So I had no intention of writing a blog post today…in fact, I am supposed to be working on 1st quarter grade cards right now. And I was just doing that--but as I was sitting here entering my students scores on the grade card I got Way. Too. Excited!
My students are ROCKING their letters and sounds like never before! I only have one student—yes you read that right, only ONE, that knows less than half their letters/sounds. I work in a Title 1 school (about 80 some % of our students are free/reduced lunch), and we have a lot of kiddos that come in with little to no prior exposure (as in knowing zero letters, nor even how to write their name). So you can imagine my excitement at the progress we have already made--in ONE quarter!!
So I just had to take a break and share with you….
Now this seems like both an ‘A-ha’ and a ‘DUH, I wish I had implemented this sooner!’ I’m sure some of you already do this but for those who don’t, I had to share! It is SO simple! I started this last year, but towards the end of the year when most of my kiddos were already pretty fluent in letters and sounds so I didn’t notice a huge increase in letter/sound fluency. This year I started day 1 and WOW, what a difference it has made!
There are 2 main (EASY) changes I made:
*Number One* I created actions for each letter of the alphabet! Every morning we quickly recite the alphabet using our actions. We say the letter name, the name of the picture that begins with that letter, and finally (the fun part!) we do the action while we say the letter sound 3 times. So for Aa, we say ‘A, a, alligator, /a//a//a/! While we do the /a/ sounds we clap our hands in front of us like an alligator chomping his jaw. This has helped SO much! Students are making the connection between letters and sounds like never before—and most of all, they are ENGAGED! They love our ABC chants! If I forget to do them one day, I quickly get reminded! :)
*Number 2* The students now have the same picture association for each letter on all of our charts.
Pictures are the same on our large wall chart:
the poster on the front board:
the charts I put on their writing folders:
and I printed the same charts to use in my guided reading groups:
I LOVE when a student is stretching a word and hears ‘uuuu….’ does the action and shouts ‘umbrella!’ They then use their chart to find the umbrella and see that Uu is the letter for that sound. Can you say student independence??? In the 1st quarter of kindergarten?? YAY!
Like I said, SO simple right?? I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner!
Try this and you will not regret it, I promise! You could add actions to your current ABC chart, or for those of you that want to try it (but want to save time not having to create the actions yourself) I am offering my black and white ABC chart and a page with the motions as a FREEBIE! Just click HERE!
This freebie is included in my Alphabet Chart sets-- they all include the actions, large charts, poster charts (I took this to Staples and had it blown up for the chart on my board), and black and white versions (both full and half sheets) for printables. They come in multiple decors. If you have a special request for décor, please let me know and I will see if I can create it for you!
I would love to hear how this works in your classroom! Happy teaching!
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