Letter Lessons in Early Childhood

In the Early Childhood vestibule, students work individually with Dave to study their letters and letter sounds. They are working with Sandpaper Letters, a first important step in learning to read. The study of Sandpaper Letters involves tracing each letter one at a time and learning a representative speech sound to go with it. Because the letters are large and because the child experiences them with multiple senses, the letter/sound pairs become very real to the student. Since the letter/sound pairs are real and clear, the student enjoys and remembers them.

 

Those working with letter sounds may also work with the Alphabet Cards, an exercise that teaches letter recognition. These cards contain four alphabet sets -- capital print, lower case print, capital cursive, and lower case cursive. The objective of this activity is to identify the letter in all of its written forms, helping the child to recognize these letters regardless of how they appear in books or when written by a parent or friend.