Does not know all the letters of the alphabet

The following activities and recommended materials are drawn from the work and writings of Gillingham and Sillman; Cox and the teaching staff of the Language Laboratory of the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas, Texas; Hogan and Smith of Edmar Educational Associates in Frney, Texas; and the staff of the Neuhaus Education Center in Bellaire, Texas.

Materials for instruction:

1. Classroom uppercase alphabet strip
2. A set of 3-D plastic uppercase block letters for each student
3. Individual uppercase alphabet strip for each student

Schedule:

1. Allot 5-7 minutes within a 50- to 60- minute lesson for letter identification
2. Activities should be taught through a multi-sensory letter introduction procedure

Activities:

Alphabet Battle

*Individual alphabet strip and 3-D letter set for each pair of students

Students are divided into pairs. Simultaneously, both players draw a letter from the set of 3-D letters without looking at the letters. Each player places his or her letter on the desk and says the name of the letter. The player whose letter is closer in the alphabetical order to “Z” wins both letters. The student must say, for example, “U is after G, I win the letters.” The winner is the player with the most letters at the end of the game.

Variation: The player whose letter is closer to “A” wins the letters (e.g., “J is before T. I win the letters”).

Alphabet Bingo

*Individual alphabet strip (for reference) and 3-D letter set for each student

*3-D letter set for the teacher

Each student selects any seven letters from his or her container of letters and places them on the desk in a vertical column on the left-hand side. The other letters are put away. The teacher selects one letter from another container, shows it to the students, and names it. Students repeat the name. If they have the letter on their desk, they move it to the right-hand side of the desk to form a second vertical column. The first person to move all seven letters to the right side of the desk is the winner. The teacher checks for accuracy by having the winner name the seven letters. For a faster game, start with fewer than seven letters.

Guess What?

*3-D letter set for each pair of students

A student, with eyes closed, draws a letter from a container. The student tries to identify the letter by its shape. If successful, the student keeps the letter and his or her opponent takes a turn. If unsuccessful, the student returns the letter to the container and his or her opponent takes a turn. Play continues until all 26 letters have been named or time runs out. The student with the most letters at the end of play is the winner.

Don’t Say Z

*Individual alphabet strip for each pair of students

Two players alternate saying letters of the alphabet in sequence. Each player may choose to say two or three letters in one turn. For example, if Player 1 says, “AB” and Players 2 says, “CDE”, Then Player 1 can say, “FG” or “FGH’, and so forth. The object is to avoid saying “Z”.

Variation: The game can be changed to Catch the Z in which the object is to be the player who says, “Z”.

Super Sleuth

*One individual alphabet strip (for reference) and 3-D letter set for each pair of students

*pencil and paper

The students work together in pairs to arrange the 3-D letters in an arc. The first student closes his or her eyes while the second student removes on letter and closes the gap left in the arc. The first student then must discover the missing letter. After the missing letter has been identified, it is replaced in the arc and other student gets the chance to identify a missing letter. Students may keep track of correct guesses to determine the winner. The game continues until time runs out.