How to teach a 4 year old letter recognition

5 Easy ways to teach the alphabet to preschoolers | Daycare Blog

Teaching children the alphabet is foundational to learning how to read. Before children can put together sounds or draw together lines that make words, they need to know what they are. If you’ve never taught the alphabet before, the concept may sound abstract: how do you teach something that comes so naturally to you? Teaching letters can be really fun and simple. In this article, we’ll give you easy ways to teach the alphabet to preschoolers.

1) Sing alphabet songs

Obviously, we all know the English-language, “A-B-C-D, E-F-G,” song. That’s a great place to start. However, there are more alphabet songs, which can add variety to your tunes, and help kids learn the alphabet in different ways.

This article lists a whole bunch of alphabet songs to try. And, if you saw our article on YouTube channels for toddlers and preschoolers, you can find letter-related songs there too. The visuals in videos can show objects that start with each letter, and sometimes the songs also pronounce sounds too.

One important note brought up by this early childhood educator, is that kids should go from singing the song, to being able to say and point out the letters without a tune. So don’t stop at singing!

2) Play letter matching games

Letter matching games are easy to set up. You can have a poster board with the alphabet printed on it in large letters. Have separate letter magnets or paper letters cut out at the same size as the print letters. Ask the preschoolers to match their cut outs to the letters on the chart. Where does “A” go? Place the letter “A” cut out on top of the printed “A” on the poster board. Get them to practice doing this with all the other letters.

As the early childhood educator mentioned above noted, you can also have an alphabet ‘arc,’ where one end of a half-circle shows the letter “A”, and the other end the letter “Z”. In between you can have other letters in the alphabet shown, but not all of them. Ask the preschoolers to put down their block letters in the right sequence, using the pre-filled in letters as clues.

3) Open a new ‘alphabet box’ each week

You may have seen us post on Facebook that a certain week is brought to you by a letter we’re covering. It may be “C,” and you’ll see photos of us painting the letter C at daycare, or learning about animals that start with the letter “C.” Weekly letter themes are common in preschools.

You can take your weekly letter curriculum a step further by creating a box that children can open to discover objects that relate to that letter.

For example, on the week covering the letter “A,” your preschoolers can open (or even unlock) a box that contains an apple, a toy airplane, a toy alligator, an acorn, an arrow (a safe one!), and so on. In fact, don’t tell the children right away what letter the box of ‘treasures’ represents. Ask them if they can guess the letter they’ll cover that week by observing the objects in the box alone. This can be a fun and whimsical way to have your children get excited about the week ahead, and work together to come up with an answer.

3) Use interdisciplinary learning with each letter, to strengthen letter associations

Since repeating a letter over and over again can get boring, you can mix it up a little by bringing in related lessons. You can start with a week’s letter as your core subject. Then, throughout the day, teach interdisciplinary subjects that still relate.

For example, if you are on the letter “R,” you can learn about the colour “red” too, since it starts with “R.” Ask the children, ‘what things are red?’ If you are on the letter “A,” you can learn about apples. We’ve done this before, where we teach children about the types of apples there are, as well as explain that seeds are inside an apple, and so on.

This blogger lists a whole bunch of crafts you can you incorporate into your letter learning. For example, you can make holes with a hole punch for the letter “H.” This can then lead into learning about the circle shape. You get the idea…

4) If you use flashcards to teach the alphabet, use logical ones

Flashcards are a great memorization tool, and the alphabet is all about memorizing. However, this teacher warns that sometimes, pre-made flashcards can get really confusing. If you are teaching the letter “D” and there is an image of something that simply uses the sound of “D” somewhere in the word, but doesn’t start with “D”… well you can quickly see how even adults would be confused by that.

Remember, at this stage, you’re not teaching phonetics or complex vocabulary and pronunciation. First, children need to recognize and know the alphabet. Use the simplest flash cards, with the simplest pictures of the objects and animals that preschoolers can recognize.

That said, sometimes you want to use lowercase and uppercase letters in your flashcards…and yes, that can be confusing for the very young learners, especially when the upper and lowercase look so different, but are called the same thing. But if you’re using a set of magnets, for example, you can just use their uppercase versions, that’s ok (they may only come in that form). For very early learners, you can start really basic. Just don’t forget to start showing them the lowercase and uppercase letters together at some point in their alphabet learning journey.

5) Eat foods shaped like letters to help preschoolers learn their alphabet

Speaking of interdisciplinary alphabet learning, why not do a baking session with the kids at preschool? They can use letter-shaped cookie cutters to make a fun and yummy snack. Meanwhile, there is a host of lessons you can teach with the baking activity. Chemistry, cooking, nutrition…the list goes on.

If you want the easy route, try commercially-sold letter-shaped biscuits. IKEA has a version of these. Ask your toddler or preschooler to name the alphabet letter they’re about to eat. Eating it can be the reward for getting it right!

And of course, there is alphabet soup, or noodles shaped like letters. You can make mealtime fun, and educational, with these edible alphabet manipulatives.

