Beginning Sounds of Our Names

Children’s names are the most important words for them. So when you review the beginning sound of their names they are usually very excited about it.

The last time we reviewed the beginning sounds of our names I started by placing their letters in the middle of the circle and they had to find their own.

Then we used seeds to glue on the letters.

After the seeds dried the students worked in small groups. I precut pictures of objects that had the same beginning letter of their names and placed them all in the middle of the table. The students had to first sort out the pictures and then glue them next to their letter sound.

They shared their work in their small group and then with the whole class and we decided to place them on a bulleting board.

I thought the students would not look at the work anymore but once in a while a student gets our “pointer”, (the little blue hand you see in the picture) and they start looking at the seed letters and name the pictures around it. That is realy gratifying to see.

I like to have them revisit the board with varying approaches, for example I ask the children to say the sounds of the letters as I point to them, then they say the word out loud.  We spelled words like cat, mat, hat, fat, sat, can, fin, dad, Sam, ham, mad, and a few more.

This will go in their portfolios as a result of the enthusiasm the students showed towards their work.

P is for Popcorn! Pop Pop Pop!

Whenever possible I like to make something special for the letter of the week. This week was the letter “P” and I made POPCORN for the students. We had already made popcorn when we investigated our senses. Making popcorn with the students is a wonderful experience because you use all five senses. But as I said I had done it before and did not have much time. I went straight to the connection between letter P and the beginning sound of ‘popcorn’ and ‘pop’.

I made the popcorn at home and brought a big bowl to school. I gave each child a paper plate with the capital letter P written on it. The activity I proposed was to use the popcorn to make the letter P and after that the student could eat the letter P. Picking up one piece of popcorn at a time it is also a great fine motor skill activity.

First I introduced the activity on the big circle talking about the letter sound, what begins with that sound, trace it in the air, when was the last time we did popcorn and why, etc.

I showed them the paper plates with the capital P on it and where to start placing the popcorns as if they were writing it. I said I could not lift the plate because I did not want the popcorn to fall and one student said, “Well you can if you use glue!” Then I challenged him by asking “And why would I bother to do this?” I swear I could see his brain ticking and it took him a few seconds to say, “Because then you can teach better”.  And he looked at me with his smart look.

Then I did it. As this was early in the morning and it is HOT and DRY here the popcorn was firm on the plate in no time.

 

Now we can lift the plate. We pinned it on the board.

 First trace the letter P with your finger.

 Pick up one popcorn at a time

 Make the letter P with Popcorn

 Now they are ready

 And the best part according to the students was to eat your letter P.

We did the activity in two groups as I have 22 students. The older group who was working with me finished quickly and asked me for more popcorn. “Why should I give you more popcorn?” I asked them. They quickly bombarded me with all sorts of answers like, “Because we are good”, “Because we are hungry”, “Because it is delicious” and “We want more!”

The younger group was working in groups of 3 and 4 at a time with my assistant. They were finishing at different paces. One particular boy who is only 3 but very expressive and active looked at my assistant very seriously after he finished eating his first P and asked, “Can I… can I …can I … make another letter P?”.  How adorably clever is that?

I’m telling you, if the amount of popcorn they ate reflects their learning they surely know how to trace the letter P.

Amelia

First Letter of Our Names "SHOW and TELL"

The most important word to a child is his/her name.  Children usually learn the first letter of their names and of their friends’ names quite easily as they are significant to them. Names begin with capital letters, which makes them easy to memorize and to write as the majority of them have only straight lines and simple curves.