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CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.K.1.D
Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.

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This was such a fun song, and the students love it.  They enjoy singing it, and participating. I like that it goes over uppercase and lowercase letters, but also how to write both uppercase and lower case letters.

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Alphabet Song with Upper/Lower Case Letters & More

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Teaching uppercase and lowercase to the students

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Teaching uppercase and lowercase to the students

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This article/video helps and breaks down how we as educators and parents can support our students in learning this concept.

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Teaching the Alphabet

You've probably heard the phrase, ''It's as simple as ABC,'' but is teaching the alphabet really such a simple and straightforward process? In reviewing guidance on teaching the letters and their sounds, you may find conflicting advice about teaching uppercase and lowercase letters, such as whether to introduce one or the other first, whether to teach sounds first or letters first, and what activities can help facilitate this process. Which is the best approach for your students?

Let's look at work from Utah State University education experts called ''Enhancing Alphabet Knowledge Instruction''. We'll also consider activities and best practices from a range of sources that help students to recognize and name uppercase and lowercase letters.

A 3-Step Process

Enhanced Alphabet Knowledge (EAK) instruction breaks down which aspects of the alphabet to focus on first, second, and third:

1. Identifying the letter name and sound.

Let's say you are focused on the letter ''D'' today. Using the EAK approach, you would start your class with a very brief introduction to the uppercase and lowercase version of the letter.

State that the name of the letter is ''D''.

Show how one is the uppercase and one is the lowercase by pointing to the written form of the letter or writing it as you say it.

Ask students to practice saying the name of the letter at least several times as you alternate pointing to the uppercase and lowercase versions.

The second part to this process is to teach the letter's sound.

Use the phrase, ''The sound the letter 'D' represents is /d/'' and give examples of the letter through words or even stories.

Show how you use your mouth and tongue to form the sound.

Practice the sound with students, once again pointing to both upper and lowercase letters.

2. Recognizing the letter in text.

Now, you've got a new task: being sure that the student can really recognize the letter and ultimately distinguish uppercase from lowercase. Think of this step as a hunt for the letter, both in uppercase and lowercase, in various formats. Have students say both the letter and its sound when they find it. As they are able, you can ask students to identify whether the letter is uppercase or lowercase, a skill that can be honed over time.

3. Focus on producing the letter form.

Finally, you'll show students how to write it. You'll outline the letter on paper lines, showing the difference between the uppercase version and the lowercase version. You can point out how some of the lowercase letters match their uppercase partners (and are just smaller), while some are different from one another.

Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

As students become comfortable with their letters, they will learn to spot uppercase versus lowercase more easily. Here are some ideas for helping students practice this:

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teaching students to recognize uppercase & lowercase letters - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Teaching Students to Recognize Uppercase & Lowercase Letters - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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You've probably heard the phrase, ''It's as simple as ABC,'' but is teaching the alphabet really such a simple and straightforward process? In reviewing guidance on teaching the letters and their sounds, you may find conflicting advice about teaching uppercase and lowercase letters, such as whether to introduce one or the other first, whether to teach sounds first or letters first, and what activities can help facilitate this process.

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BINGO is great not only for all students to visually see letters and letter recognition, but is beneficial for ELL students as well.  This is fun, and engaging for all learners.

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When first learning the alphabet it is common for many kids to flip and reverse letters. This means that certain letters, such as "p" "q" and "d" are particularly hard. Try this demolition bingo game to let your kid build lowercase letter recognition skills for easily confused lowercase letters: d, b, p, q and g.

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Tricky Lowercase Letters Bingo | Game | Education.com

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When first learning the alphabet it is common for many kids to flip and reverse letters. This means that certain letters, such as "p" "q" and "d" are particularly hard. Try this demolition bingo game to let your kid build lowercase letter recognition skills for easily confused lowercase letters: d, b, p, q and g.

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This assessment can be done to track and record your student's progression in letter recognition. This assessment should be done 3-4 times a year, or as needed.

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How to teach Letter Recognition

This Alphabet Letter Recognition Assessment is perfect for teaching and assessing uppercase letter recognition and lowercase letter recognition

Students will say letter names and sounds as they take this oral assessment. As a teacher, do this alphabet letter recognition assessment with your student to find out which letters to focus on.

This assessment tests a wide variety of uppercase and lowercase letters that will give you a good idea where your students are and what they need help with.

Other resources to use with this Alphabet Letter Recognition Assessment

If your students are learning the alphabet, you are probably looking for lots of different resources to engage all types of learners.

Use Have Fun Teaching Alphabet Flash Cards as an additional resource for building letter recognition skills.

While your child reads the uppercase and lowercase letters from left to right, take note of which letters they say correctly and incorrectly. If they say a letter wrong, simply circle those letters on your assessment. This way you know what letters to focus on.

Be sure to check out more Alphabet Activities.

Share your feedback!

Share this resource and write a review below! Tell others why you love it and how you will use it.

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How to teach Letter Recognition This Alphabet Letter Recognition Assessment is perfect for teaching and assessing uppercase letter recognition and lowercase letter recognition Students will say letter names and sounds as they take this oral assessment. As a teacher, do this alphabet letter recognition assessment with your student to find out which letters to focus on.

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It is important to individualize for all students, and make it appropriate material based on the student.  This article goes over how to individualize for students who might have special needs, or students that might need extra support.

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Letter recognition is the first skill a child needs to learn before beginning the task of learning decoding skills and then word recognition. Small children often learn to recognize the letters in their name first, and with that, they gain the understanding that letters, when put together, lead to meaning. Learning disabled children often do not.

