1. Projects with Purpose
2. Sewing Letters
"…the adult should be calm and act slowly so that all the details of his action may be clear to the child who is watching." – Maria Montessori, The Secret of Childhood
3. Fairy Letters
4. The Fairy's Secret Alphabet
"I love making special gems and jewels to help motivate my students to learn critical skills like letters, letter sounds and sight words.
I have found that it can be highly motivating to students who are struggling. This is most powerful if you introduce the jewels through a little story:
Once, a long time ago, there lived a little fairy. She was no ordinary fairy. She was an Alphabet Fairy. Yup. She wore a beautiful Pink Cape and had a little blue bag. She carried in her very secret bag - secret jewels.
Shhhh - - I will tell you Alphabet Fairy’s secret. (I pull out a blue bag).
Alphabet Fairy loved all the sounds of the letters. One day she was telling her best friend the Tooth Fairy how much she loved letters and their sounds. “I wish I could let children know how special the letters and their sounds are. . . .”
Just then, the Tooth Fairy had an idea. “I know! You could leave one of your special sparkling letter jewels every time a child learns a new letter and it’s sound!”
Alphabet Fairy danced and danced. “Yes! Just think! They could have a bag full of 26 sparkling jewels and love the letters as much as I do!”
From that day on - she shared the jewels with as many children as she could.
(I open the bag and pour a pile of letter jewels in my hand.)
(I tell the children) The Alphabet Fairy has given me the jewels to share with you as you learn your letters and sounds."
5. Letter Collages
6. Matching Letters
7. Tracing Letters
8. Magnetic Alphabet Tracing Board
9. Alphabet Maze
10. Playdough Letters
11. Word Puzzles
12. Alphabet Stencils
13. Alphabet Stamps
14. Hieroglyphic Alphabet
15. Alphabet Crayon Rubbings
16. Book Nook
17. Read Aloud
“You are stretching them in vocabulary and grammar at an early age. You are preparing them to be expert language users, and indirectly you are going to facilitate their learning to read.
Encouraging older children to sound out words and explaining what a word means if it isn’t clear in the context of the story will help build children’s vocabularies.
Allowing children to pick the books they are interested in and turn the pages themselves keeps them active and engaged in learning.
Reading to children also teaches them to listen, and good listeners are going to be good readers."
- Dominic Massaro
For more details on the research read:
“Two Different Communication Genres and Implications for Vocabulary Development and Learning to Read” by Dominic W. Massaro, Department of Psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2015
19. Nature Letters
20. Yoga Letters
L
I
J
M
R
A
21. Read a Recipe
The kids loved these Sweet Potato Avocado Brownies! And it was fun learning to read the recipe together on the outdoor chalkboard.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.