Alphabets kids learning

Teach your Child the Alphabet Here!

Anyone who has kids or has taught them will tell you how difficult it can be to get them to focus on anything for extended periods of time, especially if it’s anything educational. That’s why we’ve came up with a couple of creative options you can try to coax kids into learning and hopefully remembering their ABC’s:

Select the Alphabet to see specific activities corresponding to that letter.

Letter A Activities Letter B Activities Letter C Activities Letter D Activities Letter E Activities

Letter F Activities Letter G Activities Letter H Activities Letter I Activities Letter J Activities

Letter K Activities Letter L Activities Letter M Activities Letter N Activities Letter O Activities

Letter P Activities Letter Q Activities Letter R Activities Letter S Activities Letter T Activities

Letter U Activities Letter V Activities Letter W Activities Letter X Activities Letter Y Activities

Letter Z Activities

Here are some other ways:
Drive Somewhere:
This one is fairly easy to pull off, especially if you drive your kids on the morning school run. All you have to do is point at things like billboards or licence plates and have your children work their way through the letters on it.

It’s an interesting way of learning and it has the added benefit of keeping your kids amused on those long haul journeys or when you’re stuck in traffic.

Alphabet Challenge:
This one can be a lot of fun if you do it right. What you need to do is call out a series of letters or show your children letters on a board for a few brief seconds then have them write a word associated with that letter.

So for example, you would say the letter ‘b’ and they would then have to write ‘ball’, ‘bee’ or if they’re trying to show off ‘byzantine’, although the latter would probably be a bit of a fluke.

Make Alphabet Snacks:
It’s common knowledge that kids love snacks, they will devour everything animal shaped or colorful that’s put in front of them like a pack of tiny piranhas. So what better way to funnel this hunger than by making them snacks based on the alphabet.

However, instead of turning them loose on the undefended cookies you could tell them to only eat one specific letter.

For example, they can only eat something that’s shaped like the letter ‘a’. That way they start to associate learning the alphabet with treats, which in turn helps to motivate them to learn more.

Sing-Along-Songs:
Sing-Along-Songs are perhaps your best weapon in the war against getting your kids to learn the alphabet. These catchy little tunes are always fun to sing with your children and they will always love a chance to sing a silly song.

If you really want it to stick you could do it every day to maximize the effects of the hypnotic melodies.

Alphabet Bingo:
This one is a ton of fun to play and set up; you can try wrangling your kids in to help you make the cards. For bonus parent points you could let them customize their cards, which will in turn help nurture their own creativity.

How it works is, you sit your kids down and they each have a card with a series of letters on it, you then sound out the letter as if you were a bingo caller and the kids tick off the appropriate squares on their card. The first child to fill in their card or make a horizontal or vertical line is the winner.

If you want to get really creative you could say words instead of letters and the kids can mark off the first letter of the word. Or if you want to help them with their spelling you could change it to the second, third or fourth letter, although you should make sure the letters you’re using will appear on the cards.

Alphabet Bag Game:
Last, but not least is the Alphabet Bag game. This activity is pretty straightforward to set up; you need a bag and an assortment of items.

Once you have your bag you then show the contents to the kids and ask them to pick an item beginning with a specific letter out of it without looking. If they get it right they win, simple as that.

These are just a couple of creative ideas you can try to help your children learn the alphabet, each child will take to these various activities differently, it just depends on how fun you make it for them.

When you’re making your own game at home just remember that your main focus of the activity is to make it as fun as possible for your kids, otherwise they won’t show any interest in it at all.

5 Ways to Teach the Alphabet

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. See my disclosure for details.

Teaching the alphabet is foundational for reading and writing. Around the age of 2, children begin showing interest in learning alphabet letters. While some kids learn letters very quickly, others need more repetition and time to learn letters. Today I’m going to share with you some of my favorite ways to teach the alphabet to little ones.

Here’s what a preschooler should know before kindergarten:

Recite/sing the alphabet
Identify uppercase letters
Identify lowercase letters
Match uppercase letters to lowercase letters
Identify the sounds each letter makes
Traces letters
Write some alphabet letters

Here are my five favorite ways to teach the alphabet to children.