A reading disability can start anywhere on the chain that leads to reading fluency. It can often begin at the beginning: with letter recognition.

Teachers sometimes make the mistake of "piling on," trying to teach letter sounds at the same time as teaching letter recognition. Children who are clearly developmentally and intellectually ready to begin reading will quickly begin to see the relationship between letters and letter sounds. Learning disabled children will only find it confusing.

Helping Learning Disabled Children with Letter Recognition:

Consonants: When matching letters to pictures, stick to initial letter sounds for any letter matching and stick to one sound. Stick to the hard c and hard g. Never use "Circus" for the letter C. Never use gymnasium for the letter g. Or the vowel Y sound for the letter Y (Yellow, not Yodel.) Don't try to get children to master the consonant sounds in the middle or final position until they are 100% with lower case d, p, b, and q.

When teaching the vowels, stick to words that start with the short vowel sound, a is ant, not auto, aardvark, or Asperger's (none of which start with the short a sound.) Stick to short vowels, since they will be the glue for single syllable words. In Wilson Reading, a direct instruction program for reading, these are called closed syllables.

Problems with Letter Orientation. Back in the 70s, reading professionals focused a lot on " dyslexia " with the belief that the primary problem was a letter or word reversal. It is true there are some children who do have a problem with letter orientation, but often learning disabled children have weak left-right orientation. We have noticed that young learning disabled children often have poor coordination and lack muscle tone.

Multisensory Approaches to Letter Recognition

Multi-sensory approaches are good to help learning disabled students build strong directionality. Hand over hand students who are not starting their letters correctly. This is not a place for creativity. Lower case d's are circle stick. Lower case p's are tail and circle. In that order. Always.

Sand writing: Wet sand in a dishpan or a wading pool. Have the children working on letter recognition make the letters as you call them out. Then give each of the children a turn to call out a letter for the others to make. Stick to one or two problem letters: b and p, g and q, or r and n. Try using a ruler for your letter bases.

Pudding writing: Be sure hands are clean before initiating this activity. Tape waxed paper or clear wrap practice in on a table surface, and spoon out some chocolate (or another favorite) pudding on the paper/wrap. Have children spread the pudding out, like finger painting, and write the letters in the pudding as you call them out. Licking is allowed. Be sure to have plenty of paper towels handy.

Sidewalk writing: Have your students write letters with sidewalk chalk as you call them out.

Letter tag. Write letters on a hard surface playground. Stick to the ones you are focusing on. Call out a letter: anyone standing on the letter is safe. Call out another letter: the children need to run to another letter to be safe.

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This Is One Foundational Skill Special Education Students Need

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Letter recognition is a foundational skill that many learning disabled students struggle with, but this article offers some suggestions.

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This is a site that is really useful for both educators and parents to use as a resource. As a current Head Start teacher, I use this and find it really beneficial and useful for the kids.

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An analysis of the changes necessary to create a methodology and curriculum that enhances student achievement in reading and spelling

By Charlene A. Wrighton, Co-Author/Developer, Zoo-phonics® (1995)

Zoo-phonics® is based on Creating Brain-Efficient Curriculum...

The Hottest Educational Issue Of the Past 10 years Has NOT Been Whole Language vs. Phonics

It runs much deeper than that, primarily because whole language and phonics can be taught concurrently, if allowed. What, then, is the disparity that has widened the chasm within the educational system? In order to fully understand, we must analyze the issues carefully.

It began with this premise: children have a language base, thus reading should be predicated on a child's natural language usage. Therefore, reading books that do not sound like the natural language of a child should be avoided. (Good-bye basals, hello literature.) As children are involved in print rich literature, they will automatically pick up the phonemic patterns of speech, so phonemic awareness does not need to be taught directly. (Good-bye phonics, hello sight vocabulary.) In connection with this, if children are listening to print rich literature and are writing authentic student text, children will naturally pick up the spelling patterns in the written word. (Good-bye spelling, hello high frequency words.)

The only thing that was forgotten in this whole decade of "natural education" was the child's brain and how it processes information. It does not like random information and stores it poorly.

The educational field allows more pendulum swings than any other profession. Perhaps it is our constant search for new ideas that leads us to drop one teaching method or program to follow another. With the whole language movement, we have virtually thrown the baby out with the bath water, rather than artfully combining all the wonderful aspects of whole language and phonemic awareness. (It really wasn't "whole" without phonics.) You don't have to negate a child's language base and self discovery because you highlight and teach a certain phoneme in your lesson plans.

It is easy to see that the whole language movement has had a positive impact on several areas in curriculum development: it forced us to become more imaginative as teachers, to integrate the curriculum and to provide children with authentic reading and writing opportunities, rather than "busy" work. It also helped us move away from inane little stories and, instead, brought wonderful books, rich with vocabulary and artwork into the children's experiences.

It is upon this positive literature-based foundation that we must build excellent curriculum and teaching strategies. Our job, then, is to

1. Be trained to integrate the concepts of whole language and direct phonetic instruction so children have the advantage of both schools of thought.

2. Be aware of how children learn most efficiently, and implement effective teaching in the classroom.

3. Masterfully teach to reach young minds so that they fully understand all concepts taught without neglecting one skill for another.
Jeanne Chall (1992/1993) said it so well: "Both the direct instruction and whole language models are concerned with enhancing student achievement in reading. Both are equally concerned that the students develop a love of reading. Both want children to read good literature as well as expository texts. Both combine reading and writing. Both want all students to achieve their potential, and both want to reduce the number of students who fail. Whole language proponents tend to view learning to read as a natural process, developing in ways similar to language. Therefore, like language, most whole language proponents say it is not necessary to teach reading directly. Direct instruction models, on the other hand, view reading as needing to be taught, and taught systematically. Indeed, an often used rationale for the need to teach reading is that all people on earth speak a language while, according to UNESCO, nearly a billion are illiterate, mainly because they do not attend schools where reading is taught and learned.

