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Matching upper-case and lower-case

Teachers can use the following activity to ask students to help the "Mama animals" (uppercase letters) find their "babies" (lowercase letters). This game includes matching the uppercase mothers with their lowercase babies. See example ›

This link provides a template for a printable "Superhero" upper- and lowercase letter match game. See example ›

This file includes uppercase and lowercase letters in a matching game that parents can use with their child at home. See example ›

This link provides templates for printing cards to use for writing uppercase and lowercase letters. See example ›

Letter formation: using sand, play dough, or flour

This link provides teachers with downloadable mats with the alphabet letters for helping children use play dough for learning letter formation. See example ›

Letter bingo

Bingo is a simple game that children enjoy and can be used to help them learn about the upper- and lowercase letters. This link allows teachers to print the letters and board needed to play letter bingo. See example ›

Letter stamps

Stamps are an excellent "hands-on" activity for helping students learn about the alphabet. The activity described in the link below provides teachers with some creative ideas for making letter stamps out of sponges. Teachers can use sponges and paint in a variety of ways to help children understand the shape and function of upper- and lowercase letters. See example ›

Letter recognition fluency

This online document contains several activities that are helpful for building letter recognition fluency. Teachers can download materials needed and follow the instructions for each activity. There are also some ideas included for extending and adapting each activity to further enhance learning. Some examples are provided below. Download activities ›

Speedy Alphabet Arc: Teachers can download and print a copy of the alphabet "arc" and have students use letters to match the ones on the arc. Parents could use this idea at home with magnetic letters by placing the arc on the refrigerator and have the child match the letters. Using a timer and seeing how quickly the child can match the letters is optional.

Glow Go: This activity includes the use of glow in the dark chalk and black construction paper. Students can work together taking turns using a flashlight and naming the letters.

Hungry Letter Mouse: Teachers can utilize this activity for students to work on letter recognition in pairs using an eraser and dry erase marker. One student can use the eraser to be the mouse and the other student names the letter before the "mouse" eats it (i.e., erases it).

Letter books

Teachers can use the downloadable materials form this website to create letter books in which each page contains one letter. The kids draw or cut pictures from magazines that start with the particular letter and glue them into their "book." See example ›

Downloadable letter and alphabet cards

Flash cards

The link listed below provides teachers with downloadable ESL flashcards. These are free and printable for use within the classroom. There are large sets for use with teaching letters and vocabulary, and smaller sets for language learning games. See example ›

This website provides printable color flashcards that are great for teaching upper- and lowercase letters. These cards are free and use the Zaner Bloser font which is very simplistic - ideal for teaching young children. See example ›

Alphabet cards

The downloadable alphabet cards available from this link have various fonts to choose from, color picture cards to accompany the letters, and creative ideas for activities. See example ›

Race track alphabet

The website below offers teachers the ability to download letters of the alphabet in race-track format. Children can use toy cars to trace around the letters to help learn the formation. See example ›

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Very young learners are developing their understanding of the alphabetic principle - the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Teachers can help students develop this understanding through lots of fun activities that help students explore the alphabet letters and sounds.

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Discover the many reasons why reading aloud with your child has such a big impact on their literacy development and social-emotional growth. And get tips on how to read aloud (make it fun and interactive), plus links to finding great read-aloud books.

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Show a picture and ask students to do the following with the picture:

Now, compare this picture with another similar picture. Have students describe how they are alike and different.
Odd One Out:
Show a variety of grouped objects or pictures. Then, ask the student to describe which object or picture is out and why.

For example, you may show the student pictures of a shrimp, a fish, and a crab. The student may say, "The fish is out because it does not have legs like the shrimp and crab. The shrimp and crab have a hard shell and the fish does not." The student may also describe other attributes that are alike and different, such as size, color, shape, etc.

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Welcome Back, Literacy Champions - Partnering with Families to Build Strong Readers in Alabama by Karen Bell | This newsletter was created with Smore, an online tool for creating beautiful newsletters for individual educators, schools and districts

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Alphabet Activities for the Alphabet Arc

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Interactive Alphabet Arc
The Interactive Alphabet Arc is a digital version of our Rainbow Alphabet Mat. These arcs are available in both uppercase and lowercase and have been provided in both English and Spanish. The Interactive Alphabet Arcs can be used for timed and untimed alphabet activities.

