So your preschooler is ready to start learning letters. How should you get started?
Start teaching you preschooler uppercase letters first, then lowercase. Point out letters daily on everyday items and play with toys that are letter specific. Your preschooler will learn letters with reparation and play.
Learning through play and repetition… doesn’t sound too bad right?
When Should a Child Be When They Recognize Letters
According to Scholastic.com Children learn to recognize letters between the ages of 3 and 4. By age 5, most kindergarteners begin to make sound-letter associations, such as knowing that “book” starts with the letter B. This will largely depend on what they are exposed to as well. My 2 year old is starting to learn the ABC song and will start learning letters as he learns the song. My 4 year old know a few letter sounds from Preschool but is really learning them this year in Kindergarten.
Start With Uppercase
What letters should you start with, uppercase or lowercase? I prefer to start with capitals for a few reasons. First, my foam bath letters and ABC books are in uppercase, so it’s natural to start with what we have on hand. Second, visually it is easier to identify uppercase than lowercase. Last thing I want to do is confuse or frustrate my kids when teaching them.
Uppercase letters are generally easier to identify because the only letters that could be flipped and mistaken for another letter are M/W. Which happens every time!
Lowercase letters have a few pairs of letters that could be flipped and confused. For example: b/d, b/p, d/p, p/q, n/u.
Of course we will get to lowercase letters in time. They are more common in reading and writing. However I just find it easer to start with uppercase. My main goal in teaching is to keep my learning littles motivated and confident. Teaching uppercase letters first accomplishes this. With time I also love to introduce new fonts. The “a” or “I” can be written a few ways and my son always gets stuck when letters look a little different so teaching him that fonts can vary is important.
What Order Should I Teach Letters?
I love starting letters by teaching my child how to spell their name. Kids love their name and hear it often, at least mine do. So teaching them the letters for their name can be exciting. After they have the letter in their name down, I like to pick letters like M, D, for mommy and daddy, letters that any pets names or sibling names start with as well.
I have found to really test their letter knowledge it is better to ask them to identify letters out of order. Because my preschoolers love singing songs especially the “ABC song” I scramble up letters when testing them. If I question them on letters in order A-Z they use the song for assistance, those smarties! I do this initially with uppercase then again when introducing lowercase. Also assess their letter knowledge occasionally while they are learning to see what letters you need to work on more and help them retain.
To assess my kids I like to print or write out letters on note cards. You can also use magnetic letters, blocks or flash cards. Something you already have on hand is wonderful. I prefer notecards because they don’t take up too much space and I can shuffle them easily. I pull out a letter and ask them to identify it. I usually make a pile of correct or incorrect and take note of what letters are incorrect. I then start a plan for what letters to focus on.
Here’s an order used in some Montessori schools :
First set: M S A T
Second set: B F O X
Third set: W I G L J
Fourth set: C U P Z
Fifth set: H E N R D
Sixth set: V K Q Y
Teaching Preschoolers Letters
They key to teaching preschoolers letters is repetition. Point out letters as much as possible, letters are everywhere! When walking around the block look for letters on street signs, read letters on shirts or jackets, find letters on restaurant menus, when driving look at business signs and billboards for large letters, when playing with blocks or games read letters. As you continue to point out letters all over the house and town they will start to look for them as well.
We also like to collect toys and books that are letter based for letter play activities.
- Alphabet puzzles
- Foam bathtub letters
- ABC books
- Alphabet magnets
- Felt letter cards
As we play we say the letters. We can put them in ABC order, spell names and words. We often hold up a letter and associate with a person or thing. M- is for Mommy, B- is for Ball, S- is for sister, etc. All of these toys can also be used for assessing their letter knowledge so you know what letters need more work.
We found that foam bath letters work really well when your child loves water. My husband would put 7-10 letters in the bath at a time and work with our daughter until she memorized each set. Bonus she was always happy to learn in the water because she loves to hang out in there!
Letter Apps
We all have times when we need to hand our child a device to entertain them while we get something done. Maybe its a 10 minute phone call, making dinner, waiting at a restaurant or just taking a shower. I try to make those times a little educational and when I hand my kids a phone I want them to be learning. Here are a few educational apps you can try out with your learning little to work on letters.
Elmo Loves ABCs is great for young children, they all love Elmo! This app has a collection of songs, videos, and games. This app also helps your child learn the letters in their name. Which you know I love!
ABC Kids – Tracing & Phonics is interactive and helps your little one start tracing letters. Children can also match upper and lowercase letters and associate letters with objects.
Little Writer – The Tracing App for Kids is a clean and simple app to help children correctly identify letter names and also form letter shapes Bonus: There are numbers, shapes, and beginning words as well.
Learning letters can be fun and excited and sets the foundations for reading and writing. Good luck!