This Is Where We Need To Start

1. We must take back our profession. We are educational experts and know (or should know) how children learn best. If something does not feel right, we must be strong enough in our convictions and training to speak up. Never again should teachers see themselves as only facilitators or implementers!Research (Chall, 1967) shows us again and again that the teacher is a major variable in how well a child learns to read and spell. We must fully research the premises behind each educational philosophy, and cognitively assess the long term effects it will have on students' academic progress.

2. Our schools must adopt methods and strategies that handily teach children how to read and spell through a curriculum that presents the richness of literature, creative and informative writing, critical thinking and phonetic analysis at the same time. There must be harmony and continuity of thought in order for changes to be implemented at all levels of the school system.

3. We must teach teachers to become reading and spelling experts. College requirements must be restructured, adding many specific classes in these areas. They need to learn how to teach children phonetic skills to decode and encode text with books that are readable, in addition to exposing them to the joy and enrichment of fine literature. Teachers must learn the various sounds of every phoneme in the English language in order to teach it, as well as how to tie it into the reading and writing curriculum.

Teachers must understand the nature of language acquisition. Children are in a language acquisition mode both before and after birth, and language development is crucial to their reading and writing success. Speaking to them, asking and answering questions and reading to them is essential to their future literacy. So important are hearing and perception in this endeavor that if language is delayed, so is literacy.Guessing what the words are and struggling to find meaning within context is not an efficient way to read. Give them the phonetic code to the language. The sounds that they have heard from birth can be decoded and later, written down.

Teachers must be taught how to reach EVERY child in the classroom, not allowing any child to slip through the cracks. All teachers must have the tools, materials, strategies and training similar to special education training. We no longer have the option of homogeneous classrooms. Our classrooms are cultural, social, economic and academic melting-pots, especially with more and more full-inclusion taking place. Our teachers must be highly skilled in pacing the academic work load, creating lesson plans that reach 100% of the children, regardless of language or ability.

Teachers need to fully understand how a child's brain functions. From birth to around seven or eight years of age, a child must approach text using right hemisphere strategies. Research (Flehmig & Stern, 1986) found that, "The principal components of the potentials, while analyzed in relation to a number of independent variables, revealed significant associations between reading proficiency and right hemispheric activity at early ages, to shift to significant associations between reading proficiency and left hemispheric activity at later ages." (p. 355) Based on this research we must reach young learners through methods that easily teach the concepts needed for literacy. Traditional approaches passed down from generation to generation have often put up educational road blocks, unwittingly, for the child, because of t heir abstract nature.Since the alphabet is made up of symbols, which are abstract and left-brained, how do we reconcile this with four, five and six year olds whose brains are not yet ready for assimilating this type of information? To make matters worse, we expect a kindergarten child to not only know the letter names (a), but we expect them to recognize them by sight, know the sounds they make (a), and know their upper and lower case counterparts, (A, a). This is just too much information for most five year old children to handle.

We must commit to the education of pre-school children. (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, and Wilkinson, 1985) Continuity is needed with feeder pre-schools, Head Start and K-3 grades throughout the school district. We can do this by encouraging feeder pre-schools and Head Start Programs to tie into the local school curriculum and to participate in staff and curriculum development. In the long run, there would be fewer children in special education and Chapter One programs and other federal and state funded categorical programs.

We must help parents to learn how to work appropriately (playfully and non-stressfully) with their children, readying them for the language arts process. If pre-school children enter kindergarten with essential pre-reading, spelling and writing skills, the kindergarten teacher could then continue readying them for the academics needed as well as to prepare them for first grade.

Some Problems with the Traditional Approach

1. Too much information is given: When we say to the child, "This is a capital "A," this is the lower case "a," the letter name is "a" and the usual sound it makes is "a," the child, becomes confused and does not fully understand, because the information holds little, if any, meaning. Now multiply these tasks by the 26 letters of the alphabet and the child becomes overwhelmed

2. Not enough information is given: When we fragment the alphabet, children do not see the alphabet as a whole entity. Unless they see the complete alphabetic picture, they will not understand its purpose. If they do not understand, they cannot utilize the information in reading or writing.

3. Children are expected to learn from abstractions: We give children abstract symbols which they should understand and relate to a specific sound. Additional obstacles are found with similar letter shapes: show a child a "b" and a "d." Can you imagine visually distinguishing this at five years old? Try these: "p" and "q." Or, try to distinguish auditorily the difference between the sounds of "e" and "i"?

Some Solutions to the Problems

Commit to a curriculum that provides strategies that present the alphabet and the formation of words with a brain-efficient, right hemispheric method.

