Order for teaching letters

Proven Order to Teach Letters that Will Get Your Child Reading Faster!

I remember when I just graduated from college and was about to start teaching in my first classroom. It was a Kindergarten teacher position and I was so excited about teaching the alphabet to those little munchkins. I sat down in my classroom looking at the curriculum, scratching my head in sheer confusion that destroyed my week 1 plans as a first year Kindergarten teacher. Wait…you aren’t supposed to teach the alphabet in ABC order?

Nope.

So what order DO you teach the letters of the alphabet in? After reading this post, you will:

• Know why you shouldn’t teach in ABC order
• Understand why the order to teach letters is so important
• Answer the question…uppercase or lowercase?
• Get the exact order to teach letters that will have your child reading faster

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Why You Don’t Teach the Alphabet in ABC Order

Teaching the alphabet in order puts a big focus on those beginning letters. Those are probably going to be the ones that your child sees and remembers the most since that Alphabet Song is so catchy. =)

Why is that a problem? Some of those beginning letters aren’t the most frequently used letters that your child will encounter in text. Focus on letters that are most common in the beginning sight words your child will learn. Think of the words in, at, it, am, I, etc. Only one of those letters is in the first five letters of the alphabet!

Another reason to avoid teaching the alphabet in order is that research shows that children will recall a letter’s name more often than the sound that it makes (source). This makes it very difficult to start teaching how to decode words because these children aren’t able to recall those letter sounds to eventually blend words together.

Learn about other mistakes you may be making when teaching the alphabet.

Why Should You Care about What Order to Teach Letters?

There is a reason behind what order to teach letters.

You first want to teach the letters that appear most frequently in emergent reader books. This is because you want your child to actually apply what you are teaching them as you are teaching it!

Remember that the whole reason you are teaching your child the alphabet is to help them read. So why wouldn’t you want your child to practice their knowledge of letters by reading simple words in those emergent reader books?

This is also the reason why you want to ensure you are teaching letter names and sounds together. Think about it…they are labeling a symbol with the letter name and learning what it says with the sound. This is just like teaching your child to identify a cow and know that it says “moo”.

Uppercase or Lowercase?

Yes, when it comes to letter recognition, knowing and understanding all 52 letter symbols (both uppercase and lowercase) is important. ⁣
⁣
But if I had to absolutely choose one set to focus on 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵?⁣

LOWERCASE!!
⁣
When you open up a book, any book, what type of letter do you see the most? Lowercase.⁣
⁣
The ratio between the frequency of uppercase and lowercase letters in a book leaves no question in my mind which type of letter I should spend the majority of my energy on when working with a child.

Where to Start

There is definitely some pre-work that I think is important to introduce before you start diving into the my specific order to teach letters.

Your Child’s Name

First, you want to teach your child the letters in their name. Your child’s name is something very special and important to them…it’s something that is all theirs.

Children have a fascination with their name so learning the letters in their name first is great way to build interest around letters and print.

Your child will love the letters in their name and will start to identify them anywhere they go. Encourage this as much as you can as this is a great sign of their print motivation!

Exposure

Before you start explicitly teaching letters and sounds, you want to be sure that you are providing your child with plenty of exposure to letters and print.

Create a literacy rich environment by having magnetic letters and bathtub letters readily available for play. Hop on that decor trend where letters and words are displayed on walls in your home.

Incorporate letters into your child’s existing play and take the opportunity to talk about letters while your child is playing. This may sound something like, “Did you put the letter T in your car? Where is it going?”

What Order to Teach Letters

I have a specific order that I teach letters in and it is a combination of two methods: the SATPIN method and the IMSE method.

Both methods are research-based and have good reasoning behind the orders. I’ve found that this combination has been magical with the students and families I work with. Let’s get started and learn that magic order to teach letters!

s-a-t-p-i-n

First, start with s, a, t, p, i, n. This combination of letters is perfect for introducing letter names and sounds and then actually APPLYING what you are teaching.

These letters also make up the most frequent words that are found in emerging readers.

This way, when your child starts to apply their knowledge of letters and sounds, they will be able to start reading simple words more quickly…that’s the whole point!

c-o-d-g-m-k

This next group of letters helps to support the first group. They aren’t necessarily in a lot of sight words found in those emergent readers compared to that first group of letters, but by adding these letters next, your child will be able to start spelling even more simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words.

This helps your child with some more challenging decoding opportunities as well because you are adding a lot more consonants, but only one more vowel.

This opens up a lot more words, but is giving a wide variety to the words your child can then start to read without becoming overwhelming.

e-r-u-b-h-f-l

This next set of letters gives your child the rest of the vowels, helping them build on what they have already learned with the previous letters.

Be careful when introducing the letter sound for “e”. It can be tricky to distinguish between /e/ and /i/ in many words. Be very clear when saying the sounds so that your child can hear those differences.

j-w-v-x-y-z-q

These last letters are the letters that show up the least frequent in words.

This doesn’t make them any less important though! Still give these guys the same love and attention that you gave the previous sets of letters and make sure you practice these in context with decoding and blending just as much.

A lot of times these letters are rushed through because they aren’t high frequency letters, which causes children to struggle and mix up their letter sounds when they actually do come across them in a book.

Wrapping it All Up with a Bow

So there you have it! The research-based order I swear by to teach a child the alphabet so that they can learn to read faster. But don’t forget…if you really want to teach your child read, the alphabet is only one piece of the puzzle. You need all the pieces to make it click.

