Help me brainstorm, teaching my daughter the alphabet

[ecilA]

She is almost 6 and has just really started showing interest in some letters. She draws Ps, the first letter of her name. Now she is drawing As all over the place (her stomache, my arm, the walls, heh) and this was sparked by...Alvin's sweater. So I've been reinforcing those letters (her life isn't devoid of the alphabet, it just hasn't interested her much up until now.) I've been trying to put together a plan to increase her interest, we'll celebrate each letter for a few days (if you will) but it has to really grab her to get her attention.

So I'm looking for ideas for each letter. She loves to be read to and she loves to watch video but she seems to need a reason to be interested in a letter.

[gfrach]

Does she have any particular interests? Like for example--the ocean. Then you could do the alphabet as it relates to the ocean and do a different creature or something each day.

Maybe you could draw a big version of the letter on your driveway, sidewalk, or patio everyday and she could trace them by walking the letter.

Make a large letter out of construction paper and put it on her door each morning. If her room can be darkened, she can trace the letter with a flashlight.

Serve her a meal each day that goes along with the letter of the day. (Apples, almonds, and artichokes on A day, etc.)

Will she do dot to dots? Print or make a dot to dot of each letter for the day (or a maze or whatever else you can think of like that).

There are a million printable sheets on the internet and you could print up one for each letter.

I haven't looked at it in awhile, but I'm pretty sure Games for Reading by Peggy Kaye has games for letter awareness. I always think games are a great way to learn.

That's all I can think of for now. Have fun!

[kokoro]

One thing you can do is create a book with her. Start with A/a and find pictures of words that start with that letter in the newspaper or magazine. Cut them out with her and glue them in the book. Have her write the letter, upper and lower case, too, and say the name and sound with her. Do one letter at a time and go slowly and review between each letter. There are *many* other fun activities but I have to run now.

Oh, and when you find pictures find the right sound. some letters can make several sounds and you want the one most often used right now.

She is almost 6 and has just really started showing interest in some letters. She draws Ps, the first letter of her name. Now she is drawing As all over the place (her stomache, my arm, the walls, heh) and this was sparked by...Alvin's sweater. So I've been reinforcing those letters (her life isn't devoid of the alphabet, it just hasn't interested her much up until now.) I've been trying to put together a plan to increase her interest, we'll celebrate each letter for a few days (if you will) but it has to really grab her to get her attention.

So I'm looking for ideas for each letter. She loves to be read to and she loves to watch video but she seems to need a reason to be interested in a letter.

[ecilA]

thank you both, these are great ideas!

(keep 'em comin'!)

[lunita]

Our library has a whole section of alphabet books, and some of them are really beautiful. There are underwater alphabet books, ugly bug alphabet books, dinosaur alphabet books, etc.

My kids also really love/loved the Leapfrog videos (Letter Factory, Word Factory, etc.)

[ecilA]

oh you reminded me of a show, my daughter watches it with her little girl, I can't remember the name but the words of the creatures and things make up the creatures and things. I should see if she gets something out of that.

(we've read a lot of alphabet books but she's always just wanted to talk about the pictures and not really caught on to the whole letter aspect of it, she may just now be catching on to that and it won't take as much focused learning as it's seeming it will, I'm really just happy to see her having interest in it and all the rest of my kids were fully alphabet acclimated by this age.)

[sarahrose]

oh you reminded me of a show, my daughter watches it with her little girl, I can't remember the name but the words of the creatures and things make up the creatures and things. I should see if she gets something out of that.

(we've read a lot of alphabet books but she's always just wanted to talk about the pictures and not really caught on to the whole letter aspect of it, she may just now be catching on to that and it won't take as much focused learning as it's seeming it will, I'm really just happy to see her having interest in it and all the rest of my kids were fully alphabet acclimated by this age.)

Is it Word World? My kids love it ad it's on PBS. so it's not full of commercialism. We TIVO it and the kids love it and yell out the words. :)

[gfrach]

Oh, I found this link:
http://www.preschooleducation.com/llgame.shtml

And I remembered this yahoogroup that I used to belong to--well, it's one of these two:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GamesForLearning/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=2#ans
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Games4Learning/?v=1&t=search&ch=web&pub=groups&sec=group&slk=3

I also think that alphabet magnets for the fridge are a great thing. We had an upper- and lowercase set.

[Jeb]

Put a whiteboard in the kitchen or family room where she can write at she pleases. You can also write letters she can trace or copy.

My kids were fond of fridge magnets too.

For my son we did a game where one would trace a letter on their back and they would have to guess which one it was. You could start with simple letters and either let her guess or let her draw.

There are puzzels where you match the picture to a letter...i.e. C goes with a picture of a cat. They are large two-piece puzzels.

There are also wooden puzzels where the letters fit into cutouts. This helped my son learn the right order of the alphabet.

A friend and her son named all the letters...A was Alvin, B was Betty, C was Carol, etc. We never did this but she said it worked for them.

[ecilA]

Yes, that's it! Thank you. They have it on netflix so I'm adding some to my queue.

[ecilA]

I used to have these lovely fridge alphabet magnets, we had a metal front door too and used to have quite an amusing series of words and statements and the like...but we have only a few left and it's a good reminder. Everyone loves fridge magnets!

Thanks for the other ideas as welll.

[collier]

I think it is on watch it now.

Best!

[ecilA]

they had one play now and two on disc. I actually prefer disc for her though because she somehow ends up purchasing movies that we don't want when I put movies on for her on the computer. I'm actually kind of interested in that tv box they are offering, if the only access is queue it would offer a safe way for her to view stuff online. OTOH, I'm not sure that their selection warrants that kind of purchase, yk?