1. Teach, first, the sounds and shapes of the entire alphabet in the daily presentation, postponing letter names and capital letters. Traditionally the alphabet is presented by showing a letter a week to kindergartners, it being divided into 26 weeks. When the alphabet is fragmented in this way, the brain cannot perceive a whole picture. What, then, happens to the child who is out with the chicken pox for two weeks (two letters unlearned), or a cold or the flu? How is his/her understanding of the alphabet affected?According to many researchers (Adams, 1990), "knowing the letter names is the best predictor of beginning reading achievement." I would like to propose, again, in the interest of brain-efficient teaching, that we treat the letter names as secondary in importance to learning the sounds of the letters. Since we do not read with them, letter names provide no real purpose for the early reader. Therefore, it should follow that the sounds need to be taught first.
Example: A child raises a hand to ask the teacher how to spell the word cat. The teacher responds, verbally, with the letter names: "c-a-t." The "c" in the verbal spelling does not sound like the hard sound of "c" in this word. The "a" in the spelling does not sound like the "a" in the word cat, and the "t" doesn't sound exactly like the pronounced "t." Rather than hit the bull's eye, we have just created an educational roadblock. We have just missed a great educational moment. The above quote would better be read, "knowing the sounds of the letters is the best predictor of beginning reading achievement."

2. 2) Teach lowercase letters first. We have been taught, societally, that teaching the uppercase letters first to the child is proper. We have justified it by saying it is easier for a child to form an uppercase letter than it is to form a lowercase letter. This is just not so. Some capital letters (E for instance), take more strokes than its lowercase counterpart. Each time a young writer has to pick up a pencil to locate another point on the letter for formation, the child loses his or her place. There are more pencil pick-ups with uppercase letters than lowercase letters. The reasons for teaching lowercase letters first are these:

Books are mainly written with lowercase letters. When Mom is reading The Napping House, by Don and Audrey Woods, with her child snuggled in her lap, the letters are in lowercase form. If the child has been taught his capital letters first, the child is denied the opportunity of participating in the text. If the child, though, that has been taught the sounds and shapes of the lowercase letters, then the child can recognize the letters while mom and dad are reading. The opportunity to participate gives him/her the confidence to explore text in other areas.

First and second grade teachers have to spend much of their time breaking the children's habit of writing with capital letters. Teach them correctly the first time around!

Each time a young writer has to pick up the pencil to locate another point on the letter for formation, the child loses his or her place. There are more pencil-pickups with uppercase letters than lowercase letters

Teaching both lowercase and uppercase (two totally different forms multiplied by 26) is overwhelming to the child. It is desired that a child not only exit kindergarten with a full understanding of the sounds and shapes of the alphabet, but have capital letter and letter name mastery as well. Our premise is, "Build the essential foundation of sound/shape first, then add the ancillary concepts, such as capital letters and letter names."

The following paragraph will help explain how to teach the sounds and the shapes of the letters for alphabet mastery:

1. Because there is nothing inherent in the visual symbol that suggests its name or sound, one must develop that "something" that causes the child to make the letter/sound connections. (Ehri, Deffner, & Wilce, 1984) If a teacher uses pictures that relate to the sounds of the letters and uses the child's modalities to learn and remember the sounds, these techniques will provide a safety net for memory and retrieval. Without these connections there will be no understanding. Without understanding, there is no retention, usage or transference. Here is an example of right hemispheric, brain-efficient sequential teaching using pictorial mnemonics:a)
- Bradshaw, Clark, & Wrighton (1985)

b)

- Bradshaw, Clark, & Wrighton (1985)

c)

These examples represent the transition from picture (a mnemonic), to picture-letter (still maintaining its mnemonic, concrete quality), transitioning to the abstract letter, which, in good time, is our end result. To re-state,

a) this presentation of the alphabet begins with a right hemispheric presentation through the picture

b) keeps its right hemisphere presentation as it makes its transition to the abstract, (as you can see by the picture placed on top of the letter),

c) then fully and successfully moves to a left hemispheric task, which is the letter.

Which is easier to remember for a five year old?

This?

Or this?

Bradshaw, Clark, & Wrighton (1985)

The visual impact of the bear, which easily demonstrates the "buh" sound, cements the sound to the letter. Presenting letters in their abstract forms to young children delays memory, understanding and usage. Presenting the alphabet in a brain-efficient manner produces utilization because there is understanding.

"Many other studies confirm that paired-associate learning in children is much improved when learners create or are provided with concrete, meaningful, interactive and imaginable connectives that link the stimulus and response terms in memory." (Ehri, Deffner, Wilce, 1984, p. 881) But, this is not all. The following paragraph will demonstrate the most important component to memory success.

2. Attach a motor movement, (also a mnemonic, right brain stimulus), which is directly related to the picture/letter, establishing the sounds to the letters. The brain uses this device to cement the information into memory, then uses the same device to retrieve the information from the brain when needed for reading and spelling activities.Let's go back to the bear: A child looks at the picture of the bear and associatively "sees" the shape, which is in the shape of the letter, (unbeknownst to the child as yet). The child is then taught a body gesture by having him use his hand to reach into the air like the bear "paw" reaching for honey from the hive and bringing it to the mouth. Specifically: the child reaches up with his hand, pulls the hand down to this mouth as if eating honey, and says "buh". At this point all modalities (eyes, ears, mouth and limb) have been involved in the beginning reading and spelling process.
It's commonly believed that when you hear something, you retain 10% of the information. If you see it, hear it and say it, you retain 40%. But, if you hear, see, say and DO it, (participate with the information), you retain 70-100% of the information. Teachers need to use a multi-modal approach to teach the reading and writing process, capitalizing on the childrens' natural tendency to wiggle. By using pictures in place of abstract symbols, the brain is better able to retain the information within the memory bank. A body signal done simultaneously with the visual aid stimulates the muscles, nervous system and both hemispheres of the brain. The body movement becomes internal and automatic, cueing the brain to utilize the information recorded visually, auditorily and kinesthetically.