Follow the links below to see the Alphabet Arcs in action!
Early Literacy Resources available from Region 4 Literacy and Language
Questions about our resources? E-mail reading@esc4.net.

This resource serves as a tool for teaching letter names and sounds to support students on their journey in becoming successful readers and writers. This set can be used for whole-group, small-group, and individual literacy instruction. $30 each. Order online: ALPHABET POSTER AND CHARTS SET
Tool for supporting letter names and sounds.
English| Spanish

LETTER KNOWLEDGE MANIPULATIVE KIT - NEW!
Tools to deepen emergent readers' letter knowledge
This supplemental resource can be used for teaching letter knowledge in small groups. This kit is appropriate for use with emergent readers of any age who need additional support in letter identification, letter-sound correspondences, and letter formation. $100.ORDER ONLINE

READING BY DESIGN
Systematic, Explicit, and Intensive Reading Intervention
Reading by Design: An Individualized Literacy Intervention is a systematic, multisensory approach aligned with research-based practices for developing literacy. This intervention follows an intensive, explicit, and cumulative design for remediation of reading and writing skills at all grade levels. This comprehensive program addresses the following components: phonological awareness, sound-symbol association, six syllable types, written spelling patterns, morphology, syntax, reading fluency, and comprehension. Progress monitoring and review lessons are embedded throughout the program to inform student progress and promote reading and writing automaticity. Reading by Design may be used with students in kindergarten through grade 12 in a small, homogeneous group setting. (Teacher training required.)

For more information about Reading by Design, visit our web page, or e-mail dyslexia@esc4.net.

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Interactive Alphabet Arc The Interactive Alphabet Arc is a digital version of our Rainbow Alphabet Mat. These arcs are available in both uppercase and lowercase and have been provided in both English and Spanish. The Interactive Alphabet Arcs can be used for timed and untimed alphabet activities.

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Blachman, B. A., Ball, E. W., Black, R., & Tangel, D. M. (2000). Road to the code: A phonological awareness program for young children. Baltimore: Brookes.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

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Elkonin boxes are used to build phonological awareness skills by having children segment spoken words into their individual sounds (phonemes). To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme.

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Reading Universe | Quick Look: Stretch and Shrink + Touch and Say

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Watch Rossie King work with her students on blending sounds into words by using the strategies of “stretch and shrink” and “touch and look.”

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Print these, cut them apart, and practice with your child.

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Understanding Your Child's Amplify Assessments

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Understanding Your Child's Amplify Assessments

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Amplify is a universal screener that measures the development of reading skills of all students in grades K-4.

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Understanding Your Child’s  Amplify Assessments

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It's not an easy thing, learning to read and write. Discover what it takes to build important literacy skills, and how you can help your children grow as readers, writers, and thinkers!

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Have your child say the letter and then the sound, read the words, and read the sentences aloud

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Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression.Fluent reading builds stamina for reading lengthy or complex texts. Reading fluency serves as a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

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Great resource with games you can play with your child to help with sight word fluency

https://sightwords.com/sight-words/games/

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Free Resources to Teach Your Child to Read

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All 1,000 Fry Words in alphabetical order

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Learn how a boy learns to love words in his own way.

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Read Aloud: A Walk in the Words by Hudson Talbott | Stories with Star

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Tips to use with the alphabet arc

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Word Word Mat

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Lucky 13 Sight Word strategy game

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Comprehension Deck

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When it's time for Trixie to start school, she is very excited. Sometimes it's hard to concentrate in class, though. And it's really hard to read letters. Maybe what Trixie needs is a superpowered plan...

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Thunderboots - Naomi Jones and Rebecca Ashdown

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The Alabama Literacy Act (updated 8.15.23)

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Dyslexia story for kids

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Links to purchase alphabet arcs and letters

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Links to purchase alphabet arcs and letters

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Links to purchase alphabet arcs and letters

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Parent Information: Alabama Literacy Act

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Parent Information: Alabama Literacy Act

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Informational PowerPoint for parents about the Alabama Literacy Act

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Alabama Literacy Act - Frequently Asked Questions for K-3 Families Flyer

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Rhyming Picture Books + FREE Downloadable List

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If you’re looking for the best rhyming picture books, you’re in the right spot! Our library list makes it easy to incorporate rhyming into read-aloud time.

