Learning Letter Sounds

In first grade phonics and spelling, we are starting the year by reviewing letters. We are working on handwriting, knowing the letter sounds, matching capital and lower case, distinguishing beginning and ending sounds, and reading and writing words beginning with the focus letter. To practice these important foundational reading skills, one tool we are using is the iPads and a series of phonics apps.

We have developed a phonics routine to review and develop these skills. First, we watch and sing Jack Hartman's Letter Sound Song. Then, we introduce the focus letter. The children are really enjoying watching the StoryBots video clips for each focus letter. You will notice I have linked all the StoryBots videos to the button bar at the top of the blog.

After doing the introduction of the focus letter as a whole group, the children set to work on a series of apps.  The students work through Letter School, Starfall, Letter of the Day, and Sound Sort.  In each app, the students get specific and guided practice at writing the letter, identifying and discriminating the sound, and reading words beginning with the focus letter.  The students get to work at their own pace and receive specific and immediate feedback on how they are doing on the skills.  The apps are designed to help students on areas of struggle and challenge and advance students when they are ready.

While the iPads are an important and powerful tool for our learning, it is not the only way we are learning.  Having balance in everything is extremely important.  When reviewing letters and sounds, our activities have ranged from traditional paper/pencil work, wonderful read alouds, art oriented review, singing and dancing, cooperative activities, whiteboard practice and independent skill work.  For instance, after we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, we made our own classroom tree.  Students use the tree they made as reference to sort capital and lowercase magnetic letters.