Alphabet Basics – KiDOTI

Tracing Letters

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 16:45:20 +0000

Tracing letters is an easy way for children to learn to write each letter and it is an important precursor to freehand writing. Also, legible handwriting depends on being able to properly write each letter. The following letter tracing worksheets include step-by-step directions on how to properly write each letter. Additionally, arrows show your child the order in which he needs to draw each part of the letter.

When first introducing your child to the letters of the alphabet, we recommend introducing them in a specific order (beginning with the letters B, M and F!).

Why tracing letters is important

Before children are able to write letters on their own, tracing letters is a great way for them to learn the basic form of each letter. The above tracing letters worksheets are a great tool for practicing tracing letters since these worksheets show the proper formation of each letter with step-by-step visual instructions and allow plenty of opportunity for your child to practice tracing each letter and then attempt to write the letter freehand on the blank lines at the bottom of the page.

Extra tips for using the tracing letters worksheets

As when completing any tracing letters activity, the key is not simply tracing over each dashed line in the letter. The trick to completing a tracing letters worksheet is to ensure your child traces over each dashed line in the correct order. So, as you introduce your child to the letter tracing worksheet for each letter, be sure to highlight the correct formation of each letter by referring to the step-by-step depiction on the top row of the worksheet.

If your child struggles to trace the letter in the correct way, try explaining how many steps there are to writing the letter. Then, as your child traces a letter P, for example, call out the number of the step by staying “Step 1: draw the straight line down” and then wait for your child to do it. Then, call out “Step 2: lift up your pencil and put the tip back at the top of the line,” and wait for your child to do it. Then, call out “Step 3, draw a large half circle arc that stretches to the right and all the way down to the bottom of the line.”

While you are printing out tracing letters worksheets, consider focusing on one letter at a time but printing out two or three copies of the tracing letters worksheet for that letter. That way, your child will be able to practice tracing and writing that letter a few different times to really gain proficiency.

Connecting Letters in a Scramble

admin — Mon, 06 Apr 2020 12:56:17 +0000

Once your child is familiar with the appearance of each letter, these worksheets will provide the added challenge of correctly identifying both the uppercase and lowercase versions of each letter. Each letter scramble was custom-made to include numerous letters that are similar in formation to the highlighted letter, so your child will need to use strong visual discrimination and letter awareness skills to complete this activity.

Scramble Letter B

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Scramble Letter D

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Scramble Letter F

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Scramble Letter M

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Scramble Letter P

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Scramble Letter S

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Letter scrambles are wonderful letter recognition games

Letter recognition games are a broad category of children’s games that focus on identifying and recognizing letters in different ways. Through years in the classroom, I found that letter scrambles were a fun – and effective – letter recognition game for preschool and kindergarten children.

Tips for using the letter recognition games on this page

When your child looks at each letter scramble for the first time, he may be overwhelmed by the amount and variety of the letters he sees. That is normal. These word scrambles were designed to be challenging letter recognition games. But, they were also designed to be achievable for young children.

Before your child picks up his pencil to begin connecting the letters, ask him to point to and name the letter in the circle at the top of the page and also the letter in the square at the bottom of the page. Remind him that the circle contains the uppercase version of the letter and the square holds the lowercase version of the same letter. As your child completes the letter recognition game, these letters can serve as guides if your child is not totally confident recognizing both forms of the new letter, so encourage him to refer back to them, as needed.

Once your child has properly identified the uppercase and lowercase versions of the letter, ask him to move his finger across each row, stopping to say the featured letter’s name each time he finds it. (If he knows the names of other letters, he can say those names as well.)

After your child has reviewed the letters across all six rows on the letter recognition game, ask him to put his finger back on the colored circle in the upper left corner of the letter scramble, which is the starting point. Moving slowly, direct him to move his finger from one featured letter to the next, mindful of the fact that he can connect both uppercase and lowercase versions of the letter to get from the starting point to the ending point of the letter recognition game. If you notice your child moving to an incorrect letter, ask him to “look again” so that he can correct himself before he continues on his path.

When your child can smoothly move along the letter path, encourage him to go back to the start of the letter scramble and, using a pencil or marker, connect the letters one more time.

