![]() The down side is that the second stanza of the song doesn’t rhyme. In my version, the letters L, M, N, O, and P are presented individually. Once again, click on the File Cabinet tab of this website and look in the left hand column.Īlso, in the file cabinet is a mp4 of me singing a tweaked version of the traditional A-B-C. If you need more guidance on how the song goes, you can download a free mp4 of me singing it. You want to voice a perfectly puffed /p/ for the letter P, not say “puh.” Also, make sure that they (and you, too) clip off any schwa sounds. ![]() You want them to associate the sound with the visual and vice versa. As the children sing, make sure they point to each letter and look at each letter. That way, when kids move up the grade levels or switch classrooms ,they won’t be confused by a different chart.Īnd so on and so forth. And I suggest the same sound-letter chart be used across your K and first grade classrooms. Just make sure the represented sound is pure and in an easy-to-hear position. Using free clip art, you can swap in other pictures if they better suit your taste. Look in the left hand column towards the top. This is because we are saying the letter’s name, not its sound!Ī solid sound-letter chart can be found under the “File Cabinet” tab of this website. X-ray is not the best choice because in X-ray, the X has three sounds /e/, /k/ and /s/. Also, to present the pure /ks/ sound of X, look to a one-syllable fox or box to do the work, even though the sound for the letter X is in the final, not initial, position. Other programs like The Letter People and Wilson Language use these key words. You can keep apple for A, but you should replace elephant, and you might consider replacing igloo, octopus, and umbrella with these one-syllable words: Do this by using key words that are one-syllable in length and have a pure sound. For young children, make short vowel sounds easy to hear, and make letter associations easy to understand. Say what?Įlephants, olives, and oranges muddy the sound waters. Why? Most had elephant, a few had egg, one had ink for short /i/ (sorry, but yuck), one had olive (as in elephant, the vowel is not pure due to the l), and worst of all, four contained an orange for the short /o/ sound. Many of the charts were not as effective as they could be. In a Google image search, I looked at over 40 alphabet sound charts in various reading programs, Teacher Pay Teacher materials, and Pinterest pins. Its one-syllable length is helpful, but still, it’s too easy for a child (or even an adult) to mix a bit of long A sound into the initial vowel sound. A picture of an egg is slightly better but still not the best. So, elephant is not the best choice for a word meant to present the short /e/ sound. If you ask a kindergarten child what is the first sound in elephant, they may say /t/, the last and most easy-to-remember sound they hear. ![]() This puts many sounds (and a lot of temporal space) between the initial sound and the ending sound. It is hard for a child (or even an adult) to hear or vocally produce a pure short /e/ sound when the e is followed by an l, as in elf or elk. The most persistent of these errors is elephant, a word often used to present the short /e/ sound. ![]() Their keywords (represented by pictures) are either too long, present an impure sound for the letter of focus, or both. Some charts, however, are not as effective as they could be. Let's take a look at each effective practice.įor many teachers, sound-letter charts are an important part of their beginning reading instruction. Finally, you'll want to teach one letter every day rather than one letter every week. Another instructional step is to use a sound-letter chart (or strip) to pair every letter of the alphabet with a picture that represents a word, which in turn presents the letter’s sound. Once you move beyond singing the letters, it pays to give thought to the sequence for introducing the letters. One tried and true way to introduce children to the letters of our English alphabet is to sing the ABC song with them.
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