Let’s do some more letter activities because the alphabet is a great way to introduce concepts of print in a systematic way.
Being able to read the alphabet aloud with a pointer, pointing to the correct letter and not zooming ahead or falling behind is a great milestone that represents your child’s understanding that print communicates something.
First, write out the alphabet in large letters / use the alphabet sentence strip poster you made for the post “Read the Playroom.” Lay it out on the floor.
Then, I want you to search around your house and find some alphabet pieces that your child can manipulate –like the foam ABC set for the bath, or the magnetic set you can buy at the dollar store, or puzzle pieces, whatever you have. And I want you to lay them all out on the floor in no particular order. Then I want you to tell your child that you want to put them in the order that we read them when we sing the ABC’s. In order to do this you are going to match the manipulative letter to the written letter. Each time you pick a letter….talk about it. Do you know this letter? Where is its place in the alphabet, the beginning, middle, or end? What letter does it come after/before?
If your child isn’t sure…sing the ABC song until you get to that letter; your little one will most likely act super excited that he/she “found it.”
If you want to accommodate to make the matching skill more difficult….draw the lower case of the alphabet and match the upper case to it.
