Once upon a time, we used to have a letter of the week. This was a traditional way of learning letters. However, this isn’t best practice especially for our younger students any more. Wait, what do I do if that’s not best practice? Well I have some great A-Z letter of the week activities for you to explore. Plus, some free letter of the day worksheets for your students to use! But first…let’s talk about why letter of the week isn’t as effective as we thought and what you can do instead.
“Letter of the Week” isn’t something new especially if you are familiar with traditional early childhood education. This tried and true teaching method focuses on a different letter of the alphabet every week. Students explore, identify, and understand one letter at a time using a variety of different strategies and activities. For example, they might trace and color, sing songs, and circle the letter on a piece of paper. This method is systematic and makes mastering the alphabet seem a bit easier. The overall hope with this method was to create a strong connection with each letter of the alphabet. The thought is this would build a strong foundation for reading and writing. But was it effective for young learners?
While “Letter of the Week,” is common and easy to use, it may not match up with what kindergarten students are capable of doing. Studies have shown that kindergarten age students can take in and process information than the “Letter of the Week” method requires. Kindergarten students are ready to learn! Their brains are sponges, and they are naturally really curious. On top of all of this, kindergarten students are chameleons who can adapt to various environments. When we limit them to learning one letter a week, we are not helping them use their cognitive potential. This might cause boredom and make them a little less excited about learning. In other words, maybe we should be thinking less a, b, c, and more a-z letter of the week activities.
Even though “Letter of the Week” like all traditional education practices has the best intentions in mind, it isn’t always the best approach. Why not? Well it requires an entire school year to go through the alphabet. This can be risky for retention. For example, you learn “A” in week one, but then barely work on the letter again especially once you get to “S”. In addition, if you focus on one letter at a time, you lose the opportunity to talk about how different letters work together to make different sounds in words. When we have the chance to make those connections, we are building phonics skills with lettering blending and segmenting. These are fundamental for students when developing literacy skills.
We know that “Letter of the Week” isn’t necessarily the best way to go. So, what can you do instead? Something more dynamic and comprehensive. Instead of introducing one letter at a time, consider introducing several letters each week and teaching them in relation to one another. This will give your students a chance to see letters as “friends” or things that work together instead of individual pieces. Eventually, they’ll even see how these letters can make words!
This all comes back to the Science of Reading. It’s an effective method that encourages the A-Z letter of the week approach which is introducing more than one letter at a time. Why does Science of Reading love this approach? Well, when you introduce several letters, you are creating phonemic awareness because you’re showing the relationship letters and how those relationships create words. All of this will help build a strong foundation for reading.
When you are using A-Z Letter of the week activities, you’re still going to be teaching letters just like with the “letter of the week” method that we are throwing out. So, how do you teach letters in kindergarten? We all know you can’t just show the shape and announce the sound and move on. Learning letters is more intricate than that! When you are learning letters, you are going to be doing several activities to help students recognize the shape and sound by itself and in other words. These activities include writing the letters, relating the sounds, and doing fun interactive activities.
To do this, you need to use engaging, interactive activities that create dynamic learning experiences. For example, if you’re introducing the letter “D,” you could start a “D” day where students bring in objects that begin with the letter “D.” Students can bring in a doll or dinosaur. This real-world connection will create a memorable learning experience for all students. You can also use songs and dances that have the new letter in them as well. Having entertaining ways to talk about the letters you’re learning will solidify the letter and sound.
When you were teaching “Letter of the Week,” it was easy to know what you needed to teach next. However, when you are using A-Z letter of the week activities, you have to decide which letters work well together. So, how do you choose? When you introduce letters, consider introducing them based on how often we see them in words and in books. For example, letters like ‘m’, ‘a’, ‘t’, ‘p’, ‘s’, and ‘i’ can be great to start with. Why? Several of them can be combined to form words like “mat”, “pat”, and “sat.” Being able to use the letters together and form words will help them understand the letters even more!
While there may be a benefit to teaching letters in order so students understand the order of the alphabet, teaching letters out of order can have several benefits. When you teach letters out of order, you can choose setters that work well together. By doing this, you’re creating words with students which enhances their reading and writing skills. This is what teaching letters should really be about. Why? We use letters to speak, read, and write every day and it’s important to create those correlations early on. Teaching “A Letter A Week” is a thing of the past! When you use this traditional method, you are stopping your learners from really reaching their full potential! However, if you use A-Z letter of the week activities, you’ll be teaching students letters and working on correlating letters and sounds together. This is going to boost your students ability to read words, build vocabulary, and more. Because of this, you’re going to be creating life-long learners who love to read.
