e Creative Curriculum
®
for Preschool
Letter Knowledge
1
Letter Knowledge
In The Creative Curriculum
®
for Preschool classroom, children have daily
opportunities to learn to recognize, name, and write the letters of the alphabet and to
associate them with sounds. Teachers take an active role in promoting children’s knowledge
of letters and words through meaningful reading and writing experiences. Guided by
Curriculum resources, teachers offer planned, focused, individualized instruction, promoting
letter knowledge as they simultaneously support development in other areas. ey help
children begin to
• recognize and name upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet,
• associate letter names and symbols with their sounds,
• understand that letter symbols are grouped together in a particular
order to form words, and
• experiment with writing letters of the alphabet in the context of
writing for a purpose.
ese expectations are appropriate, especially given the kindergarten standards in Common
Core State Standards for English Language Arts. ose end-of-kindergarten expectations
include recognizing and naming all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet, isolating and
pronouncing sounds in simple words, and producing the primary sound for each consonant.
e Creative Curriculum
®
for Preschool provides guidance for promoting letter knowledge
intentionally through meaningful activities. e Curriculum does not use a decontextualized
“letter of the week” approach because that approach often confuses children about the
purpose of letters in relation to written words. Rather than suggest that the features, names,
and sounds of letters be taught in isolation, the Curriculum shows teachers how to talk about
letters in the context of reading, writing, and conversation sparked by children’s interests,
experiences, and investigations.
e scope and sequence of teaching letter knowledge in e Creative Curriculum
®
for Preschool
follows the strengths and needs of the individual child, not the group. Rather than introduce
letters by the week or in a prescribed order, the Curriculum provides a detailed teaching
sequence on every Intentional Teaching Card™. e sequences explain how to individualize
the experiences for each child, enabling teachers to scaffold every child’s learning during
small-group activities. Instruction for a child who is just beginning to learn a few letters
does not hinder the progress of a child who has more letter knowledge. Similarly, instruction
for a child who already knows many upper- and lowercase letters does not pressure a child
with less knowledge to try to move forward too quickly. Differentiated instruction improves
outcomes for all children.
Furthermore, new letters are not always introduced through the same experiences.
Intentional Teaching Cards
™
present a variety of activities that promote letter knowledge,
and each activity can be adjusted easily whenever it is repeated. During new and familiar
activities, each child is challenged in a different way to recognize more letters and make more
letter–sound associations.
2
Letter Knowledge Letter Knowledge
Strategies for Promoting
Letter Knowledge
Here are a few of the strategies that teachers
use to promote children’s letter knowledge
in e Creative Curriculum
®
classroom. ese
strategies are discussed in the e Creative
Curriculum
®
for Preschool: Foundation, and
their consistent, integrated use is guided by
the Daily Resources.
Display the alphabet. Teachers post the
alphabet at the children’s eye level. ey
make the poster more meaningful by writing
the names of the children in the class near
the first letters of their names. Smaller
alphabet strips or cards are available in
interest areas so children can refer to them
easily while writing.
Read alphabet books and add them to
the library and other interest areas. Some
alphabet books with story lines are used for
group reading, and other alphabet books
are shared one-with-one. Research indicates
that use of alphabet books in the classroom
“may increase children’s letter knowledge
and phonological processing skills.”
1
As the
teacher and child(ren) explore an alphabet
book together, they talk about the letters,
their shapes, and the names of pictured
objects that begin with the letter. e
Teaching Strategies
®
Children’s Book Collection
includes books that encourage children to
explore the alphabet.
Sing the alphabet song and other songs
with letter names. Teachers sing the
alphabet song to help children become
familiar with letter names and alphabetical
order. ey sing slowly, pronouncing the
letter names separately and sometimes
pausing in different places so that children
do not slur groups of letters (e.g., so that l,
m, n, o are not pronounced as the single unit
elemeno). ey often have a large alphabet
chart handy so they can point to the letters
as they sing with the children.
e Curriculum includes short activities,
called Mighty Minutes
™
, which can be used
during “in-between” times of day. Mighty
Minutes
™
include songs, chants, rhymes, and
games that emphasize letter knowledge in
playful and purposeful ways.
Individualize alphabet instruction,
especially during small-group time.
e Creative Curriculum
®
Teaching Guides
offer daily plans that include frequent
Intentional Teaching Card™ activities that
promote letter knowledge. e teaching
sequence presented on each Intentional
Teaching Card™ explains how to adjust
the activity according to each child’s
level of development and learning. is
individualized approach enables teachers to
challenge each child appropriately.