In a short time, after all the body gestures (signals to the brain) and sounds have been mastered, the teacher presents the picture of an animal placed on top of a letter. The child now accepts the idea that the animal is in the shape of a letter, and that every time that child sees that animal/letter, s/he makes the "buh" sound. It will not be long before the child is seeing just the letter in text, and will be able to make the sound as s/he does the body movement or signal.

Learning the initial alphabet sounds in this fashion will take a matter of days or a few weeks as opposed to 26 weeks.

Taught in its totality with every presentation, the child will become aware of the makeup of words. They will notice the letters in various textual forms (books, cereal boxes, road signs, headlines, etc.).

Research supports this methodology: "Rohwer (1966) investigated various kinds of associative mnemonics in young children and found that the best connective for remembering words were meaningful "actor-action-object" relationships." (Ehri, Deffner, & Wilce, 1984, p. 881) Further research (Fleming & Stern, 1986) supports, "The tactile-receptive systems of the hands provide for another access to the hemispheres ... The consistent results of the various investigations may warrant recommendation that the right hemisphere ... should be directly stimulated in order to improve (student's) accuracy and efficiency in reading and spelling" (p. 358).

3. Teach spelling as a vital part of the school curriculum. Because spelling/writing are a watermark of success (read a job application from an average high school graduate), writing and spelling are the factors that separate the person from higher education or the profession of choice. A person may have all the talent, intelligence and/or creativity in the world, but without mastery of written language, this person is not able to accomplish his/her goals.

Spelling can no longer be treated as an incidental activity. Many teachers in California expressed that they don't teach spelling. Often word lists (if given at all) are sent home for study.

Spelling must be taught as a vital, consistent and integrated part of the reading curriculum. It should be supported by the literature used in the daily presentation. This gives a child a reason for studying spelling.

Word families, rather than high frequency words, should be taught to first and second graders. Think about a first grade child trying to spell words such as, "of," "said," "there," "was," "because," etc., in one week's spelling lesson. Teaching random information (abstract and left-brained) makes it difficult for students to assimilate this type of information for future use. Many can memorize a list for the spelling test on Friday, but on Monday, there is little transference when writing in journals. There is no meaning nor connection. Research (May 1990) states that children are pattern seekers and pattern makers. After the child has mastered the alphabet and can identify the sounds in text, the next logical step is to combine the letters (still in the picture/letter form for right hemispheric strategies) to form words. If the children see the pattern (remember, it will be introduced with the pictures and placed into memory with a body signal), memory will take place more easily.It is crucial that children understand the purpose behind the phonemic analysis being presented. The teacher must tie the "a-z's" into all text (tying initial, medial, and ending sounds into literature, other textual experiences and classroom environment); and when broadening reading and writing skills, the teacher should tie the phonemes into the literature and other text.

4. Give children books that they can read. First and second graders must have reading books that they can read independently. Ask any first grade teacher and s/he will tell you that their emerging readers are not able to learn how to read from literature books. The text is too difficult and unpredictable. These students need readers so that they can experience successful independent reading. It is necessary for students to be taught decoding so that they are able to sound out unfamiliar words that may already be in their oral vocabulary.

5. Reading and spelling errors must no longer go uncorrected. Teachers should allow room for young writers to write without fear of making mistakes. Inventive spelling was encouraged for this very reason and the results have been positive in that students are writing more freely. But many interpreted it to mean that spelling need not be corrected or taught. But if spelling is taught, high frequency words have often been used as spelling lists. The brain does not easily store such random information. The same philosophy reigned in reading. It has been believed that children's reading should not be interrupted by the teacher to correct mistakes. If the child continues to repeat the same mistake, it becomes a problem. We must remember how the child's brain stores information. Mistakes left uncorrected are remembered.Everything we do in teaching the child, from pre-school through third grade, has to be taught with efficiency. What is it costing the child and teacher in time? In frustration? In success? In failure? If I teach a lesson that is abstract and unobtainable to the brain for understanding retention, mastery and transference, then I have just wasted everybody's time, especially the child's.
Every child must become a reader and having been in the classroom for the past twenty-five years as a teacher has given me the confidence to state that teaching children how to read and write is within our grasp.

References:

Adams, M., Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning About Print, Champaign, IL: Center for the Study of Reading (1990)

Anderson, R., Hiebert, E., Scott, J., & Wilkinson, I., Becoming a Nation of Readers, Washington, DC: US Department of Education (1985)

Bradshaw, G., Clark, I., & Wrighton, C., Zoo-phonics®: A phono-visual, tactile, kinesthetic approach to Phonics, Reading and Spelling, Groveland, CA: Zoo-phonics®, Inc. (1985)

Chall, J., "Point/Counterpoint: Whole Language Versus Direct Instruction Models," Reading Today, Newark, DE: IRA (Dec. 1992/Jan. 1993)

Chall, J., Learning to Read: The Great Debate, New York: McGraw-Hill (1967)

Ehri, L., Deffner, N., & Wisce, I. "Pictorial Mnemonics for Phonics," Journal of Educational Psychology, 76 (5) (1984)

Flehmig, I. & Stern, L. (Eds.), Child Development and Learning Behavior, New York: Fischer-Verlag (1986)

May, F., Reading As Communication: An Interactive Approach, Columbus, OH: Merrill Publishing (1990)

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An analysis of the changes necessary to create a methodology and curriculum that enhances student achievement in reading and spelling By Charlene A. Wrighton, Co-Author/Developer, Zoo-phonics® (1995) Zoo-phonics® is based on Creating Brain-Efficient Curriculum... The Hottest Educational Issue Of the Past 10 years Has NOT Been Whole Language vs.

