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Home : 2001 : September : 26

letters
By jem

I teach using a letter of the week format too. But I think the key is that while the letter is our primary focus for the week, we don't ignore the other letters. We still talk about all the letters and sounds. We do quite
a bit of phonemic awareness activities each day, revolving around all sounds. My letter of the week drives my choice of literature, my choice of manipulatives to use in my math lessons,handwriting, the songs we sing that week, and my art and cooking experiences. But I still teach many different reading, vocabulary, phonics, and other concepts that are not limited to one certain letter.

I think that for me, anyway, the letter of the week helps us to stay focused on letters and sounds and words and their importance in our lives. And it is fun to be able to make doughnuts for the letter Dd and come to school with horrible hair when we a re learning about Hh. And these fun activities are what stick with them. I have kids in first and second grade saying to me.. remember when we wore pajamas to school for the letter Pp? That tells me they are GETTING IT! Years later, they still know why we wore our pajamas. That is EXACTLY what I was trying for!