1. Read Alphabet Books

Read all sorts of alphabet books to your children, even starting as babies. The repetition will really help your child learn the alphabet at a young age. When my oldest was born, I was surprised at how many alphabet books we had been given as gifts. We loved reading all of them because they were different from each other. I found that around 18 months both my kids really started enjoyed reading alphabet books. Here are a few of our alphabet books:

Here are some of our favorite alphabet books.

The Three Bears ABCChicka Chicka Boom Boom (Board Book)Eating the AlphabetThe Farm Alphabet BookG is for GoatHarold’s ABC (Purple Crayon Book)I Stink! (Kate and Jim Mcmullan)Bad KittyThe Letters Are Lost!AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went FirstZ Is for Moose (Booklist Editor’s Choice. Books for Youth (Awards))Q Is for Duck: An Alphabet Guessing GameABC T-RexWork: An Occupational ABC

2. Sandpaper Letters

Using sandpaper letters is a great way to introduce letters to children. My favorite ones are Didax Sandpaper Tracing Letters or School Supply Tactile Letters Kit. This is a perfect pre-writing activity because children use their finger to trace the sandpaper letters. I love that the cards tell the child where to start and which direction to go.

Sandpaper letters are part of the Montessori approach to learning how to read. These letters provide a tactile and visual way to help children learn the alphabet. In the Montessori method, you teach letters to a child in the 3-period lesson.

1^st period is introducing the letter (“this is” period). Show your child the letters. Have them trace the sandpaper letters. The best way to teach children alphabet letters is by telling them their phonetic sound. So each time they trace the letter, say the phonetic sound.

2^nd period is association (“show me” stage). Ask your child to follow simple directions with the letters. For example, please pick up the /m/ and set it by the window. Continue to do this with each letter several times to reinforce this. If it is too difficult, return to the first period.

3^rd period is recall (“what is this?” period). Only go to this period when they’ve mastered the other two periods. Put a letter in front of the child and say “Can you trace this and tell me what it is?” Continue with the other letters in the same way.

When you use these sandpaper letters, you are teaching them 3 things: the shape of letters, the feel of its shape and how its written, and how you pronounce its sound.

3. Alphabet Puzzles

I think teaching letters with alphabet puzzles are an amazing tool for teaching the alphabet. This is my favorite puzzle, from Melissa and Doug. It’s a beautiful wooden puzzle with neat pictures. This is a great way to practice vocabulary and verbal skills, too.

4. Sensory Activities

While some kids learn letters very quickly, others need more repetition and time to learn letters. I’ve always said that children learn best when they have many multisensory experiences with letters.

I love to incorporate sensory play into learning alphabet letters. When children have meaningful activities with repeated exposure, they start to pick up on letter names. One way is this alphabet ice excavation activity.

You could also make a sensory bin and do an uppercase and lowercase matching activity, like this one.

Or practice writing letters in the sand, like this sensory writing tray.

5. Alphabet Printables

I have quite a few alphabet printables on my blog, but here are is a set that is easy and fun for preschoolers. You will need Do a Dot Markers or dot stickers to fill in the circles.

I love pulling printables out for a quick and easy activity. I’m always advocating for hands-on learning, but sometimes it’s nice to do a few paper activities. Using Do a Dot markers or dot stickers is great for hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

If you’d like to download this printable, just click the button below.

5 Ways to Learn the Alphabet Quickly and Easily with a 3-6 Year Old Child – Somersault

Before learning the alphabet with a child, it is important to understand what you are not going to do. Namely, learning to read. This is a more complex skill, so it is worth putting it off until the time when the child gets acquainted with all the letters and will confidently recognize them and write on their own. Until then, put off the alphabet and reading by syllables.

In this article, we have put together the basic principles to quickly learn the Russian alphabet with a 3-6 year old child in a playful way. For all games with letters, you can use plasticine, paints and any improvised means or magnetic letters - they will easily attract the attention of the child.

Contents:

Learn the Alphabet Easily: Basic Principles
5 ways to learn the alphabet with your child
From alphabet to reading

How to Learn the Alphabet Easily: Basic Principles

Each child can find an easy way to learn the alphabet that suits him or her, but there are basic principles that are important for all children. If you do not follow them, study will turn into drill and the child is unlikely to ever love to read. Here are a few such principles on how to properly learn the alphabet for a child.

