Teaching Tips "A Note from Carol"

"A Note from Carol" is an editorial feature from the pages of The Learning Tree Store Publication. 

Hi Everyone,

One of my favorite songs from The Sound of Music is "Do Re Mi." At the beginning of the song Maria Von Trapp states, "When you read you begin with "A-B-C", when you sing you begin with "Do Re Mi." Well, alphabet recognition is just a part of the learning to read process, but that’s what we will focus on in this Note from Carol.

      

Children learn from play. By playing with the alphabet with a child you will help him begin to recognize the shapes of letters and to link them to the sounds of spoken language. Carpenters, teachers, electricians, and others have a collection of tools to aid them with their work. As you plan your holiday and birthday shopping you may want to add some alphabet learning tools to your list.

Alphabet cookie cutters can be used when you bake real cookies, but they are also a fun tool to use with playdoh.

Here is my favorite playdoh recipe:

2 cups flour

2 cups water

one cup salt

4 teaspoons cream of tartar

2 Tablespoons oil

Mix all ingredients in pan. Cook until thickened over low heat. Cool. Knead. You can add food coloring and/or glitter to this recipe. I often add a small bottle of extract (as part of the water) to give the playdoh a scent. You can also add spices to give the playdoh a scent.　

Put an alphabet placemat at your child’s place at the table and your child just might be willing to sit a little longer at the table as he’ll have something interesting to look at and discuss. Use an alphabet placemat as a work space when your child is playing with playdoh and your child may use the playdoh to create the letters he sees on the placemat.

All ages will play with magnetic letters that have been placed on the refrigerator.

While you’re cooking dinner your child may arrange the letters in alphabetical order or use the letters to spell out his name and the names of other family members. You might place 8 uppercase letters on the refrigerator and see if your child can find matching uppercase letters or corresponding lowercase letters.

Children love to play with rubber stamps. We sell sets of uppercase and lowercase rubber stamps in different sizes. Some are designed so that a child will trace the letter after he has stamped it. Give your child some paper and envelopes and he can stamp out his name, create cards, design personalized placemats for a special dinner and just have fun stamping out letters.

Alphabet beads, alphabet puzzles, and alphabet stencils are among other tools that a child might play with for fun and learn to recognize letters at the same time. We carry a great selection of alphabetical lacing cards. A child laces in alphabetical order and a picture appears. In addition to helping with learning the alphabet these tools will also help develop fine motor control and eye-hand coordination skills which will make it easier for your child when he starts to write the letters he has learned.

And books...we must not overlook books. What better way to get a child excited about the alphabet than to read to him to show him that letters make words and words have been put together to create his favorite stories. Here are some books you may want to add to your child’s collection:

Alphabet Adventure by Audrey Wood and Bruce Wood

Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson

Alphabet Mystery by Audrey Wood and Bruce Wood

Alphabet Rescue by Audrey Wood and Bruce Wood

Alphabet Tree by Leo Lionni

Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming

AlphaOops! The Day Z Went First by Alethea Kontis 0

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

Construction Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallota

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert

Firefighters A to Z by Chris Demarest

H is for Home Run: A Baseball Alphabet Book Handmade Alphabet

Old Black Fly by Jim Aylesworth and Stephen Gammell

Z is for Zamboni: A Hockey Alphabet by Matt Napier

 

Enjoy!

Carol

 

Copyright 2007 Carol Hartery, Educational Consultant.  All rights reserved. 

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A Note From Carol is published by The Learning Tree Store Publication, 

a division of Ed Venture, Inc. Stoneham, MA USA

Carol Hartery is an educational consultant who shares creative ideas from her experience of 30 years as a home daycare provider, kindergarten teacher and workshop presenter. Carol Hartery’s workshops are scheduled year round at The Learning Tree Store in Stoneham, MA. Carol presents hands-on, make-and-take teacher training workshops for early childhood educators on a variety of subjects.  Carol’s workshops are designed to take a comprehensive look at the curriculum and have fun with the frameworks at the same time.  Many of Carol’s workshops show teachers various ways to use products from The Learning Tree Store; however, they also incorporate ideas with recycled materials and teaching tools found in other places too.  Carol also presents workshops in local schools and at larger educational conferences and events across the country.