More engaging letter recognition games to try at home

Use bathtub crayons to write different letters on the bathtub wall. Call out a particular letter’s name and challenge your child to erase that letter with water as quickly as possible.
Create a matching game by writing the uppercase version of a letter on one card and the lowercase version of the letter on a different card. Repeat this for all 26 letters. Spread the lowercase letters face-up on the table in front of your child and give him the stack of uppercase letters to hold. One at a time, have him look at an uppercase letter card and match it to the corresponding lowercase letter card on the table.
Without trying to read the words, open a magazine or newspaper and have your child circle all of a certain letter on the page and then connect the circled letters. With a popular letter like A or T, the result will be a giant star burst on the page as your child connects the many letters he found, whereas other letters such as X or Z may only appear a few times.

Matching Pictures with Same Sound

admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 16:52:27 +0000

Learning the sound each letter makes is an important precursor to both reading and writing. These worksheets will introduce your child to the sound made by each letter and give your child important practice identifying words that start with the sound made by each letter.

Matching pictures B sound

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Matching pictures M sound

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Matching pictures D sound

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Matching Pictures P sound

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Matching pictures D sound

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Matching pictures S sound

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Why learning the letter sounds is important

Not only are there 26 letters in the alphabet, but some letters (such as the letters C, G, S and all the vowels) make more than one sound. Once your child is aware of the sound(s) each letter makes, he will be able to start matching each letter he sees with the sound(s) that letter makes. This is an important precursor to more advanced activities like writing and reading, since children need to be able to match printed letters and their sounds to succeed in both of those activities.

Tips for using the letter sounds worksheets

Letter sounds worksheets are a great way for your child to practice matching printed letters with the sound(s) they make. As your child looks at the 8 pictures on each letter sounds worksheet, he should say the name of each picture aloud so he can hear the beginning sound in each word. In this way, the more he reviews the worksheet, the more practice he will get hearing the featured letter’s sound. Also, the letter sounds worksheets on this page contain only as many letters as there are pictures on the page that begin with the correct sound, further positioning your child for success in completing these worksheets.

Before beginning any of the letter sounds worksheets, take time to review the particular letter and introduce your child to the sound it makes. A helpful activity can be saying some words (real or made-up) that begin with the featured letter’s sound. Ask your child to add to your list, to ensure he fully understands the correct sound made by that letter.
When your child is able to suggest words that begin with the correct letter sound, cut out the letter squares and the blank squares at the bottom of the letter sounds worksheet – or supervise your child while he practices his cutting skills and cuts out the squares. When all the letters and blank squares are cut out, you can spread them on the table in front of your child so he can easily glance down and be reminded of which letter’s sound he is trying to match.
Together with your child, look at the pictures on the worksheet page and ask your child to point to each picture. While he points, have him say aloud the name of the picture or, if he cannot identify the picture, you can say aloud the name of the picture and ask your child to repeat the name after you. Each time your child finds a picture that begins with the sound made by the letter he cut out, help him paste the letter in the box next to the picture. If your child decides that a picture does not start with the sound of the featured letter, ask him to paste a blank square in the box next to the picture.
As your child completes the letter sounds worksheet, if he makes an incorrect decision or is unsure about an answer, suggest that he just place the letter square or blank square next to the picture, as opposed to pasting it in the box. That way, he can easily change his answer if he later realizes he made a mistake or is able to use the process of elimination to match a letter or blank square with the corresponding picture. Once your child has correctly placed all the letters and blank pieces in the colored boxes, he can confidently paste them to the page.

Finding Words with Same Letter

admin — Sun, 05 Apr 2020 16:06:25 +0000

After your child is able to identify each letter when written individually, these worksheets will challenge your child to identify each letter when written as part of a word. Once your child is able to identify individual letters within words and has learned each letter’s sound, he will be ready to start “sounding out” words, which is an important pre-reading skill.

Finding Words Letter B

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Finding Words Letter D

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Finding Words Letter F

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Finding Words Letter M

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Finding Words Letter S

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The importance of letter recognition

The first step of letter recognition is being able to identify each letter when it is printed individually. Once your child is comfortable identifying both the uppercase and lowercase versions of a letter, he can progress to the more challenging task of identifying letters when printed in words.

The goal of the above letter recognition worksheets is for your child to become accustomed to recognizing letters when they are printed as part of a longer word. It is easiest for children to complete letter recognition activities when the featured letter is the first letter of the word, so these worksheets focus on that basic activity.

Tips for using the letter recognition worksheets

When first beginning a letter recognition worksheet, take time to discuss the picture on the worksheet with your child. Say aloud the picture’s name and name the initial letter of the word. Ask your child to repeat the name of that letter so you are sure he understands what letter is being featured on the worksheet. If necessary, you can write the name of the picture somewhere on the worksheet, so your child can refer to it as he completes the letter recognition activity.