I hope that this was helpful to you as you are trying to plan out how you want to teach letter knowledge and the alphabetic principle.

I know that if you try this order out, you won’t be disappointed!!

Any questions? Drop them in the comments below=)

Teaching Letter Recognition - What Order to Introduce Letters

Wondering about the order for teaching letters to your little ones? I’m on it!

I feel as though I am always writing about waiting to teach letter recognition. Wait and let little hands get strengthened by other activities. Wait until little minds have had ample time to hear different words and sounds. But a day will come when you SHOULD teach your little ones their alphabet letters of course.

Whether it is when they are 3, 4, 5, or 6, at one point or another they will be ready, and teaching letter recognition will be the name of the game. So, when they are ready, what is the order for teaching letters?

Don’t worry – I have an opinion on that too!

In fact, this is such an important topic, I have created a FREE resource just for you all about teaching letters to little ones. You can grab it right here:

If you are more of a watcher than a reader, I have created a seven-minute video for you all about teaching letter recognition to young children. You can watch right here (or simply keep reading below if you would rather):

 
And just in case the video above doesn’t work for you, you can also watch it right here on YouTube.

When I was in the Kindergarten classroom, I did not teach letter recognition in alphabetical order. I began with “name letters” as these letters hold a very important meaning to children. So for “Sammy,” he learned all about s, a, m, and y.

Once children know their name letters well, I would introduce the other alphabet letters (and sounds) in this order: 

At first, relatively quickly, I would introduce the first row of letters, maybe over a week. Then we do lots of activities playing with those letters: their sounds, shapes, and names. Once they are mastered, we add in the next row. Building and growing, slow and steady.

Starting with the lowercase is helpful, and something I have begun doing—though I haven’t always. Clearly, little ones need to know both upper and lowercase letters, but since so much of the print in our everyday lives is lowercase, I find it beneficial to start in that way.

The letter order is similar to the way the letters are taught in the Jolly Phonics Program. By teaching the letters in this manner, children are able to begin forming words very quickly.  After learning the first 6 letters, kids can make words in the “at,” “an,” “it,” “ip,” “ap,” and “in” word families.

1. s, a, t, i, p, n
2. c, k, e, h, r
3. m, d, g, o
4. l, f, b, q, u
5. j, z, w
6. v, y, x

Introducing the letters and letting little ones begin to make words almost right away creates a huge sense of pride. And since you waited to introduce the letters (you did wait, right?) they are absolutely ready and will be catching on right away, grasping those letter names and sounds easily. If not, perhaps wait a little longer.

I know it is hard (trust me, I know!) but waiting until your little one is ready will save you both mounds of frustration, and ensure your little one loves learning. There is no rush.

Of course, ideas and games for introducing letters can be found all over How Wee Learn!

Ready to start helping your little ones learn their letters? Here are some great ideas and fun games that will have those letters mastered in no time!

Digging Up Letters – Grab some dump trucks, diggers, and pebbles and “dig up” some letter-learning fun with your preschooler! This post shares more information about the order for teaching the letters.

Flying into Letter Recognition – This fun one just requires painter’s tape and construction paper. Pop that first group of alphabet letters (s, a, t, i, p, n) on the ground using painter’s tape and let those little ones throw paper airplanes to learn their ABCs!

Swat the ABC Balloons – We love using balloons for fun learning games. This alphabet activity is absolutely perfect for preschoolers as it engages the whole body. And we all know 3-year-olds LOVE to learn with their whole body.

Zoom and Sort the ABCs – All you need is painter’s tape and some toy cars for this one. This one uses painter’s tape in a different way; the painter’s tape forms the road while the cars hold the letters. This letters activity for preschoolers is great for introducing capital and lowercase letters. 

Pipecleaner and Popsicle Stick Letters – Forming letters with pipecleaners and popsicle sticks on a homemade sticky board – popsicle sticks can be used for so many purposes!

Skeleton Bone Writing (bending Qtips!) – We use Qtips a lot over here for learning games like this one. Bending those Qtips is a great way to make the curvy parts of the letters. Having children manipulate objects to form letters is a very powerful learning opportunity.

Re-useable Alphabet Paper Chain Games – We use construction paper a lot to make simple paper chains. I like to add velcro to make these chains reusable again and again. Little words can be built and played with all day long. 

Building a Name with Blocks – Duplo building blocks are a favourite here, and they are perfect for this name-building game.

Mail Play! – Mailing friends their “name letters” is a great way to practice letter recognition! Matching letters of the alphabet is a great place to start with letter recognition. First, little ones recognize which letters match, then they can practice forming the letters from a sample, and finally, they can produce it on their own. The order for teaching letters can be the same for all of these steps.  

Dinosaur Bone (Well, Letter) Excavating – Magnetic alphabet letters can be used for so many learning activities, like this fun dinosaur letter excavation!

An A-MAZE-ing Letter Learning Game – Grab that painter’s tape once more! This time we made a fun maze for learning our alphabet letters. 

Now that you are armed with some fun games, have an idea about the order for teaching letters, and have waited for your little one to be ready… it is time to let them learn those letters!

Have fun with this big step with your little ones. And remember, slow is always better. Follow your child’s lead and keep it light and fun. This is the beginning of a lifetime of learning and a love of reading.

Good luck! And remember, I am only an email away with any questions!

Thank you so much for reading friends! I hope you are having a wonderful week.

P.S. Don’t forget to grab your Free Teaching Letter Recognition Guide!

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