So there you have it, 5 easy ways to teach the alphabet to preschoolers. They may even be fun for you, too! It is super cute to hear little ones pronounce letters, and guess what object goes with each letter. When your preschoolers are learning the alphabet, be sure to take every teachable opportunity you can to encourage them to recognize letters in the world around them. If you’re on a field trip, ask the children if they can spot their letter-of-the-week on a street or building sign. If you’re reading a book, see if they can spot the letters you’re reading to them. Keep pushing letter recognition throughout the day, so the lessons can really sink into their memory.

See more on our blog:

• How to teach digraphs to preschool children (6 ways)
• What is the best way to teach word recognition to early childhood readers?
• Why is literacy crucial in the early years? How can parents and preschools help with reading skills?
• How to teach toddlers and preschoolers to count, and learn their numbers
• Ideas for teaching shapes in preschool and daycare

How to Teach Your Preschooler Letter Recognition Through Play

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Helping your preschooler to gain letter recognition skills does not need to feel like “work!”

Learning through play in a fun, stress-free, and positive manner is always the best way.  

What Letter Recognition Means

Learning letter recognition skills involves several different hands-on components. 

Children need to distinguish the shapes of letters from each other (visually recognize them) and be able to point to and state the letter names, as well as the sounds made by each letter.

In addition, they must learn to form letters and write them. 

These skills do not all need to be accomplished during the preschool years and in fact, preschoolers are not yet developmentally ready to learn to read and write. 

By simply exposing your child in a fun way, you will begin the process of laying down foundational pre-reading and writing skills.

When Should a Child Recognize Letters of the Alphabet?

Although you can read about average ages when kids gain alphabet skills, those often vary widely.  

Just as children learn to walk and talk at different ages, the same is true for recognizing letters of the alphabet. 

They each learn at their own pace, depending on many factors. 

How to Build Skills to Prepare Your Child for Letter Recognition

Through fun play activities, parents can help their children gain various developmental skills that prepare preschoolers for letter recognition. 

Those types of skills include visual perception, memory, and auditory perception.

What this means is that learning the letters does not in fact start with exposure to the actual letters, but rather to play activities that develop these skills.

Visual Perception

Visual perception refers to your child’s brain making sense of what their eyes are seeing, such as details and shapes (shape recognition). 

These skills also include visual-motor and eye-hand coordination.  

Helpful kinds of activities include:

• those that exercise the large muscles (such as throwing/catching)
• small motor activities (like lacing)
• visual perception (such as building puzzles)
• and limiting screen time, which has limitations related to visual perception skills.

Memory

Memory development relates to storing and using information in the brain. 

Stress-free activities to enhance these skills include:

• simple card games
• Memory card games (get your own by downloading the FREE set of printables at the end of the post)
• talking about fun memories
• story visualization
• reading and talking about books
• Visual memory games, like picture bingo
• Auditory memory games 

Auditory Perception

Auditory perception includes the brain’s ability to distinguish sounds and words, which is important for learning the sounds of letters.  

These are the kind of activities that can support this skill:

• listening to music
• distinguishing animal sounds
• clapping out copied rhythm patterns 

[source]

How do I Teach My Child Letter Recognition?

Even before your child shows an interest in print, 

• reading to them
• sharing poems and nursery rhymes
• talking to them
• telling stories
• and singing songs to or with them

are all meaningful and fun activities that set the stage for letter recognition. 

Keep it fresh, keep it new, and be willing to return to their favourite activities when asked. 

As your child shows a growing interest in print, make it available to them whenever possible.

Instead of keeping that book to yourself as you read to them, show children the words, running your fingers over them as you read. Let kids turn the pages of books. 

Have books available in the home to which kids have constant access.  

So many things around the house contain words, like packages, lists, letters, emails, screens, magazines, and greeting cards. 

Point and touch as you read, showing children that you are using words daily, expressing how much can be learned through their use. 

Write in front of your kids for all different purposes, at least sometimes spelling aloud. 

Make drawing and writing tools and surfaces available to your child at all times, indoors and out. 

Don’t just offer the traditional papers and crayons – include:

• Drawing with sticks in the sand
• Writing on clay or playdough
• Drawing on shower and bath walls with soap 

Should I Teach the Letters in a Specific Order?

Instead of teaching letters in any special, prescribed order, focus on those that are used most often and in order of importance for your child. 

They typically want to know about the letters:

• in their names
• in “MOM” and “DAD”
• in a pet’s name
• environmental print (like on STOP or WALK signs)
• and even outstanding words from a favourite storybook

Think about and pay attention to those letters and words that appear to be interesting to your kids, using them as the foundation to build upon.

[source]

Is it Better to Teach Upper or Lowercase Letters First?

For preschoolers, the field of occupational therapy makes a good case for beginning with capitals in handwriting letter formation. 

They are formed from larger lines and curves that avoid retracing and changing directions, while still teaching top to bottom strokes. 

