Summer Series: “That’s Not My A!”

A peek at what else I do over the summer…(some lesson planning)

Inevitably, every September at least one child tells me I’m writing their name wrong. I write their name with the first letter capitalized, and the rest lower case. My guess is they’ve only seen their name written in all capital letters.

I’m currently making up pages with each letter written in different fonts. We’ll put them in plastic “sleeves.”

(Here’s a picture of the A’s on my laptop!)

They're ALL A's!

So, what can we do with this?

1. Identify that one letter can be written in many different ways.
2. Math: Put one counter on each letter. (one to one correspondence)
3. Point to each letter with our fingers, saying “a” each time, using one to one correspondence and left to right progression.
4. Develop listening/thinking skills by following verbal directions. “Put a red counter on your favorite A. Put a blue counter on the fanciest A.”
5.Develop expressive language skills by describing a letter. (Are the lines straight, curved, simple, complex?)
6. Since the sheet will be in sleeves, it will work as a dry erase activity with markers.
Children can: circle letters. Underline. Make lines between. Over.Trace. Make a model with play dough or wiki sticks.
7. Extra sheets can be printed for children to cut out various fonts and paste elsewhere.
8. Develop story telling skills by drawing a “road” around the letters and telling a story as a character or animal “walks” in the Land of A. Depending on the age/verbal ability of the child, this can be as simple as saying/singing “a,” or as complex as describing the fonts, or naming words that start with a.
9. Visual discrimination. Cut out a second sheet and children can match fonts by placing individual letters on the sheet.

At first I had written what “will” we do with this, but then I realized “can” is much more appropriate. When working with children of varying abilities (as ANY teacher does, even if they’re all the same age!) it helps to have flexible materials. I can have five children working on five different objectives with the same sheet. This sheet can work with children who don’t know any letters, and the children who are already reading. We can all have our “favorite” A, even if mine is not exactly like yours.