A Says What?

Almost from the second Kindergarten students walk through your door you begin working with the alphabet. Learning to name letters and the sounds that go with the letters is one of the biggest foundational skills learned in Kindergarten. I was fortunate enough my first year of teaching to have an amazing mentor that taught me a lot of tricks to use when teaching students the alphabet. Generally we begin singing the traditional alphabet song and learn to point at each of the letters as we sing them (I'm a huge fan of songs so there will be a ton of them on here!). After they have learned the alphabet song we transition to a variety of different alphabet songs.


One of my favorite song writers is Jack Hartmann. He has some amazing songs for everything you can imagine. Here are some of his alphabet songs:

• Hip-Hop to the Alphabet
• Letter Sounds Yo Yo
• These are the Vowels (Great to use about half way through the year)
• Workout to the Letter Sounds (my kids beg me to play this song)
• Move to the Alphabet (helps students recognize the formation of letters)

Another song writer that I love is Dr. Jean. She has great songs for everyday things as well as songs to use while teaching. Here are some of her alphabet songs:

• Who Let the Letters Out
• Alphardy
• Phon-ercise
• Sing and Sign

I use Who Let the Letters Out to help my students learn the sounds that each letter makes. Along with saying the sounds we use sign language and different motions to describe the sounds that the letters make. In the beginning of the school year we do this song everyday as we introduce new letters and sounds. It sounds weird but I've found that sign language and motions put together really help the students learn the sounds a lot faster than simply singing them or saying them.

Along with singing I also do activities designed to help the students become more fluent with letter recognition and sound recognition. Most of my activities were found on the Florida Center for Reading Research website. FCRR has amazing activities designed for all grade levels and the best part is you have to do very little work to get these activities up and running for your students! They are perfect for busy teachers who need things ready to go. Here are some activities I have used the past couple of years in my room:

Alphabet Borders

Students have to match the letters of the alphabet and use the pictures to help them identify the sounds.

Alphabet Arc

Students use foam letters to match the print letters in the arc. There is another version for higher students where letters are missing around the arc.

Clip-A-Letter (One of my students favorites!)

Students get a wheel with upper case or lower case letters on it and they have to find the clothespin with the same letter to clip onto the spot. For students who can successfully match letters, they can use the initial sound wheel and match the initial sounds the same way.

Poetry Pen

Students use familiar nursery rhymes to find letters at the beginning of words. This activity is great because you can also use it when students start learning more high frequency words. Students can use the nursery rhymes to find familiar high frequency words.

Sound Snacker

I purchased little trashcans from the Dollar Tree (a teachers best friend) and used those as my sound monsters. Students identify the sound on each of the trashcans then look at pictures or objects and decide which monster will eat it according to the beginning sound.

I was also fortunate to get an amazing activity through Donor's Choose from LakeShore. I wrote a proposal for different phonics activities and ended up getting if funded! Through my proposal I received Alphabet Teaching Tubs. I use these almost everyday in the beginning of the year as I introduce new letters and sounds. Each tub has a set of objects in it that begin with that sound. My students love guessing what letter it is by naming all of the objects and discovering what each object begins with. They make teaching sounds extremely interactive and builds vocabulary too!

As you can see teaching letters and sounds is a huge skill that is usually ongoing throughout the whole year. There are a ton of ways to get your students interested in learning letters and sounds by simply creating songs or by giving them fun and engaging activities to do.