If children try to form letters for which their visual-motor skills are not prepared, they sometimes build poor habits that can be difficult to break later on. 

Of course, your child may be familiar with lowercase letters, seeing them in many print formats, and gradually learning to identify them. 

When their motor skills are ready, they typically make an easy switch to including them along with uppercase when they write. 

 [source] 

Letter Recognition Activities and Games for Preschoolers

Here are some fun ways to teach your preschooler recognition through play. 

1. Point Out Environmental Print

Print is all around us.  

Point out, talk about and stress the sounds of words on signs (such as favourite restaurants and traffic/street signs), cereal or other product boxes/labels, and familiar logos. 

2. Share Rhyming Books

Read favourite rhyming books to your child, accentuating the rhyme and rhythm. 

Afterwards, play an oral game of stating some rhyming words from the story and adding a new rhyming word of your own. 

Challenge your child to come up with more words that rhyme. Either real or pretend “words” are okay, as it is the rhyming factor that counts. 

3. Letter Hunt

Point out and talk about the letters in your child’s name, making them clearly visible in print.

Show them how you find one of those same letters in a magazine or newspaper and cut out as a rather square piece (not necessarily trying to cut out close to the letter’s edges). 

Challenge them to find other letters from their name in print and cut those out, as well. 

After all the letters have been found, they can arrange them in the correct order for their name.  

These may be kept in a small bag for future use or glued onto a coloured sheet of paper to post on the fridge or in your child’s room. 

Instead of cutting, another option is to use different colours of highlighters to mark various letters found in print. 

4. Play with Plastic/Wooden Letters

Letters may be sorted and put into piles in different ways: 

• those with curves
• letters with straight lines
• those from your child’s name or other important words
• letters they can name
• and those for which they can say the sounds

Letters with magnets may be used on the fridge or on a magnet board for sorting purposes.

5. Bake Letters

Use bread or pretzel dough to form letters with your child, then bake them to be eaten later.

While you work, talk about the letter names, sounds, and easy words (like their names) that may be formed. 

Special baking tins and cookie cutters may be purchased to bake letters. You can also bake oblong cakes and cut into large letter shapes, as well.

6. Form Letters with Familiar Materials

Offer kids various types and colours of pasta to form letters on flat backgrounds, either to glue into place or to leave loose and rearrange into different letters. 

Other materials to explore might include:

• dry breakfast cereals
• buttons or pennies
• cotton balls
• dried beans
• mini-marshmallows
• toothpicks
• rice
• Yarn

7. Form Letters with Unusual Materials

Using a tabletop or oblong baking pan with low sides, spread shaving cream or pudding for your child to trace letters into with their fingers. 

The same may be done with sand (or moved outside), to trace in with fingers or safe “sticks,” like pencils, dowels, or rulers. 

8. Go on a Scavenger Hunt

Have children choose a letter card or cutout. Talk about how the letter looks and sounds. 

Depending on your child’s level of development, challenge them to find things around the house that have that letter printed on them OR objects that begin with that letter’s sound.  

9. Fish for Letters

Magnetic letter fishing games may be purchased or made with paper, magnets, paperclips, dowels, and string. 

Name or pick a letter, focusing on how it looks and/or sounds. Kids then “fish” for the matching letters from the “pond.” 

They can also just fish for a random letter and then name it once it is “caught.” 

You can also use a version of this game later on, when children are learning to match upper and lowercase letters.

10. Play Musical Chairs with Letters

Add paper plates with letters or letters cut from cardboard right onto the chairs or onto the floor beneath. 

Children walk around the circle and find a place to sit when the music stops. They each then name the letter on their chair or floor directly beneath.

11. Find Letters on a Keyboard

Make use of an old computer keyboard or typewriter. Your child names the letters as they touch the keys. 

They can also find them to press as you say the names, sounds, or hold up cards, one letter at a time.  

12. Spray or Write Letters Outdoors

Offer spray bottles with water for children to spray letters on driveways, sidewalks, or even the side of your house. 

Another option is to use sidewalk chalk to write letters on the driveway, patio, or basketball court. 

13. Form Letters with Bendable Materials

Get your child to bend pipe cleaners, chenille stems, or products like Wikki Stix (string covered in wax) to form letters. 

Children often like to make multiple letters and form words, as well.

14. Find the Hidden Letters

“Bury” plastic or wooden letters in a sand table or sand box. Ask your child to name the letters as they are discovered. 

Other materials may be used as alternates in sand tables or large trays, such as coloured rice, pasta, dried beans, or bird seed. 

All of these ideas can help to strengthen your child’s early literacy skills. 

Pay attention to where they stand in their development and keep raising the bar just a bit higher, while still returning to those games and activities in which they feel a high measure of success! 

This is the key to learning.

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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:

1. Learn the Alphabet Easily: Basic Principles
2. 5 ways to learn the alphabet with your child
3. 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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Learning letters and sounds with children

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