Teaching Letters with Sandpaper Letters and Picture Books: Letter Sound I Hear Game
Vivian's lessons
"Vivian, it's time for your lessons. Grab two letters
you know and one you don't know."
Vivian walks to the sandpaper alphabet cards sitting face out on a narrow shelf across one wall of the dining room room. Above them hang a large map of the world and one of the United States.
Then she curls up beside me in the living room on the big bear rug sandwiched between the fireplace and our floor table. The table sits low to the ground, easy to sit at for adults and kids, despite height discrepancies, and I adore the little school sanctuary it creates. I have a basket of Vivian's curriculum right next to me, everything I need at my fingertips. We lean into plump grey and gold pillows propped against the fireplace hearth and drape my favorite blanket over our laps.
In our warm and cozy space we're ready to homeschool, ready to not only build knowledge but more importantly to build relationships.
I open my clock app, type in the numbers two and zero and press start. Our twenty minute lesson count down has begun. Twenty minutes of time where my focus is on Vivian alone and what she needs.
"Show me what letters you've brought," I say.
"I picked one I know and two I don't know," Viv replies, showing me the sandpaper letters W, U and A.
She didn't exactly follow instructions, but it's okay. She chose the letters herself and that is most important; I find that she cooperates best when she has more choice in her lessons.
I'll focus on just letters A and U today, one letter she knows and one she doesn't. I won't worry about W. One unknown letter a day is plenty for her. I want our time together to be enjoyable and for her to feel that she is flourishing and having fun, not floundering among a sea of letters.
I pick up letter A and hand it to her. It's important to continuously review known letters so they stay fresh, and for continued writing practice.
"What letter is this?" I ask.
"A, /a/ apple," she chants. Letter name, letter sound, and a key word. Perfect.
"How do you write it?" is my next question.
She traces the blue lowercase letter, a bit above the sandpaper, but still correctly formed. Maybe the feel of the sandpaper bothers her? Either way, it's fine.
"Great! Let's write it BIG in the air!" I continue. And we do, circling our arms up and around to the left before finishing with a short line down.
First period: introduction
Then we move on to the letter U.
"This is the letter U /u/ umbrella," I say as an introduction to the letter. "And this is how you write it." I trace the blue sandpaper letter slowly and deliberately. "Your turn."
She holds the letter in her left hand and chants as she traces with the first two fingers of her right hand, "U, /u/ umbrella," she repeats. Then we write U in the air simultaneously.
Sometimes we write the letter BIG, and then repeat it small. Sometimes I ask her to tell me what she notices about the letter. Does it have circles? Straight or curved lines? Does it remind her of anything? These things help her lock the letter's image in her mind and tie that image to the letter name, sound and key word. Young children especially learn best from rich sensory experiences, so the more I can involve all the senses, the better her recall will be.
Second period: practice
Next we move on to practicing the letter.
A while ago I borrowed a mason jar from our kitchen cupboard and used my label maker and some large wooden Popsicle sticks to write out some options for ways we could practice letters.
• hide and seek sandpaper letter
• Letter Sound I Hear game
• form the letter with pipe cleaners
• from the letter with playdough
• collect objects beginning with the letter
• Go Fish uppercase and lowercase
• matching game uppercase and lowercase
• alphabet puzzle
• read an ABC book
• All About Reading letter activity page
• All About Reading letter poem book
• write the letter in dry erase
• rainbow write the letter
• play Which Object Doesn't Belong
I ask, "Would you like to choose a popsicle stick, or do you know how you'd like to practice?"
"Let's read a book," she responds immediately. I'm not at all surprised, and since I would consider reading aloud my favorite vocational past time, I'm quite pleased. So we begin a game of Letter Sound I Hear.
Vivian chooses two Fancy Nancy books we borrowed from the library yesterday and before I begin reading I remind her what sound we are listening for: /u/ /u/.
Then I begin reading. As I read, I emphasize U sounds in the words of the story. When she hears the sound /u/ /u/, she calls out the word and repeats it slowly, emphasizing the U sound herself, which may be located at the beginning, middle or end of the word. Then I point to the letter on the page, connecting the sound to the shape of the letter again.
Surprise!
Uh oh.
Peanut butter
Aquarium
After finding and counting on my fongers five U sounds, I consider our game of Letter Sound I Hear complete and congratulate Vivian with a high-five. Her little face illuminates with pride, and we finish reading the story together.
We repeat the process with book number two and the she replaces each letter in the correctly labeled position on the alphabet shelf.
Third period: mastery
At dinner time I say, "Let's each tell Daddy something we learned during school today!" I quiz Peter on his +8 math facts. He does very well. Then I take the letter U from the shelf and ask Vivian, "What is this?" "U /u/ umbrella," she chants without hesitation. That's my girl!
The three period lesson
Our letter learning follows a sequence that, in the Montessori philosophy, is called a three period lesson.
First Period: Introduction "This is . . . "
Introduce a concept or vocabulary term: shapes, numbers, dog breeds, colors, letters. The applications are endless.
Second Period: Practice "Show me . . . "
All of the Popsicle stick ideas fit into this second period. This period is about recognition. Although Vivian cannot yet correctly chant the name, sound and key word for letter U, she can recognize it in the story we are reading. And this practice in recognition will lead to correct third period recall.
Third Period: Mastery "What is this?"
At this period, the child should recall the information from their own memory.
More information
For more information on the Montessori Three Period Lesson, I suggest:
For more information on Montessori sandpaper letters, I suggest:
Happy Homeschooling,
Elizabeth Erin
