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Date Posted:04:20:44 02/10/08 Sun
I am writing to let other students know about how to support young children with learning their letter sounds in a really child friendly way giving the child a concrete learning experience.This involves a lot of collecting and perhaps making, but I assure you it is most worthwhile in the end.
I first came across these lovely litle cotton ecru colour bags (aprox size 25cm by 22cm) in Germany but they may also be available in any craft shop.Or if you are good with a sewing machine you could always make them.Don't forget the handles as the children love to carry them around.I then used fabric paint to paint each one with a letter of the alphabet in lower case. So you will have 26 bags in total. As a Montessori teacher we have constonants and vowels in diferent colours. So the constonants were painted red and the vowels were painted blue.
Next I began collecting small objects and pictures ( I laminated the pictures to keep them looking good for longer.)to represent each letter sound. For example for the "a" bag I found plastic ants, apples, toy astronaut and antelope.I also included a sandpaper letter mounted on card so the child can feel the form of the letters. What you include depends on what you can manage to find, but if you are in a nursery or school you could ask the children to make their contributions to the bags.Just make sure the objects and pictures represent the sound of each letter not the name.
The objective is that each child or groups of children play with one letter sound bag at a time. The teacher talks to the group about each object or picture. This promotes discusion and introduces new vocabulary.
An extension activity is to have the children play with two bags at a time.I enjoy making up short stories trying to include as many of the objects in the story as I can.
Finally ask each child to put away an object into the correct bag one at a time. This way you can assess the child's understanding of the letter sound without them feeling under any preasure.
Good luck with the collecting ,don't forget to check the charity shops and jumble sales and ask family and friends. Believe me this provides the young child with a fantastic way of learning their letter sounds.
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