A collection of quick ideas to use for teaching about the alphabet

Plan:

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Using alphabet flash cards (2 sets) play "go fish" using the flash cards.

--Cindy Raymond, Weber City Head Start Center

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When you are ready to start the letter Tt you can cut out a shape of a t-shirt on poster board for each child. Give children copies of magazines and instruct them to cut out pictures of items that begin with the letter T. After children have found enough pictures, have them glue their pictures on their t-shirts. You can do this with any letter. Just change your t-shirt to something else that starts with the letter you are discussing.

--Crystal Dorband

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The Letter "S"

Draw a large "S" on a piece of construction paper. Have the students take stickers and go over the prewritten "S". I also put "S is for Stickers" at the top of the page.

The Alphabet

We play a game that we have called, affectionately "You and Me". It is a great way to throw in those sight words.(you and me) I write You and Me, and we keep score with tally marks. It is the class against me. First, I tell the students what I have to do before anybody can shout out the answer. For example."Today, I will tap twice before you can answer." or Today, I will wink and point before you can answer. This makes it a listening game as well.

Now, we are ready to begin! I write a lowercase letter and do the things that we decided earlier (i.e. two taps) and the students call out the answer. Sometimes I pause a bit to make it harder.

Scoring: There is some judgement in this, but if anyone gives answer before the routine is complete, the teacher gets the point. If I hear most of the correct responses the students get the point. Because it is a group activity, all the kids feel free to pitch in and try.

My kids want to play everyday!! I am trying to find some more ways to increase the difficulty. We may start on our sight words next.

Denise Walker - Kindergarten-1/2 Day- Dandridge Elementary, Jefferson County, Tennessee

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Hangman
An all time favourite with children of all ages yet often overlooked with the younger ones. Use words that have been the focus in class. For example,
if you have been concentrating on four letter words, choose a four letter word and make a dash on the board for every letter in the word. Tell students to look at the amount of letters in the word and to refer to their word banks around the class for ideas. For variety, allow students to guess the word straight up rather than just choosing one possible letter. They love "beating the teacher" and this is a quick game if you only have a few minutes left in a session, yet is educational!

Happy teaching,
Edwina Jay, Australia.

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Guess What I Am?
(Much like the touch and feel box activity) Have students reach into a bag/box and feel an item inside without looking at it. Then students must guess what the object is. The teacher will give students a clue by telling them what letter the word starts with.

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Students can create an alphabet book.
This can be done in a variety of ways:

...Ond starts with.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Students can create an alphabet book.
This can be done in a variety of ways:

...On