Friday, January 9, 2015

FREE ABC Book: What do you do if they can’t recognize the letters?

So..here we are half way through the year. Do you still have kids who don’t know the alphabet? Then, read on….
At one time, we had Reading Recovery, a great program for first graders in our school. (We no longer have the program—$$$$$.) The Reading Recovery teacher often shared ideas with us that she thought might help our kids not need her in first grade. So, this is one of the Reading Recovery ideas, tweaked and changed, but originally a Reading Recovery strategy.
This book is a FREE file, so keep reading to the bottom of the post where you can snag it up!
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At this time of year, I would do this with any kinders who do not know the alphabet!
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To get ready:
  • 1. First, reproduce the pages to make the abc book.
  • 2. Cut and staple the pages together.
  • 3. Now, reproduce a page of clip art for each child making the book.
  • 4. Invite the children to cut the pictures apart and put them inside a baggie with their name written on the outside.
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Here is what it will look like. Each child will need their own book and their own set of pictures!
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To use the book:
  • 1. Assess alphabet naming knowledge.
  • 2. For any letter, capital or lower case, that the child knows, find the picture in the bag that starts with that letter.
  • 3. Invite the children to glue the picture on the page with the beginning letter.
  • 4. Repeat this with all of the letters, capital or lower case, that the child knows.
  • 5. Now add in three more pictures to go with letters that they do not know. Put a post it note flag on these three pages. ****Leave all other pages blank!
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Now:
  • 6. Each and EVERY day, the child should “read” you the book.
  • 7. To read the book, they turn the pages one by one. If they do NOT have a picture on that page, they skip it.
  • 8. If they do have a picture on the page, they read it like this: “G g goat”.
  • 9. When they get to a page with a post it note flag--if they can read the letter to you correctly, remove the flag.
  • 10. If they do not know the letter, you read it to them and leave the flag on the page.
  • 11. After finishing reading the book, any post it notes in your hand now can now be used to add more pictures.
What about letter sounds?
I use this abc book for teaching letter recognition, not letter sounds. I teach letter sounds mostly through writing and songs. I love Shari Sloane! She has great songs for both abc recognition and letter sounds! I made a lot of her songs into music books that we use as we sing along.You can get her music on her website www.kidscount1234.com or on itunes.
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So I wanted to print the music books small enough for their little hands…and to save ink, cardstock and laminating!  I love the way they turned out.
  • I printed them 1/2 page.
  • Then, after binding the books, I put a sticky cd holder on the back of the books.
  • Finally, I burned the song on a CD.
  • I put the CD inside the sticky CD holder.
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To print the books1/2 page size, follow these steps:
  • Open the print menu.
  • Click on “multiple” and on “2” for pages per sheet.
  • Be sure you click on “landscape” under orientation so that the pages fit nicely on the paper.
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Here are the abc books that I remade--with new clip art! If you already have them, you can get the updates in your “my purchases” section on tpt. Also, for “The Letters on the Bus”, I added the rest of the alphabet so that you can use the book with the open version of the song that Shari also included on the CD.
Shari Sloane Letters on the Bus Fun Music Bookoriginal-98691-1[1]
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original-99414-1[1]original-107947-1[1]
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I do use a sound sorting activity each week to differentiate where they are in sound production. You can read more about it here in another blog post.







13 comments:

  1. What a fantastic post with tons of resources all in one place! I just love this and I know how helpful this will be to so many people!

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  2. What a fantastic smorgasbord of ideas! Thank you! :)

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  3. Love all the ideas. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. This is one of the BEST posts I've ever read! Thank you for all the ideas and resources!

    Learning at the Teacher Table

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  5. Letter Overload!! I love it! I teach the lowest of Tier 1 students who just came out of Tier 2/3 and they still need this SO badly! Thanks for all the ideas!

    Laura
    Kinder Kraziness

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  6. Thanks for getting so many great ideas together! Difficulty learning letter names and sounds can be an indicator of dyslexia or other difficulties as well. What would you suggest if you think this might be the case with a student?

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  7. What a fantastic post! Thank you for all the ideas and great resources!

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  8. So many great ideas and resources!! Thank you!
    Lori
    Conversations in Literacy

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  9. Hey Sarah,
    You are not alone in your journey. I know just what you mean. :) When kids are having difficulty learning their alphabet after all of our many tricks, it is hard to know where to go from there. So...I would say that these strategies are for your regular classroom or for your Tier 1 kids. If they still are having difficulty, I look to the team of experts at my school for guidance. Sometimes these kids need extra services...and sometimes they need extra time! I love Maria Clay and her work with Reading Recovery. She worked with those kids that came to first just like you are describing. Maybe reading her work will give you some more insight. Good luck. Thanks for sharing...

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  10. I love this idea! Is there a way to access this file through your webpage instead of facebook? Our school system blocks facebook so at our school we are unable to access this fabulous resource and would really love to use it! Thank you!

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  11. Here is a link to the google doc. See if it will work for you.
    Kim
    https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7ubnOnZF__xTGlZeUpxY1lQZUk/view?usp=sharing

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  12. Thanks for the many resources. I downloaded the ABC book, but I can't figure out the words for the "w" and "x" picture cards. Will you help me, please? Thanks! :)

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  13. This pictures for w and x are...wolf and box.

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