Bridging Sounds to Letters Through Story



So, I am wrapping up the last few letter packets in our Letter of the Week series with Glimmercat, and as I completed the last of our letter Cards, I decided to put them up as a separate packet for those who just need or want the Glimmercat alphabet put up in their classroom.


Glimmercat cavorts through every Alphabet letter, and her circumstance in the picture helps give children a mnemonic bridge from the letter to the sound.  We include the story for each of these images, as well, so there is no guessing involved...

When teaching children, (or anyone, really) giving them bridges like these to connect the dots makes learning so much easier and fun. 

I hope this fun package can be a great use to those who don't need or want an entire Letter of the Week program, but would like mnemonic tools to help make learning connections just a little easier for your preschool and kindergarten kiddos.  Here's the packet of Letter Cards from A to Z, along with the stories that bridge the sounds in our store:  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/A-to-Z-Alphabet-Letter-Cards-2263850



Introducing Letter H


This was one of those days, where we went about everything in random order and yet it all still worked somehow.  Which is encouraging.

Here's how it went.  I'm working away on the computer, completing a Dot to Dot for the letter W, when there is a little hand on my knee and a little voice says, "I want a Dot to Dot."

What's a mom to do, but print out that H Dot to Dot page, even though we haven't introduced H yet?

Teaching Tip:  Child-Led learning is the best learning there is.  Don't miss that opportunity when your little one expresses their interest, even if it doesn't quite fit with your schedule or plan. 


She called this one her Winnie the Pooh house, before she had even started drawing on the numbers.  I think the windows give it away.  The finished product looks like this:

Yep.  Looks like a Winnie the Pooh house to me!  So, here is where we began.  And then we went back and filled in the pieces.

Little Miss is very familiar with Glimmercat these days.  She refers to the kitty character as "my Glimmercat" in the same way that she refers to Hello Kitty toys as "My No-Kitty".  So, we pulled out our Glimmercat Song for H because it is fun and my son sang it along with us.


Like all the letter sounds, even though I write out the "H" sound as "huh", we keep it short and poppy so it is more of the sound than the word "huh".  This helps later when they move into learning to read with sounds.

Then, I printed out the Path of Motion for H.  I always print out the black and white version, even though the color one looks so nice, because Little Miss loves to color her Glimmercat.


Now, we went over the Big H and the little h a couple of times with our fingers, and she wanted a marker.  I assumed she just wanted to color, but I look over, and there she is, writing in the Big H, practicing how to write it!  Yay, Little Miss!


Then she colored in more with her trusty pink marker.  It was a backwards sort of introduction to the letter H, but you know what?  It worked!  And that is what matters.

For the letter of the week packet that includes all the printable worksheets seen here, you can visit my store:  https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Letter-of-the-Week-H-2012622