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These are great activities for students to do in the class, or at home to continue grasping and understanding the concept.

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ABCya! * Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching for Kids

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This activity is great for an in class activity and and an at home activity that parents can practice with their kids. The key of this game is for students to match the lower case frog, with the matching letter that is placed on the lily.

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Letter identification is a skill that we work on all year long! Because it's a skill that we practice a lot, I know how important it is to have plenty of activities and approaches for my students to master this skill. I never want it to become boring! Today I'm sharing free Frog Letter Matching Cards and the various ways you can use them for letter activities. These letter cards are a great addition to your literacy centers, small group, or interventions.

Frog Letter Activities

What's Included:

Uppercase letters A-Z on lily pads

Lowercase letters a-z on frogs

Set up:

Print the uppercase and lowercase letter cards. I recommend printing on card stock and laminating for long-lasting durability.

Ideas for Use:
Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Match
The first and most common way to use these cards for letter activities is to match the uppercase letters to the lowercase letters.

I love to introduce activities like this as though my students are going to bring each frog to their own lily pad. This adds in a sense of imagination to a simple activity intended to build their letter foundation. Set out all or just some of the letter cards.
*Tip: For students who are struggling to learn their letters, set out a small group of letters that include the letters they know and only a few (1-3 depending on the student) letters they are working on learning. This will allow them to practice letters they've already mastered and make them feel successful. It's important not to overwhelm students who are still learning this skill with too many letters.
After the cards are set out, students will look for the uppercase and lowercase letter matches. The uppercase letters are displayed on lily pads, while the lowercase letters are shown on the frogs.

After all cards are matched, students should go back and read each letter for practice. I also encourage early finishers to practice again, seeing how quickly and accurately they can match the cards while saying the letter names.
Uppercase and Lowercase Memory Match
Do you remember the age-old Memory game you used to play as a kid?

Well, why not bring it back into your classroom! Memory card games have many benefits for young children, including developing concentration or short-term memory, increasing attention to details, and training their visual memory.

To use these cards as a memory game, choose the letters you would like your students to work on. If you are using most or all of the cards, I recommend making 2 piles, one for uppercase letters and one for lowercase letters. Mix them up and place them face down.

Students take turns flipping over 2 cards. They should also say the letter names of the cards they flip over to reinforce letter identification practice. If they are a match, the student keeps the cards. If the letters are not a match, they flip the cards back over, keeping them in the same place.

Play until all cards have been matched. At the end of the game, reinforce letter identification again by having students read their letter cards.
Letter Smash
Your kids will love this one! It can be played with teacher direction or as a partner game for student-led fun.

Set out the letter cards that you want your students to practice. They should be face up for this activity. To play, you need to first determine who the "caller" will be and who the "smasher" will be. If you want this to be teacher directed, you would be the caller. If students are playing this in pairs, one student would be the person calling out the letters and one person would be the "smasher."

The "caller" says a letter out loud. The "smasher" uses their hand or a fun tool (I'll get to that in a minute) to tap the letter card quickly.

Some ideas for "smasher" tools are: fly swatters (you can get these at the dollar store), play dough, or any other kind of wand you might have available. For example, I have these star wands that students use for various pointing or activities where they have to find and identify something.

If your students need a challenge, set out a mix of uppercase and lowercase cards. Make sure the person calling out the letters specifies whether the person finding the cards should "smash" an uppercase letter or a lowercase letter.

Grab Your Copy

I hope that you and your students enjoy these frog letter activities! You can grab your Frog Upper and Lowercase Letter Cards by clicking the yellow button at the bottom of this post.

Then, for more spring-themed learning, hop over and grab our Spring CVC Puzzles!

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Frog Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Activities

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Letter identification is a skill that we work on all year long! Because it's a skill that we practice a lot, I know how important it is to have plenty of activities and approaches for my students to master this skill. I never want it to become boring!

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For ELL students, it is important we create a foundation for them. They really need to be familiar with the alphabet in order to understand the concept of upper case and lower case. This site is great because it contains different files, and activities for ELL students, and students in general.

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Alphabet Matching | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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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 stu…

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Songs are great to do with kids, because they are easy and fun, and can be implemented at anytime throughout the day. I chose this song because it helps students recognize upper case and lower case letters, and match them.

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This article goes over multiple different literacy activities, and ideas on how to help support your child on all aspects of literacy. This is also great, because it is broken down by grade levels.

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Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds, called phonemes , in spoken words. Phonemic awareness activities can be done with eyes shut.

Phonemic awareness is not phonics, rather, phonological awareness forms the basis of phonics. Phonics is the understanding that sounds and print letters are connected; this is the first step towards "reading."

Before children learn to read, they need to become more aware of how the sounds in words work. They must understand that words are made up of speech sounds, called phonemes .

Phonemes are the smallest parts of sound in a spoken word that makes a difference in a word's meaning. Listen to the word ball. It has 3 sounds /b/ /aw/ /l/. If we switch (or manipulate) /b/ for /w/ we have a whole new word wall. Change /aw/ to /e/ and we have another new word well.

Phonological Awareness, however, encompasses a number of sound related skills necessary for a person to grow as a reader. As a child develops phonological awareness he not only comes to understand that words are made up of small sound units (phonemes), he also learns that words can be segmented into larger sound "chunks" known as syllables and each syllable begins with a sound (onset) and ends with another sound ~ Rimes.