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Print out cards and practice matching lower case and upper case letters

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Reading Universe | Quick Look: Segmenting Phonemes

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Watch students practice segmenting phonemes with pop-it fidget toys.

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Use to practice letter naming fluency

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Our themed reading adventure packs encourage hands-on fun, creativity, and learning centered around paired fiction and nonfiction books.

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Use this video to correctly pronounce each phoneme.

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Print out and have your child practice reading various types of nonsense words.

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Video explaining what a closed syllable is and how we code that syllable type in a word

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Video explaining what an open syllable is and how we code that syllable type in a word

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Video explaining what a vowel consonant e is and how we code that syllable type in a word

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Video explaining what a consonant l e is and how we code that syllable type in a word

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Video explaining what r-controlled is and how we code that syllable type in a word

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Video explaining what a vowel team is and how we code that syllable type in a word

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A Family Guide to Building Language Comprehension 

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A Family Guide to Building Language Comprehension 

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Families of children with dyslexia can help their children by reading aloud to them. Although this may seem to be nothing more than a fun pastime, reading aloud to a child supports the development of reading skills and continues to provide benefits well beyond the early years of school. Audio books are useful in their own way, but reading aloud has particular value because it is interactive. As family members read aloud, they can model how to think about the text and then invite rich discussion with the child.

For children to enjoy reading, they need to understand what they read, which involves two distinct sets of skills. They must be able to identify (decode) the words in a text, but they must also be able to make sense of how those words come together to convey ideas; this second task is what's called "language comprehension." As children are being systematically taught the skills needed to identify words, their family members can help them develop language comprehension by reading aloud to them.

When readers play with language in rhyme and poetry, they reinforce the music of reading and the sounds within words. Likewise, the language in books adds many more words to the limited vocabulary we use in conversational speech. Children expand their vocabulary through independent reading, but if they are not yet ready to do this, families can compensate by reading aloud, unwrapping the language of a book through expressive reading and thoughtful conversation. By carefully choosing knowledge-building texts, families build curiosity to read more about ideas that resonate with their children.

Here's how to get the most out of time spent reading aloud to children with dyslexia:

Read Aloud with Fluency

When reading aloud, focus on accuracy, expression, and appropriate reading rate. These three features come together to make a book come alive. This doesn't mean that you need to sound as polished or fluent as an audiobook. While audiobooks can certainly help with language comprehension, students benefit more from listening to a family member read. The family member may stop to remember a shared experience, which helps the listener to connect personally-or choose to linger on or reread a part of the text that is important to understand. Even hearing a reader correct an error can help a child. Additionally, if the child witnesses the reader untangling a difficult sentence, it helps her see that the real reason for reading is to understand.

Read Aloud to Build Knowledge

Experiencing texts that build knowledge of the world creates curiosity that will guide a lifetime of reading. While you may begin with your child's natural curiosity about more familiar subjects, such as animals or space travel, be sure to stretch interests toward a variety of less familiar topics, such as reading historical fiction of a certain time period (the American Revolution or the Harlem Renaissance, for instance). Read biographies of people with a diversity of backgrounds and life experiences, such as scientists and mathematicians (perhaps George Washington Carver or Katherine Johnson). Talk to your local librarian about books that pull kids toward new topics. One of the most important things to do as a lifelong reader is to recognize the dance between texts on similar topics. This dance is called inference, sometimes referred to as a "knowledge party in your head." When one reads a book on Albert Einstein's insatiable curiosity and then reads a text on Charles Henry Turner's constant questioning, a child begins to understand that curiosity, evidenced in constant questions, is a basic scientific skill. Going forward, every new biography of a scientist will build reverence for the ways curiosity drives knowledge and creates opportunities for discovery.

Read Aloud to Build Vocabulary

The more we read, the more unusual and topic-specific words we encounter. By learning to interact meaningfully with those words in context, we build vocabulary. Consider reading a knowledge-building book about sea creatures, a book like Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea. One paragraph of the text contains the words cruise, clever, and invisible. What's striking in this excerpt is that the author contrasts the cruise nature of another fish with the slow nature of the sea horse. He also uses two parenthetical phrases- now you see him followed by now you don't to explain the meaning of the word invisible. Stop to have a casual conversation with your child about how authors help to unwrap vocabulary. This will help her look for clues to understand difficult words later when she reads independently.

