Introducing the Letter of the Week
Hello, and Happy Monday! I wanted to write a quick post and share with you my letter formation routine that I have come to love. After the first few weeks of school we start to introduce one letter a week and practice letter formation. The students have handwriting homework for the week and each day we practice writing the letter and using it within words.
On Mondays we run through the following routine that I have found to be beneficial and my kinder kiddos love!
This week we are working on the letter Aa. I begin by having the kids come to the rug and we read the Alpha Tales or Phonics Tales book for the week. We talk about the words we hear in the story that have the letter of the week and have conversations with our elbow partner.
Afterwards I show them the proper formation of the letter (Uppercase and Lowercase) on their letter homework.
The kids also practice spelling words by writing the sounds they hear for each picture. This is a chance for me to review who is hearing the beginning/middle/ending sounds of each word.
Afterwards everyone goes to their chairs and they practice writing the letter on sentence strips as I walk around and help.
Next, students walk around and read the room to find words that start with the letter of the week. The kiddos love walking around with their slates and writing words. I overhear them helping each other and brainstorming together.
We finish our letter discussion by gathering at the rug and sharing the words we found. We also play a clue game where I have objects that start with the letter and the students try to guess what each object is. Then we work together spelling the word. I write it on my easel and the kiddos spell it on their slates. I always thought if I had kids bring slates to the rug they would be so distracted they wouldn’t listen, however it is the exact opposite. They are so engaged during this time and it is such a great hands on opportunity for them to practice writing and sounding out words. I also have found the clue game is beneficial for my English Language Learners because they are visually seeing the objects and writing the words.
Thank you for taking the time to read through my letter practice routines. If you are interested in the handwriting practice you can click on the letter packet below.
Have a wonderful week!