When you say letter recognition, it’s almost synonymous with saying kindergarten! It is one of the
pillars of literacy in the primary grades, along with phonological awareness. As this is something
that we tend to cover the entire year, it’s always great to take a look at your practice and see where
you can switch things up, or where you can extract more learning.
1. Read-Alouds & Shared Reading
Raise your hand if you love a good read-aloud! Most of the time we use them to introduce and review
different comprehension skills and strategies, but they have other uses as well! Read alouds are the
most important activity that you can do with students to build their knowledge about literacy
concepts that are necessary for reading. During this experience, which can be in whole or small
group, you can focus on specific letters (capital or lowercase), making sure to include books that
focus on the alphabet or certain letters. This is why I am always on the hunt for ABC books!
Shared reading provides a time where reading is interactive. Students will join in or ‘share’ in
the reading of the book. This means that students are actively participating in the literacy
experience, rather than being a passive learner. It’s almost like the best of both worlds, combining
parts of guided reading along with read-aloud strategies. During this time, not only will the teacher
model reading with fluency and using expression as they read, they will also practice word and
comprehension strategies. What I love about shared reading is that it provides students with a
positive literacy experience no matter the grade level.
2. Morning Message
Morning message is something that lends itself to multiple uses. Oh, I could talk about it forever!
Let’s stick to letter recognition right now! The morning message can be written beforehand, or it
can be written with the students for an interactive writing activity.
If your message happens to be written with your students, then not only are you modeling the
writing process, but you have a chance to point out specific letters as you write. Students also have
a chance to provide letters, maybe even words that can be added to the morning message.
3. Name Sort
I love any type of sort! For this activity, create letter headers for students to sort to. Next, write
every student’s name on a card, or section of a sentence strip. The names will be sorted to the
correct letter.
As an extra layer, separate name strips may be created, with each name being cut up letter by letter.
Students can then spell names, and/or match the letters to the name cards that are being sorted.
4. Tactile Letters
Now I know, tactile letters seem like a cute way to review the alphabet, but it is much more than
that! When students get to make their own tactile letters or have access to tactile letters, it helps
to emphasize the shape of each letter and provides a visual representation of the letter.
The sky is the limit when it comes to materials for tactile letters. Definitely use what you already
have in your classroom! Don’t worry about repeating materials, your little ones will love it! You’ll
also reach your students who learn through different modes of instruction.
5. Guess the Letter
This is more of a group game! It provides practice for letter recognition and handwriting all at
the same time. The first thing that you would do is to divide your class into smaller groups, and
they will sit on the floor in circles.
Place a deck of letter cards in the middle (you can grab a set at your local dollar spot), and have
a student to ask what letter is it. Students will name the letter and also print it onto whiteboards.
If you have students who are struggling with capital or lowercase letters, you can sort out the
letters that you don’t need.
It is important that we provide students with intentional exposure to print in different contexts, such
as books, charts, labels, etc. As you introduce and review letters, be sure to include letters that are
known and unknown, so that students all have some measure of success! Remember, consistency
is important in helping students to develop letter recognition!
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