Learn sounds first, not letters . At the first stage of learning, it does not matter how the letters in the alphabet are called correctly. Now only sounds are important for the child - "d", and not the letter "De". The names of the letters will only confuse the child, who first needs to learn to recognize the shape of the letters and their sound.
Not learning the alphabet in the correct sequence . Until a child goes to school, it is of no use to him to know how the letters are arranged in the alphabet. This information will only distract him from what is really important: how the letters look and sound. The sequence of the alphabet can be learned later or even at school, where this knowledge will be tested by the teacher.
Do not turn learning into a lesson . Learning from call to call is difficult even for children at school, let alone a baby. Therefore, all learning should take place in a playful way and not for long: 5-7 minutes a day to get acquainted with the letters will be enough. Gradually, this time can be increased, especially if the child likes the proposed games with letters.
Use material objects . At the age of 3-6 years, the child learns the world by touch and taste. It is difficult for him to work with abstract letters spoken aloud. Therefore, it is better to stock up on plasticine and paints and create letters that are more understandable to the child and can be touched. Such a game for children will allow the child to learn the letters of the alphabet and he will recognize them in different forms regardless of what they are made of.
First vowels, then consonants . Vowel sounds are easier to pronounce, so it's worth starting with them.

The main thing is not to force anyone. If you see that the child is inquisitive, enjoys exploring the world and is ready to learn, you can move on to learning letters and the alphabet. So the child will be happy to learn the alphabet in a playful way and gradually learn to read. So that the game is not abstract, you can use the magnetic letters TUMBLING.

5 ways to learn the alphabet with your child

1. Use an interesting topic to study

Use your child's interest to spur his motivation to learn. For example, if your kid is crazy about cars, let them be the topic in which you learn the alphabet. Use any words related to cars:

"A" - bus
"B" - trunk
"C" - driver, etc.

You can show cars and their parts, draw or sculpt from plasticine. It is important that the child's focus shifts from learning to doing what they love. Additionally, the method will help expand vocabulary and knowledge about the world.

2. Cross out a letter of the alphabet in the list

Fill in a small square with arbitrary letters. The task is to cross out only the letter that you are studying. This will help the child focus on one letter and not get distracted by the ones he doesn't remember or don't know.

3. Pulling the letters of the alphabet out of the pouch

The soft-touch magnetic letters are perfect for this method. Put the letters in a bag and give the child the task, without looking, to pull out only the letter that you thought of. Let there not be too many letters in the bag, otherwise the child will get confused. 6-7 pieces will be enough. To start, use letters that are very different in shape, such as "O" and "M". Gradually, the complexity can be increased and searched among similar letters, for example, "K" and "X". Don't forget to praise and encourage your child. You can alternate the learning process with desktops.

4. Recognize letters of the alphabet by ear

You pronounce a word, and if it contains a hidden letter, the child claps his hands.

With this game for kids, you can learn individual letters or the entire alphabet. For example, you name a word, and the child inserts its first letter into the insert frame. To stimulate your child's interest, you can use only words from his favorite topic, for example, the names of animals.

5. Guess words starting with the first letter

You choose one letter and think of a word that starts with that letter. For example, the letter "Z":

- What is this animal with big ears and loves carrots?
- Hare!

This game form is again suitable for learning individual letters or the entire alphabet. If you learn only one letter, the child gets used to quickly recognizing it in different words. And if you give words with different letters, the child as a whole learns to understand with which letter they begin. With the study of the account and the English language will also help TUMBLING.

From the alphabet to reading

When a child learns the Russian alphabet, confidently recognizes all the letters in different words and can draw or mold them on his own, it is worth moving on to reading. Because you need to learn the alphabet just so that the child can read. If knowledge is not used, it will hang as an extra burden, and by the time school will be forgotten. Therefore, you should not learn the alphabet too early: at 3-4 years old, a child is simply not interested in reading books in order to learn something new. He is more interested when his mother reads. Conversely, by the age of six, the child will be glad to have his own books to read them himself.

From “ash” to “yash”: why there are so many classes in Russian schools and which ones children themselves want to study in

Anna Rynda
BBC

Newsletter "Context": it will help you understand the events.

Image copyright Vitaly Nevar/TASS

Russian schools barely have enough alphabet to designate first grades. On the first day of the school year, a video from Krasnodar was widely distributed on social networks, where children stand with signs 1 "S", 1 "X", 1 "F" and 1 "I". It looks strange to the older generation, but now it is used to refer to classes all over the country. The BBC explains why this is happening and what children themselves think about it.

