Letter of the Week

As stated in my original post, I am going to be starting my school year on maternity leave.  I am spending my summer prepping for the sub, making my sub binder, and breaking down all of my procedures in my room in a series of blog posts.

     •Before school on Monday, I put the letter of the week up on the board, and the large outline next  to the calendar.  I purchased a set of alphabet letters that also have sign language on them.  I have an area labeled letter of the week (left of this picture).  I post this weekly and then refer to it during the week.  We teach the kids the signs to go with the letters to help the students who are anesthetic learners as well as the auditory learners.  

      I created a set of bubble letters on poster board.  I then laminated each of the pages.  Each week we will work on words we know that start with the specific sounds and then write them on there.  These will be posted on the right of the calendar (in the blank spot between the calendar and the purple fabric)

•On Monday, in opening circle, I introduce the letter of the week.  I tell the students the name of the letter we are working on--both the capital letter and the lowercase letter, the sign language and the sound symbol (Literacy Link book)

•At carpet dismissal time on Monday, I teach how to properly write the letter on the board to help those kids who need help with their gross motor skills.  Students must write the letter correctly (and hold the marker correctly) and then they are dismissed to their learning centers.\

•On Monday closing circle, I read the AlphaTales series.  We discuss the words in that book that started with our letter.  We will write these words on the bubble letter mentioned above.  

•During Monday snack, I play the YouTube Video from Have Fun Teaching.  Kids love the upbeat songs, writing things in the air, and they really start to sing along quickly.

•During Tuesday morning work, students will complete the coloring book page that goes along with the Literacy Link series.

•On Tuesday, during small group, students will decorate the letter of the week with something that starts with that letter.  Click HERE to see all images of my letter decorating for the whole alphabet.

•During Tuesday snack, I play the YouTube Video Olive and the Rhyme Rescue Crew.  Kids love the stories and often request these videos even during indoor recess.

•During Wednesday snack, I play the YouTube StoryBots videos Kids love the songs and build a nice vocabulary as well as give them words that start with that letter.  We put these on the bubble letters as well. 
•During Thursday morning work, students will complete the Beginning Sound Crown from Lidia Barbosa from KinderAlphabet.

•Thursday small group, students will read the sentence on the page (discuss letter name, find another on the page, what is this at the end of a sentence, read me the sentence, make sure they use their reading finger and one to one correspondence.) Click HERE to see all images of my hand print activities for the whole alphabet. 

•During Thursday snack, I play the YouTube Sesame Street Clips for the letter.  I just search "Sesame Street Letter __" The classics are sometimes the best!

•Thursday closing circle, students practice the proper hand writing of the letter on the sheet.

•Through out the week, we write the words the students know that start with this letter on the big letter.

•Through out the week, at carpet dismissal, students  practice correct formation of the letters.