Kindergarten Activities
Learning Letters of the Alphabet:
· Read alphabet books
· Letter Hunt- find letters on the pages of picture books.
· Candy Land Game- use the game with alphabet cards from the Dollar Store. Have students give the letter name and sound before they move their game piece.
· Playdoh letters- use cookie cutters, make snake letters, or write in the Playdoh with a pencil or finger.
· Shaving Cream Letters- Squirt some on a table, let them write letters in the cream.
· Pipe Cleaner Letters- bend to make letters.
· Rainbow Writing- have your child practice writing letters with every color of the rainbow.
· Alphabet Letter Stamps- Stamp out letters, their name, sight words.
· Letter Collage- Use a stack of kid friendly old magazines and have them cut and glue ABCs.
· Eat the alphabet- many kinds of soup, cereal, pasta, crackers are available with letters on them.
· ABC Cookies- use alphabet cookie cutters to make cookies or use with Playdoh.
· ABC Pancakes- pour your batter into a squeeze bottle and make ABCs.
· Sing and Dance- there are many ABC songs for kids on YouTube.
· Become Letters- help your kids try to form the letters of the alphabet with their bodies.
· Letter Hunt- take a walk through your neighborhood or grocery store. Check off letters as you find them.
· Sports Drills- As your child jumps rope,dribbles a basketball, or walks on a balance beam, ask your child to say the alphabet aloud. If they make a mistake, say, “Great job! You made it to the letter J. Let’s see if you can make it further this time.”
Helping Your Child Connect Letters and Sounds
For children to learn the alphabetic principal, they need to understand:
· Letters represent speech sounds
· Letters go together to make words
· Changing the letters changes the sounds and the words
Read every day! Point to the text, tracking words as you read helps children make that connection.
Label it- provide labels and print throughout your house. Have your child help you label the following with printed signs for around the house: door, window, wall, dog food, toy box, kitchen, bathroom, etc. Label pictures of family and friends that are in the house too.
Make a Word Wall- Hang an alphabet in the house, have your child add words to it that they are learning, such as sight words, new words they learn from books, words of places they know, family and pet names, etc.
Provide Letters- Get 3 or 4 sets of magnet letters from a Dollar store, sort them by same letter or even upper / lowercase if you get both sets. Alphabet puzzles are great for the home too.
Blending Sounds to Read Words
· Guess the Word Game- adult says a word really slowly, breaking the word down by sounds, student guesses the word.
· Robot Talk Game- Do as in game above, only adult talks like a robot. Switch and let child says the sounds slowly using robot talk.
· Sound Blending Using Songs- to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know it, Clap Your Hands”
If you think you know this word, shout it out!
If you think you know this word, shout it out!
If you think you know this word,
Then tell me what you’ve heard,
If you think you know this word, shout it out!
After singing, the adult says a segmented word such as /k/ /a/ /t/ and students say the blended word cat.
Segmenting
1. Early in phonological awareness instruction, teach children to segment sentences into individual words. Identify familiar short poems such as "I scream you scream we all scream for ice cream!" Have children clap their hands with each word.
2. As children advance in their ability to manipulate oral language, teach them to segment words into syllables or onsets and rimes. For example, have children segment their names into syllables: e.g., Ra-chel, Al-ex-an-der, and Rod-ney.
3. When children have learned to remove the first phoneme (sound) of a word, teach them to segment short words into individual phonemes: e.g., s-u-n, p-a-t, s-t-o-p.
Segmenting cheer activity
Write the "Segmentation Cheer" on chart paper, and teach it to children. Each time you say the cheer, change the words in the third line. Have children segment the word sound by sound. Begin with words that have three phonemes, such as ten, rat, cat, dog, soap, read, and fish.
Segmentation Cheer
Listen to my cheer.
Then shout the sounds you hear.
Sun! Sun! Sun!
Let's take apart the word sun.
Give me the beginning sound. (Children respond with /s/.)
Give me the middle sound. (Children respond with /u/.)
Give me the ending sound. (Children respond with /n/.)
That's right!
/s/ /u/ /n/-Sun! Sun! Sun!
Kindergarten Sight Words and Activities from the Journeys Curriculum
· Sight Word treasure hunt
· Find matching pairs of sight words
· Make an I Spy sensory bag to spot the sight words
· Create a game to get to the top of the stairs
· Find sight words in books
· Hang sight words on the bathroom mirror, refrigerator, the back of outside doors. Rotate them periodically.
· Keep a set in the car
· Use kid sight word songs from YouTube to dance and practice.
· Make two of each sight word on index cards, play Concentration.
· Use a Candy Land game to practice. The student has to say a correct sight word before moving their game piece.
Unit 1
I like the and
Unit 2
see we a to
Unit 3
come me with
my you what are now
Unit 4
is of many how so where
find from but this came on
will into your be that who
go here soon for they up
Unit 5
make play them say give new
said good was then ate could
she all over her when some
he no away must by there
Unit 6
do down went only just little
have help one every ask walk
look out very their saw put
off take our day too show