When you read a word unfamiliar to your child, ask questions to draw attention to it. For example, if the word clever appears in the paragraph ask, "How was the sea horse clever here?" When you think out loud or reread to figure out an answer, you invite a child to think about what goes on in a reader's mind. In family read-alouds, keep these interactions relaxed and without pressure to keep the reading joyful.

Read Aloud to Focus on Understanding

Of course, a child needs more than an understanding of key words to comprehend text. The adult reader's model of stop, reread, and untangle can also help them discern confusing sentence structure or complicated topics. This part of reading does not call for prepared comprehension questions, which can make it feel too much like school; instead, pay close attention to what is authentically happening in your mind as the reader and then talk about it.

Try conversation starters that go something like these:

"While I was reading this passage, my mind started to wander. Does your mind ever do that? I'm going to reread it, because I think that part was important since I'm confused now by what the character is doing."

"That long paragraph about bison didn't make sense to me. Let's go back and see if we can read it more slowly to build our understanding of each part."

By digging back into passages, the reader sets up the listener with the expectation that the reason for reading is to deeply understand.

Read Aloud to Create Interest in a Variety of Subjects

Read-alouds come with varied text choice and time frames. Closely observe the types of texts that draw your child in, continually peppering those selections into the reading routine. Read books in a variety of genres, perhaps the science fiction classic A Wrinkle in Time or the new historical fiction novel Show Me a Sign. Reading aloud realistic fiction such as From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler pulls a child into both a fast-moving plot and the world of an art museum. Reading Bud, Not Buddy examines life during the Great Depression and introduces the world of jazz. Amazing mythology-based books such as The Beautiful Stories of Life and the Percy Jackson series build a love for the old tales that appear repeatedly in plots.

And, don't forget the plethora of informational text sources that require a completely different kind of reading. Try magazine articles related to a favorite topic such as the animal focus of Ranger Rick or the wider world focus in National Geographic for Kids. Read books on topics that explore the worlds of history and geography, but also read books that satisfy a child's curiosity on a particular topic.

Read Aloud, Read Aloud, Read Aloud

A child who receives systematic Structured Literacy instruction and also enjoys opportunities for listening to a fluent reader will be primed to independently and fluently identify unfamiliar words later on. Likewise, a student who witnesses a reader actively thinking through a challenging text will understand that we all struggle sometimes while reading, and they will learn productive ways to respond.

Read aloud to your children! It will build their knowledge on many topics, and, perhaps even teach them how much fun reading can be. When you spend time reading aloud, you prepare a child to read on their own.

Resources for Reading Aloud on Selected Topics

American Revolution set:
https://independencemuseum.org/courses/revolutionary-story-time/

Bugs, Birds, and Animals set:
https://www.readingrockets.org/booklists/bugs-birds-and-animals

Civil Rights set:
https://www.the-best-childrens-books.org/civil-rights-kids.html

Great Depression set:
https://www.the-best-childrens-books.org/life-during-the-great-depression.html

National Parks set:
https://www.readingrockets.org/booklists/our-national-parks
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) thanks Lorraine Griffith for her assistance in the preparation of this fact sheet.
The International Dyslexia Association (IDA). IDA encourages the reproduction and distribution of this fact sheet.
If portions of the text are cited, appropriate reference must be made. Fact sheets may not be reprinted for the purpose of resale. © Copyright 2021. The International Dyslexia Association (IDA). For copyright information, pleaseclick here.

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A Family Guide to Building Language Comprehension Through Reading Aloud - International Dyslexia Association

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Henry Winkler talks about dyslexia - CBBC Hank Zipzer

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The Alphabet War: A Story About Dyslexia

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If You're So Smart, How Come You Can't Spell Mississippi?

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If You're So Smart, How Come You Can't Spell Mississippi?

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IF YOU'RE SO SMART HOW COME YOU CAN'T SPELL MISSISSIPPI Read Aloud ~ Story Time Read Along Books