When measuring a child's phonological awareness, we look at his ability to apply several different skills. A child with strong phonological awareness should be able to recognize and use rhyme, break words into syllables, blend phonemes into syllables and words, identify the beginning and ending sounds in a syllable and see smaller words within larger words (ie. cat in catalog).

Phonemic awareness is just one aspect of phonological awareness.

While phonological awareness encompasses a child's ability to recognize the many ways sounds function in words, phonemic awareness is only the understanding of the tiniest sound units in words.

Because phonemic awareness is a subskill under the phonological awareness "umbrella," not all of the measures for determining a reader's skill level are applied when assessing phonemic awareness. A reader with strong phonemic awareness will demonstrate the ability to hear rhyme and alliteration (the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of several different words used in a sentence or paragraph, such as sweet smell of success), find the different sound in a set of words (ie. bat, ball, wet) and blend and segment phonemes .

Why is Phonemic Awareness Is Important? Phonemic awareness improves a child's word reading, comprehension, and ability to spell. ACTIVITIES TO DEVELOP PHONEMIC AND PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS Play These With Your Child! Listening Games: To sharpen the child's ability to attend selectively to sounds.Think of: environmental sounds, storytelling and sharing activities, read alouds, following oral directions, sequencing of events, and being a listening detective ~ detecting the mistake heard.

With eyes closed, have the child identify the sound of clapping, a bell, a drawer opening/closing, a book slamming, crackers smashing, paper crumpling, marbles in a jar, paper ripping, a zipper going up and down, scissors cutting, etc.

Have the child identify a sequence of sounds.

Can the child locate the source of the sound?

Practice, from a familiar nursery rhyme, detecting what is said out of order. For example, Humpty Dumpty wall on a sat, or swap the word parts as in one, two, shuckle my boo. Also, can the child detect that the story order is incorrect, as in mixing up the order in the Three Little Pigs? If he/she can ~ that is being a good listening detective!

Have the child listen to and participate in storytelling, listen to read alouds, follow oral directions, and sequence events.

Identify animals by the sounds they make.

Rhyming :To use rhyme to introduce the child to the sounds in words.Think of: nursery rhymes, text variations where a rhyming word can be inserted, rimes ~ see my Rime page, poetry and finger plays.

Round Robin Game: I'm going on a trip and I'm taking a pet, net, jet, etc. Rhyming words need to be given by the child.

Rhyme Hunt: I see something in this room that rhymes with rock. Continue in this manner.

Say two words, and the child gives thumbs up/thumbs down if the words rhyme or not.

Ask What rhymes with top and starts with /h/? What rhymes with rack and starts with /t/? Continue with these riddles.

Sing new words to the tune of If You're Happy and You Know It: Did you ever see a bear in a chair ? (Replace bear and chair with different words the next time around.) Did you ever see a bear in a chair? No, I never. No, I never. No, I never. No, I never. No, I never saw a bear in a chair. Did you ever see a bell in a ______.. . . " Continue the song in this manner.

Read lots of Mother Goose rhymes to your child.Teach your child to use meaning and meter to notice and predict rhyming words

Have the child sit with friends/family in a circle with fists up as in One Potato, Two Potato. As a group, say a nursery rhyme, with fists being tapped one at a time in a circle. If the child's fist is the rhyming word, the fist goes behind back. Continue in this manner.

Evoke the realization that almost any word can be rhymed. Say a word, and have the child say a rhyme for it, even if it is a nonsense word.

Say rhyme phrases, and have the child fill in the blank, such as A cat is wearing a ____. A mouse lives in a _____.

ing rhymes for action play ~ barking/parking, ringing/singing, wishing/fishing ~ have the child give a rhyming word and act these out.

Add A Sound (Synthesis) to introduce the child to synthesize words from their separate phonemes. To Add a Sound, explain that if we put a sound at the beginning of a word, we can have a new word, as in ox, add /f/, now we have fox. A t add /c/, now we had cat. Say a vowel with consonant and have the child add a sound.

Different Words, Same Final Phoneme: Gather objects in your house, and ask the child which 2 objects end with the same sound, or even say a word such as fork, and ask the child to find something in the room that ends with the same sound. Cake ends like fork.

What Is Missing? Say 2 words and ask the child what sound was taken away, such as rice/ice ( the r sound is missing), same/aim (s sound), thick/ick (th sound), or do this in reverse ~ what sound was added?

Use alliteration in silly sentences, such as six silly snakes sat soaking up some sun. Ask what sound was heard most often. Big bears bake bread, etc. Jiggle,Joggle,Jee by Laura Richards and Chicky Chicky Chook Chook by Cathy MacLennan are two books focusing on alliteration that preschoolers enjoy.

Round Robin Game: I'm going on a trip and I'm taking a pen, pencil, peanut, parrot. . . . Continue this game using various letters.

Create story titles and a story for a character such as Robert the Running Rabbit. This is a form of alliteration.

Do discrimination activities. Listen for which word starts with the same sound as take. Say three words such as pencil, tub, pan. The child should recognize tub as having the same beginning sound as take. Which word does not belong: mat, leg, had ~ it would be leg because of the short e sound ~ the other 2 words are alike because they both have short a. This would be more advanced. You can play which word does/does not belong using beginning letter sounds, vowels, ending letter sound.

Blend onset and rimes such as g-ame is game, n-ight is night, tr-uck is truck. (The onset is beginning letter sound or blend, the rime is the vowel and string of letters that comes after.) Have the child segment the onset and rime on own. See my Rime page.

