How to Introduce New Letters and Sounds

Letters and sounds are such a big part of Prep or Kindergarten. We would learn two new sounds every week! To introduce a new letter or sound, I had a mystery box with an item hidden inside that corresponded to the new letter or sound we were learning. I would give students hints as to what was inside the box until someone guessed what it was!

Next we would brainstorm different words with that particular sound. I would draw a picture first then have students help to sound out the word underneath. Sometimes students would suggest a word that had the letter or sound in the middle or at the end of the word – this was a great chance to discuss beginning, middle and ending sounds. Next, I would send the kids to the tables and they would rainbow write the letter or sound and draw/write four different words that we discussed (or some new ones!). We used the Jolly Phonics program so we would mostly focus on one way of spelling but took the opportunity to discuss the different sounds letters can make whenever it came up.

You could also use the following fun ideas to explore new letters and sounds even further:

• Sensory play – play with bubbles for the letter B and sand or spaghetti for the letter S.
• Block corner – add items like grass for the letter G or penguins for the letter P.
• Cooking – eat some apples for the letter A or a watermelon for the letter W.
•  Guided drawing – teach students how to draw a dinosaur for the letter D or a turtle for the letter T.

Butterfly craftivity for the letter B

I have also been working on these mini alphabet books which would be a great addition to your phonics program. Each book includes 5 different words starting with each letter of the alphabet. The vowels also include both short and long vowel sounds (with the exception of the letter O). I have made these books in both QLD Beginners Font and Elementary Font for those outside of Australia.