Encourage sensory exploration of the
alphabet. Children often understand
concepts more easily when learning
experiences involve multiple senses. By
feeling as well as seeing letters, they learn
more about their shapes and formation.
Teachers offer children a variety of ways
to explore the alphabet: by using sandpaper,
salt trays, clay, magnetic letters, and felt
letters, and by forming letters with their
bodies. Intentional Teaching Cards
™
such
as “Textured Letters,” “Walk a Letter,”
“Stick Letters, “and “Shaving Cream
3
Letter Knowledge
Letters” focus on sensory exploration of
the alphabet during individualized small-
group experiences.
Provide ample time, materials, and space
for children to write throughout the day.
In addition to prompting children to write
their names, teachers encourage children to
write other words that are important to them
as they create drawings, paintings, greeting
cards, lists, signs, books, and dramatic play
props such as menus and tickets. Teachers
support children’s writing efforts by saying
words slowly so children can write letters for
the predominant sounds they hear.
Use children’s names to help them learn
alphabet letters and sounds. Teachers
include activities that give children reasons
to write their names. Research has shown
that children most easily identify letters
that are used frequently or that have some
personal relevance for them, i.e., letters in
environmental print and in their names.
2
For example, children write their names on
drawings, letters, greeting cards, sign-up
sheets for popular activities, and attendance
sheets. Teachers make name cards available
for children to use as resources as they
write. To make the cards, teachers print
clearly, using upper- and lowercase letters.
“Question Basket,” “Writing With Wordless
Books,” and “Sunshine Message Board”
are examples of Intentional Teaching Card™
activities that give children meaningful
reasons to explore writing.
Model writing during daily shared writing
experiences. As teachers write, they say
the words slowly, calling attention to each
phoneme as they write the corresponding
letter(s). Sometimes they say letter names
as they write the letters. ey also talk about
directionality and letter shapes as they form
letters. Shared writing experiences always
conclude with the teacher’s fluent reading
of the composition so that children associate
letters with spoken words and always expect
to find meaning in printed texts. e
Curriculum includes daily plans featuring
shared writing as a fundamental component
of every large-group experience. e
Intentional Teaching Card™ “Shared Writing”
explains how to draw children’s attention to
the characteristics of written letters and
words effectively.
General Information About
The Creative Curriculum
®
for Preschool
e Creative Curriculum
®
for Preschool is
a comprehensive collection of research-
based resources. It encourages exploration
and discovery as a way of learning, helping
children develop confidence, creativity, and
lifelong critical thinking skills. It supports
children’s development and learning in
relation to 38 objectives that include
predictors of school success and that are
aligned to state early learning standards
and the Head Start Child Development
and Early Learning Framework. Several
Curriculum resources are devoted to early
language and literacy development.
e Creative Curriculum
®
for Preschool
includes e Creative Curriculum
®
for
Preschool: Foundation. e five volumes
are the knowledge-building resources of
the Curriculum. Four of those volumes
are particularly helpful to teachers as they
4
Letter Knowledge Letter Knowledge
develop a comprehensive understanding
of how to integrate enjoyable, purposeful
literacy experiences throughout the day.
Volume 1: e Foundation addresses the
central components of teaching preschool
children effectively. Volume 2: Interest
Areas offers detailed guidance for setting
up the classroom and interacting with
children. Volume 3: Literacy focuses on early
language and literacy learning, including the
development of letter knowledge.
Volume 5: Objectives for Development &
Learning gives detailed information about
the language and literacy objectives. Letter
knowledge is addressed by Objective 16,
Demonstrates knowledge of the alphabet, and
by Objective 19, Demonstrates emergent
writing skills. For those two objectives as well
as most others, Volume 5 presents research
findings, progressions of development and
learning for the related dimensions, and
teaching strategies.
Detailed guidance for addressing letter
knowledge is also provided by the Daily
Resources, including the Teaching Guides and
particular Intentional Teaching Cards
™
. Letter
knowledge is also supported by selected
Mighty Minutes
™
and the Teaching Strategies
®
Children’s Book Collection.
References
1
Baker, L., Fernandez-Fein, S., Scher, D., & Williams, H. (1998). Home experiences
related to the development of word recognition. In J. L. Metsala & L. C. Ehri (Eds.),
Word recognition in beginning literacy (pp. 263–287). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Murray, B. A., Stahl, S. A., & Ivey, M. G. (1996). Developing phonemic awareness
through alphabet books. Reading and Writing, 8(4), 307–322.
2
Honig, B., Diamond, L., & Gutlohn, L. (2000). CORE teaching reading sourcebook.
Novato, CA: Arena Press.
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