thick paper. Cut out circles with letters.
15. Learn to Read Four Letter Words An interesting and entertaining game for your children. If you are learning letters, then the game "Learn to read by playing" is suitable for you. If you are learning new words, then this game "Learn to read by playing" is for you. If you are learning how to make words from letters, then this game "Learning to read by playing" is for you. You need to print the cards, stick them on cardboard or thick paper. Cut out circles with letters.
16. Letters of the Alphabet The material was collected to study the ABC together with the child. Here you will find interesting tasks for learning the Letters of the Alphabet, coloring pages and poems about letters. In tasks, you need to color the letter, color the pictures and connect them with a pencil with the letter. Try to write large and small printed letters. Read the words beginning with the letter syllable by syllable. Write in capital letters. Listen to the verses beginning with the letter and guess the Riddle. Letter A Letter O letter U letter I, Y Letters E, E Letters 9000 The letter H letter P letter B letter T letter D letter K letter G 018 letter in letter f letter L letter C letter Z letter h 9000 Letter S
17. Colored Alphabet Letter Cards Alphabet Letter Colored Cards for activities with children at home, in kindergartens and primary grades.
18. Russian Alphabet Color Cards Color cards with letters of the Russian alphabet. Each card with a letter has a picture starting with that letter. With the help of these cards, you can learn the letters of the Russian alphabet, as well as new words.
19. How to prepare your hand for writing? These tasks will help your child prepare his hand for writing, master the skills necessary for the correct writing of numbers, letters, size, inclination, position on the line. A huge variety of tasks to prepare the hand for writing are aimed at developing fine motor skills and coordination of hand movements, imagination and logical thinking, and the formation of confident graphic skills. How to prepare your hand for writing? Part 1 How to prepare your hand for writing? Part 2
20. Lotto for Children. Learning Letters Playing Lotto made by hand. In order to make Lotto for children at home, we will need: - white sheets of paper - stickers with letters - cards with letters of the alphabet - circles cut out of colored paper This game can be played by 2 or more people at the same time.
21. Writing and literacy training If your child knows letters but cannot read yet, I offer you interesting tasks that will teach your child to read words. In this workbook, your child will learn to read monosyllabic words that stand for certain things.
22. Color double-sided cards with Letters of the Alphabet Color double-sided Cards with the image of Letters and Pictures denoting words starting with this letter. Colorful cards with letters. The cards show pictures - photos of household items, food, animals, birds, furniture, etc.
23. Syllables. Making words from syllables Download free cards with letters and syllables. Syllables. Making words from syllables. Total 20 cards. Letters and syllables for children. Cut the large cards into individual small cards. And a wonderful material for teaching reading is ready. How to teach a child to read by syllables? This question interests all parents.
24. Learning to read while playing. Pets and Birds If you are learning letters, learning to build words from letters, learning new words, you are introducing your child to the names of pets and birds, then this game "Learning to read while playing. Learning Pets and Birds" is for you.
ear to determine where in a word this or that letter is located: at the beginning, in the middle or at the end.

32. Vowel plus Consonant Syllables Cards with Syllables according to the principle: Syllables with the first vowel. Download and print cards with the image of syllables. Total: 8 large cards with syllables

35. Cards SYLABLES (not colored) Total cards: 21. Letters and syllables for children. Non-colored syllables 1 Non-colored syllables 2
36. Cards Read Combination of Words Free download of cards to practice with your child. Cards from the series "We read combinations of words." We teach literacy - a set of cards with pictures. We print the cards on a color printer and cut the cards neatly in the middle. The child must collect the picture, the older child can also read the phrase.
37. Magic cells and dots Download exciting developmental tasks in the recipe Magic cells and dots. We develop the child and prepare for school. Copy. Part 1 Copy. Part 2

38. Collect the Word from the Picture and Letters. Didactic Game Cards collect the word and the picture. Download flashcards for free. Before starting the game, cut the cards along the lines, the puzzle is ready. The game will help the child learn the letters of the alphabet and teach how to make words from the letters.
39. Sound Model of the Word Phonetics is a branch of the science of language that studies the sounds of a language, stress, syllable. The sounds that a person makes are what we call speech sounds. Download flashcards to make words.
40. Flashcards - Which Letter the Word Begins with To form the skills of sound-letter analysis, use these didactic aids. You can download these cards for free and use them for studying at home, in kindergarten or in elementary grades.
41. Clothespin Educational Games Educational toys that can be made at home. For these games, we need ordinary clothespins.

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Boring English for children: learning the alphabet

It is better to learn any foreign language from childhood. It is known that children who grew up in a multilingual environment are much easier to adapt and absorb new information much faster.

In order for a child to start learning English as early as possible and not get bored of this process, it is enough to turn boring learning into a game. So it will become much easier for the baby to memorize new words and phrases, and you will spend time with your child not only fun, but also productive.

In this article we will talk about how to simply and easily learn the English alphabet for both children and all beginners and give a few poems and songs for learning.