Before cutting apart the rectangles at the bottom of the page, ask your child to move his finger across each row, stopping to point to and name the featured letter each time he recognizes it, which may be once, twice, or zero times in each word. You can also read the word aloud for your child, although the focus of these worksheets is letter recognition, not matching the featured letter to the sound it makes or reading entire words.

If your child is able to cut along the dashed lines and cut out the rectangles without cutting the words, you can encourage him to do that. But since this is not a cutting exercise, and the words within each rectangle are important, it may be easiest for a parent to cut the words apart.

When all of the words are cut out, hand your child one word at a time and ask him to decide if that word begins with the featured letter. If he believes the word does begin with the featured letter, ask him to place the word in a colored rectangle on the page. If he does not recognize the featured letter in the word, he can set that word aside. There are only as many rectangles on the page as there are words that begin with the featured letter so your child will realize he made a mistake if, after going through all the words, he either has an empty rectangle on the worksheet without a word in it or not enough rectangles on the worksheet for all the words he selected.

After your child has reviewing all eight words and placed the correct words in the colored rectangles, he can paste down the words to create a finished worksheet.

Identifying Letters

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 15:59:24 +0000

The first step in letter awareness is learning to identify letters from the variety of other characters that typically appear on a page, including numbers, symbols and punctuation. This skill requires strong visual discrimination skills, since many letters look alike and many letters resemble other symbols such as $, &, and @. Children must also learn that letters can be written in either upper case or lower case and in a variety of fonts. The following worksheets will help your child practice identifying letters in many different styles from a variety of other non-letter characters.

Learning to identify letters is important

When a young child first sees letters on a sign or in a book, these are simply random configurations of lines and curves. He must learn to differentiate symbols and shapes from a variety of styles of letters that he will see. This learning is accomplished through practice and exposure to letters and is an important first step when learning to read.

Tips for using these identifying letters worksheets

The three beginning level worksheets can help you assess your child’s knowledge of letters. Let him know that only one figure on each line is a letter. Ask him to point to each letter that he sees. As he points to a letter, ask him to name it or name it for him if he is not yet able to to do that. If he incorrectly points to a shape or number, tell him the name of the shape or number and ask him to try again to find a letter.

The intermediate level worksheets are more challenging, with the addition of punctuation marks and lowercase letters. Direct your child to move his pointer finger slowly across each line, from the left side of the page to the right, stopping at each letter, symbol or mark. Again, ask your child to name the letters as he points to them. If this level is somewhat difficult for your child, you may tell him to first find symbols or marks that do not look like letters and cross those out. Clues such as “a triangle and a square are not letters” can be helpful. If your child needs a lot of direction with this page, point out the letters for him and then come back to this worksheet at a later time.

Children who can name the letters of the alphabet are ready to tackle the advanced identifying letters worksheets. These can be challenging because the letters are also shown in a stylized font. Suggest that your child move his finger slowly across each row as he decides which marks are letters. It may be easier for him to identify the letters if he first crosses out any symbol that he knows is not a letter. Then, he can return to the top of the worksheet and carefully look at the symbols that were not crossed out. If the stylized letters are too challenging for your child, try identifying them by name (lowercase e or uppercase R, for example) and then ask him to find that letter on the page.

Extra activities to supplement these identifying letters worksheets

Use shaving cream to write letters on a bathtub wall during bath time. Cleanup is super easy and kids love playing games in the bath.
When walking through a shopping mall, pause outside each store and ask your child to count the number of letters or words in each store’s name.
A computer keyboard is a great way for your child to practice letters. Using a large font and encourage your child to type his favorite letters.
Reinforce letter names with letter-shaped cookie cutters. You can make letter-shaped cookies, pancakes or pretend cookies with playdoh.
Suggest a letter and ask your child to say the next letter that comes in the alphabet. With practice, your child will not need to begin with A and go through the alphabet each time.
Explain to your child that letters can be printed in different fonts. Show your child letters from headlines in a popular magazine to illustrate a few examples.
Sitting at the computer with your child, say a word and ask him to type the first letter of that word. Or trade roles and have your child suggest a word while you type.
Explain to your child that every sentence has two parts: letters and punctuation. Letters that form words for us to read and punctuation that tells us when to pause, stop, or change our voice.
Explain to your child that a comma indicates when to take a short pause when you’re reading and that a period tells you when to take a longer pause.
Write one or two uppercase letters on index cards for your child to hold as you walk through a shopping mall. Encourage him to spot that letter on store signs as you shop.