According to regional mass media, this year there were 840 first graders and 29 first graders in Krasnodar school No. 94, and the festive assembly had to be carried out in two shifts.

Users of social networks, who are more accustomed to the situation when there are no more than five or six classes in one parallel - that is, classes from "A" to "E", reacted to the situation with jokes and bewilderment.

Also, the appearance of the 1st "I" class in the Krasnodar school became an occasion for discussion in social networks of the topics of migration to the southern regions of Russia and high population density in the south of the country.

"Krasnodar has become such a big city that only one school has 28 first grades, yes, there is 1 "Y" grade," commented one of the Twitter users.

In fact, the appearance of the first "F", "S" and "I" has little to do with population growth or birth rates.

Schools in Moscow, recruiting first-graders, reach the middle of the alphabet: schoolchildren get, for example, into classes "L" and "P".

Dozens of parallel classes are a consequence of the enlargement of schools, the unification of educational institutions into so-called clusters. The process of merging schools has been going on for several years in many regions of Russia, mainly in large cities. Often, this process is accompanied by protests from parents, unwillingness of school leaders to unite, and even litigation.

In the capital, the reform of the school system started in the early 2010s, when Sergei Sobyanin became mayor, and Iosif Kalina became head of the Moscow Department of Education.

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Before the reform, financing of Moscow schools was largely determined by their status (a school or a gymnasium, etc.), and after that money began to be allocated based on the number of children in each educational institution. To solve the problem of "unpopular" schools with a small number of students and overcrowded prestigious ones, the authorities began to unite them.

The authorities stated that the clustering of schools is necessary primarily to improve the quality of education. The initiators of the reform promised that the availability of specialized education in high school would increase, students would have a wider choice of additional classes, competition between teachers would be higher, and there would be more opportunities for professional growth of teachers.

However, as researchers from the Institute of Education at the Higher School of Economics found out in 2016, things turned out to be more complicated in practice.

According to the study, the availability of specialized education in the senior classes has indeed increased slightly, however, "simple" classes do not get the best teachers, school performance in general does not level out, there are more circles due to the emergence of paid sections, and the number of children attending free mugs, virtually unchanged.

Teachers also talked about the increase in the workload and the emergence of new unpaid duties, but at the same time, teachers in enlarged schools were slightly more satisfied with their salaries than their colleagues from "ordinary" schools.

Many critics of the reform and researchers point to significant negative changes as a result of the consolidation of schools, but the process of clustering educational institutions continues.

This means that first-graders in the near future will come to 1 "A", 1 "K" and, possibly, 1 "Z".

Image copyright Vitaly Nevar/TASS

The BBC Russian service asked the first-graders themselves what letter they would like to enter the class with and what they think about the letter that their class got.

At the school in Rostov-on-Don, where 7-year-old Platon is going to the first grade, this year there are 20 first grades, 30 or more students each. Plato would like to get into the "A" class, but ended up in the "E".

"Because it's the first of September, the first grade and the first letter of the alphabet," says the first grader. "But I also like my class, there are my friends from the kindergarten. the letter of my name. But I would not want to go to the "U" class, because they are the last to go to the line and in general they will be the last everywhere. "

Sasha, a first-grader from Moscow, is also not very happy with the letter her class got: "G" - very hard. Here is "B" soft, I would like to be in 1 "B". We also have 1 "K" and 1 "L", I would not want to be there either. These are some strange letters. And after 1 "G" there is no 1 "D". Unclear. But in general it's not very important what letter you have, you just have to remember yours. me "A" was. "A" is my favorite letter, "A" begins my name. Well, let the letter "L" remain, - explains Arseniy.

Aglaya went to school in Moscow in the 1st "P" grade. At first she told her parents that she didn't care what letter her class got, then she went to the poster with the alphabet, counted and remarked: "It's not so [the letter P] and far away."

Aleksandra, a student of grade 1 "L" at a Moscow school, says that she is happy with the letter her class got: "I think "L" is a good letter. I like the letter "L" because it is beautifully named And she's got a pretty shape too."

And the first grader Tikhon, who is now studying in the 1st "L" grade in Moscow, does not like the letter "L".