Learning the alphabet

Learning the alphabet is more then just singing the song. Many children can sing the alphabet perfectly, however when asked to find letters they can't. Learning to recognise the letters of the alphabet helps us to read and write. If we can't identify letters and their sounds we will struggle to sound out unknown words.

Many children also can't verbally spell their name. They know what their name looks like and can write it, but don't know what some of the letters are called. It is important when teaching your child how to write their name that you verbally spell it as you write it. Usually the first letters we learn are the ones in our name.
In our class we sing the alphabet daily while looking at the letters. We then go through the alphabet saying the letter, a word and it's sound ('a' is for apple, 'aa' apple). This is a catchy song that gets stuck in children's heads and helps them visually and audibly. When seeing what letters of the alphabet some children know I notice they go back to the song. If shown the letter 'r', some will know it, some will know that 'rainbow' starts with 'r' and others will remember the sound that matches and then they get it.

All the children have their own Yellow Card (we call them our alphabet and word card). They use this card when they are writing. If they are trying to write a difficult word they say it slowly to hear the sounds and then look for the matching letter and sound to write. If someone was trying to write 'love' they would hear the 'l' sound first and then they may remember that leaf has that sound and they will find the picture of a leaf and see the letter 'l'.



Here are some videos of how we use this Yellow card daily in our classroom to help us learn.

Here is a visual youtube clip of the alphabet


Here is the alphabet in New Zealand Sign Language