English alphabet

The alphabet in English is called alphabet or simply ABC. It has 26 letters, of which 20 are consonants and only 6 are vowels.

Vowels: A, E, I, O, U, Y
Consonants: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Z

Alphabet with transcription and pronunciation:

Aa [ei] [hey]
Bb [bi:] [bi]
Cc [si:] [si]
Dd [di:] [di]
Ee [i:] [i]
Ff [ef] [ef]
Gg [dʒi:] [ji]
Hh [eitʃ] [eh]
Ii [ai] [ai]
Jj [dʒei] [jay]
Kk [kei] [kei]
Ll [el] [el]
Mm [em] [em]
Nn [en] [en]
Oo [ou] [o]
Pp [pi:] [pi]
Qq [kju:] [cue]
Rr [a:] [aa, ar]
Ss [es] [es]
Tt [ti:] [ti]
Uu [ju:] [yu]
Vv [vi:] [vi]
Ww [ `dʌbl `ju: ] [double]
Xx [eks] [eks]
Yy [wai] [wai]
Zz [zed] [zed]

Almost all letters of the alphabet are pronounced the same by Americans and Brits, except for the last one. In American English, Z will sound like "zi" [ziː].

The study of the alphabet usually starts with an alphabet song: this makes it easier for the child to remember the pronunciation. She sings along the lines:

Do you know your ABC?
You can learn along with me!
A, B, C, D, E, F, G
H, I, J, K
L, M, N, O, P
Q, R, S,
T, U, V
W, X, Y and Z
Now you know your alphabet!

By the way, due to the difference in the pronunciation of the letter "Z", the end of this song will sound different in the British and American versions:

British

X, Y, Z - Now I know my alphabet (Now I know my alphabet) or Now you know your alphabet (Now you know your alphabet).

American

Now I know my ABC, twenty-six letters from A to Z (Now I know my alphabet, would you like to sing with me next time).

It is with the study of the alphabet that an exciting journey into any foreign language begins. Everyone needs to know ABC by heart in order to know how to write and pronounce individual letters correctly. Especially if you need to spell a word. Spelling is how a word is spelled. There is no direct analogue of spelling in Russian, but the Americans even have a whole Spelling Bee game in which you need to spell a word without errors. Spelling Bee competitions and competitions are often held in the USA.

But you need to start simple, especially for children. We tell you a few tricks on how to make it so that your child learns the alphabet as easy as ABC (easier than easy).

Word Cards

One effective way to learn new words and remember the alphabet is to make flashy cards with letters and words that begin with them and hang them in a prominent place.

The same technique can be used to enrich vocabulary: just hang cards with translations over the objects that you have in your apartment - let the child remember how words are spelled and pronounced.

One of the easiest options is to use words that are familiar to the child. It can be the names of animals or everyday objects.

Here are the letters with the corresponding words, which will allow you to remember not only spelling, but also practice pronunciation:

A - Apple (Apple)
B - Banana (Banana)
C - Cat (Cat)
D - Dog (Dog)
E - Elephant (Elephant)
F - Fox (Fox)
G - Giraffe (Giraffe)
H - House (House)
I - Ice-cream (Ice cream)
J - Jam (Jam)
K - Key (Key)
L - Lemon (Lemon)
M - Mouse (Mouse)
N - Nose (Nose)
O - Owl (Owl)
P - Panda (Panda)
Q - Queen (Queen)
R - Rabbit (Rabbit)
S - Squirrel (Protein)
T - Turtle (Turtle)
U - Umbrella (Umbrella)
V - Violin (Violin)
W - Wolf (Wolf)
X - Ox (Ox)
Y - Yacht (Yacht)
Z - Zebra (Zebra)

You can find a set of these cards in any bookstore, or you can make your own.

Verse for learning the English alphabet

In verse form, it is much easier to remember the order of letters and words that begin with this letter. Many teachers read the following rhyme to the smallest students to get acquainted with the alphabet:

There is a knock on our door.
- Who's there?
- The letter A and autumn - autumn.
To everyone, so that he is not sad,
They give an apple - an apple.

Letter B, like a ball - ball
Jumps, hides under the table.
It's a pity I don't have time to play:
I am reading a book

Games for learning the English alphabet for children

Interesting games using the same cards will allow the child to get used to it faster and not get bored while learning the English alphabet. What can you play with your child:

Draw a letter

Tell your child a letter of the English alphabet and ask them to draw it with their fingers or with their body. You can play in turn and show some letters yourself.

"Draw a letter"

Put the alphabet cards in front of the child and invite him to draw the letter himself on a piece of paper. So he will quickly learn not only to visually recognize letters, but also to write them in the future. Similarly, you can take plasticine and ask the baby to mold the letters of the English alphabet from it.

Word Ball

A more active game in which you can pass the ball to each other and name letters in alphabetical order or, for more advanced ones, words that begin with that letter.

Stop song

Place the letter cards in front of the child and turn on the alphabet song in English. Stop it at an arbitrary moment - the child must repeat the last letter he heard and show the corresponding card.

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