How to Teach Letters of the Alphabet to Preschoolers: Why We Need to Teach Smarter - NOT Harder
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Published 2021-06-29
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One of the biggest challenges teachers face with teaching the alphabet is getting the letters to stick.
You spend weeks teaching, following your curriculum, doing everything by the book. Everything seems to be going great - the kiddos are getting it! And then...
Poof! They forget all of it! As if youāve never even mentioned it before! Has this ever happened to you? Because itās happened to me plenty of times.
When I was a young student teacher, I had an opportunity to shadow a kindergarten teacher following the Letter of the Week curriculum. Rememberāthis was a long time ago, so back then, it was considered a perfectly suitable way of teaching children the alphabet.
And after just several weeks of working there, it became clear just how ineffective this method was. The kids struggled to retain what theyāve learned, and some didnāt know any letters whatsoever!
Luckily, these days we know better!
Children do NOT learn the alphabet linearly, from A to Z. It is a global process that requires a lot more than rigid schedules, worksheets, and a funny letter P-themed costume.
So in this episode, I will share an excellent method for teaching children the alphabet, which is fun, effective, and backed by research.
Letās dive in!
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Key Takeaways:
00:00 Why the letters of the alphabet CANāT be taught in 26 days (or even weeks)?
00:41 The biggest challenge teachers face when teaching young children the alphabet
02:19 How I learned firsthand that the Letter of the Week curriculum is highly ineffective
04:42 Why teachers need to teach smarter and not harder?
06:18 How do young children learn to identify letters?
08:20 How to teach letters of the alphabet in a way thatās, fun, effective, and backed by research
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Additional Resources:
š Visit our website to find tons of pre-K teaching resources here:
www.pre-kpages.com/
š Get my book āTeach Smarter: Literacy Strategies for Early Childhood Teachersā here:
www.pre-kpages.com/teach-smarter-book/
š Learn more about my membership program āTeaching Trailblazersā here: bit.ly/teachingtrailblazers
š Get my FREE guide on how to teach letters of the alphabet to young children here:
www.pre-kpages.com/how-to-teach-the-alphabet
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Elevating Early Childhood is an early education podcast dedicated to helping Pre-K, Preschool, and Kindergarten teachers teach better, save time, and live more.
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Onward & Upward! š
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All Comments (21)
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okay i have been a preschool teacher for the past 21yrs.....how did i just find you. You are amazing
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I loved this video. My 2 year old learned most of his letters in about 3 weeks because I made each letter meaningful to him! Each letter represents either someone in his life or something he was passionate about. He loves learning letters. I wish I would have known this method sooner with my other children.
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I am a teacher of middle school. However, I taught my five year old to read. I taught her the sounds of each letter first. Each time she saw a letter she would say its sound. Then I started to teach the names of the letters after she stated putting CVC words together. And the letter names became very easy for her.
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This is so true š. Thank you for sharing Vanessa.
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I learned more from you which makes me a great teacher. Thank you
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Yes, I did a lot of writing workshop in K and anchored letters to things they wanted to know!
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Thank you for all of your information and great ideas!
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Thank you for sharing your strategies
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You are such a blessing, Iām a grandmother I have worked in a school for 20 years, not as a teacher but as a safety officer Iāve stopped by many class rooms through the years to listen in, and every teacher has taught the very way, you explain not to I see right away the strategy you give is an excellent way of teaching for the children. Thank you so very much for making your teaching skills available to everyone ā¤ļø
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This is the most helpful lesson I've learned as a teacher.
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Love you and your products. Huge fan of yours!
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LOVE ALL THE INFORMATION YOU ARE SHARING WITH US. GREAT IDEALS
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Very helpful, thank you! Iām teaching a pre-k class beginning April (taking over for a teacher that was let go) and 90% of the class doesnāt know the alphabet š¤¦š»āāļø (teacher lied about progress and now these poor kids have to cram with me to hopefully make the connections to letters). This school Iām at is also very dated, while undergoing changes/updates, but they still teach as if itās the 90ās (I.e. letters of the week) so maybe thatās why this class isnāt getting it yetā¦ š¤·š»āāļø I think it makes perfect sense for kids to find the meaning, for themselves, in what theyāre learning, and I appreciate the tips here!
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Thank you so much for these tips!
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Thank you for sharing ā¤
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Thank you for sharing all best idea for kids to learn.
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Love this idea!
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OMG, the first three years I taught, I followed the curriculum A-Z. When I saw how ineffectual (and boring) it was, I started teaching letters starting with their names, my name, and the name of the month. Once they made the connection of the abstract concept of these line shapes with their names, they could apply it to other things as well and we were off to the races! Been doing it ever since. Principals/administrators can be really addicted to curriculums. They get scared something will be missed. I'm here to tell you, all kids will learn all the letters over time (though low-usage letters like Q take longer, and become like sight words). Thank you for affirming my teacher gut instinct. I just got a new administrator who wants me to follow the curriculum (and have my 3-yr. olds do two papers a day!), and I'm going to present the research to her.
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Thanks a lot. I am trying putting letters in songs and it actually work.
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I love this š it really helped me
