Last week, there was a day with just Calvin and Hudson and me! It can be hard to stay occupied with such a small group. I used what felt like extra time to introduce working with sandpaper letters (ours look like this http://www.etsy.com/listing/62740002/lowercase-sandpaper-letters?ref=sr_gallery_1&sref=&ga_search_submit=&ga_search_query=sandpaper+letters&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_ship_to=US&ga_search_type=handmade&ga_facet=handmade). Because the letters A and T can go together with manymany other letters to make lots of English words, I introduced them first.
We sing:
Apple, apple
ah, ah, ah (soft, short A sound; almost an "eh," like the sound at the beginning of "apple")
Apple, apple
ah, ah, ah
Apple, apple
ah, ah, ah
Ah is the sound of A (say letter name)
While looking at cutout and laminated pictures of an apple
For T, we sing:
Tiger, tiger
T, t, t (shortshort "T" sound)
While looking at pictues of tigers
This game is fun for Hudson in the moment, and exposing him to the phonemes, which is awesome! For Calvin, this work is really giving him something to work on for which he is entering the sensitive period.
They wanted more, so we did R
Rat, rat
R, r, r (short "ruh")
While looking at pictures of rats
As soon as I put the tray on the shelf, Calvin had it down to look and sing by himself. I put the three letters together and we sounded out R-A-T, together!
We will all learn the phonemes with this song and with one that is sung to the tune of the ABC song, but which substitutes the letter's SOUND for its NAME. Using the phoneme, or the sound of the letter, rather than the name of the letter, when you point out letters to your child, is a powerful way to encourage pre-literacy, and support this work that we are starting at Community.
For example, when I child says to me, pointing to a letter B, "What's that?," I always answer, "That's Buh," pronouncing it very short--almost clipped. I'll post some recordings of the songs and their tunes. I use the same example no matter which song we are singing; so A is always paired with Apple, for example.
I do NOT encourage purchasing sandpaper letters for home use. The best way to support pre-literacy in young children is to always pronounce the sound, and never the lettername. Easy!
