Letter Sounds and Letter Writing

Submitted By Marisa Teply, Preschool 3 Teacher

Our preschool-3 learners are introduced to the letter sounds of the English alphabet in a specific systematic way. Initially, every letter is identified by its name and sound; then, each letter’s sound is further explored by discernment of its first-letter sound in various words. For each letter, tiny objects, printed images, and illustrations beginning with the letter are used to aid in the recognition of the letter’s sound. For each letter, the children cut, assemble, and produce “Tiny Word Booklets" to keep for themselves and to “read” as reminders of words that all start with that letter. Arts-and-crafts activities associated with the letter sound further reinforce the nomenclature learned with the letter. During the week of “q’, for instance, the children had a chance to use a quill to trace simple geometric shapes with stencils and ink.

Our preschool-3 learners follow a letter-group order when practicing letter strokes for writing. The first group of practice letters are c, o, a, d, g and q. For these letters, the correct stroke begins at the “2 o’clock” position and moves counterclockwise in a shape the children are familiar with – the circle. In preparation for penmanship, the children practice proper letter strokes through a number of media. The children start big – standing in front of a whiteboard and using a colored marker, the children develop muscle memory for a letter’s stroke order by sending the stroke order message from the shoulder all the way down to the hand and fingers while tracing a large-format letter.

Following the big strokes practice on a whiteboard, the children trace letters at a table on a much smaller scale using a Montessori sandpaper letter, followed by freehand letter writing in a sand tray. The children make rainbow-colored letters on a letter-tracing page using crayons or watercolor paints. They enjoy writing letters in shaving cream before snack time. The 3-finger pincer grasp is practiced with crayons, pencils and colored pencils. The children play letter-sound association games. They play sound guessing Bingo games, play an initial-sound sorting game with objects or pictures, and go on hunts to find things in the classroom that start with the letter of the week. Letter-sound practice and formation are embedded throughout the preschool-3 classroom. The children immensely enjoy their letter-sound discoveries.