Sounds In Words: You can use 4 different colored blocks for this activity ~ green, yellow, blue, orange. Each color represents one sound, but not a particular sound. For example, on the word rice, the child may represent /r/ with a green block, /i/ with a yellow block, and /s/ (the actual ce in the word sounds like /s/) with a blue block. When the green block is taken away, it becomes /i/ /s/ ~ ice, a whole new word. It is important for your child to segment words into their phonemes. Ask your child to change rice to mice. Your child should swap out the green /r/ sound with a different color ~ perhaps orange, for /m/. To change mice to mitt, the blue block is slid out, and the green block can now represent /t/.

After modeling, and asking the child to listen to syllable counts, have the child clap the syllables in his/her first and last name. Have the child feel his chin move to the various syllable amounts. Count syllables in various words.

Blend and Segment Syllables: Have the child blend the 2 word parts heard sun/shine, up/stairs, ta/ble. Say a word, and have the child segment the syllables.

Play Syllable and Sound Deletion: Say table. Say it again but don't say /ta/. The answer would be ble. Any 2 or more syllable words can be broken down in this manner. Say computer. Say it again but don't say er. It would be compute.

Phonemes : To develop the ability to analyze words into a sequence of separate phonemes and to develop the ability to synthesize words from a sequence of separate phonemes.

Blend the sounds in a word into a word as in /s/ /a/ /d/. Talk like a robot, segmenting each sound, and have the child blend the sounds into a word.

Say a sentence leaving a word out that you deliberately segment, such as where did I leave my /p/ /e/ /n/? This is a fun way for the child to blend.

Say a word, and have the child segment it on own. Use Elkonin boxes, which look like this:

The sounds of the word /f/ /i/ /sh/ fit nicely in the 3 squares because fish has 3 sounds. Ask the child to point to the box where he/she hears /i/ for example. The answer would be the middle box.

Have the child work on sound discrimination ~ does boy start with /b/ or /v/? Say various words and give 2 sound options.

Have the child do manipulation activities with plain blocks, crayons, or ziti which are used to represent sounds: Show the child 3 pieces of ziti. Say this says map, /m/ /a/ /p/. Now change map to mop. The child should know to swap out the middle ziti. Then say, now change mop to cop. Now change cop to cot. The child should be swapping out the correct ziti. You can also do this orally without the ziti. Say change the /a/ in map to /o/. What is the word? Mop! Now change /m/ in mop to /c/. What is the word? Cop!

Play "Sound of the Day" by renaming common items with the same sound for example, mamper, mesk, mencil. . . .

Consonant Blends ~ Adding and Subtracting Initial Sounds: The child should have plain blocks or pieces of ziti ~ any item ~ small, uniform, and plain. Say a simple word such as lay. The child must represent the phonemes heard by using the plain blocks or ziti. Lay has 2 phonemes /l/ and /a/. Now say a rhyming word play.That has 3 phonemes to be represented /p/ /l/ /a/. Continue in this manner.

Building Sounds in Words: Start with a 2 sound word such as pie, a 3 sound word from that is spy, a 4 sound word from that is spice. Here are some 2 sound words. . . .good luck my, an, at, in, ice, ate.

Guess A Word: Have the child find a secret object in the room. You guess what the object is while he says it phoneme by phoneme such as /ch/..../ai/..../r/.

Ask riddles such as What ends with /d/ and is a color?

Guess What ~ Introducing Sounds and Letters: I'm think of something in this room that starts with /sh/. Say the SOUND, not the letter name(s).

Initial Sounds and Letters: Use pictures from a book, objects in a room, or just say words from your head. Say 2 words and ask the child if they begin with the same sound. Does dog and deer begin with the same sound? What about milk and nest?

Final Sounds and Letters: Say 2 words such as dress and glass. Ask the child if the words end with the same sound. What about box and hill? Continue playing in this manner.

Word Search Initial or Final Consonants: Ask the child to find something in the room that starts with. . . and say any letter of the alphabet ~ NOT the sound, but the actual letter. The child must determine the sound of the letter to find the object. Play the same game with ends with. . . again say the letter name, not the sound.

Introduction to How Words Are Spelled By Adding A Letter: Start with writing down 2 letters such as at, ad, or even sa or ma. Add a 3rd letter for the child to decode such as mat, sat, pat in the at example or in the sa example sat, sad, sag.

Graphic posted with permission from Kathy Schumacher at http://www.tunefulteaching.com. Check out her great site!
Please watch my presentation: PhonemicAwareness (2) Would you like this page in Microsoft Word and/or to add this page to your website? Please email me the pages you want at judithearaujo@gmail.com and send $10/page to the "BUY NOW" LINK PROVIDED UNDER MY CONTACT INFORMATION ON THE FAR LEFT. Thank you! Word versions do NOT come with the images. COPYRIGHT 09/05/2012. PLEASE CITE AS FOLLOWS: Adams, Marilyn Jager. Phonemic Awareness in Young Children. Brookes Publishing: Baltimore, 1998. Araujo, Judith E., M.Ed., CAGS. "Phonemic Awareness for PreK, K, and 1." Mrs. Judy Araujo, Reading Specialist. N.p., 5 Sept. 2012. Web. <http://www.mrsjudyaraujo.com/phonemic-awareness-for-prek-k-and-1/>. Page Views as of 8/29/18:
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Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds, called phonemes , in spoken words. Phonemic awareness activities can be done with eyes shut. Phonemic awareness is not phonics, rather, phonological awareness forms the basis of phonics. Phonics is the understanding that sounds and print letters are connected; this is the first step towards "reading."