My students have been working hard this year building their letter and sound knowledge through different games and activities. I monitor their progress as I show each child a letter chart and they name each upper case letter, lower case letter, and the produce the sounds for each with the following tool:
But we know that it is not enough to just to be able to accurately name the letters and sounds. Children must also be able to accurately name the letters and sounds automatically. This fluency with letters and sounds becomes very important as they decode words when reading connected text.
But we know that it is not enough to just to be able to accurately name the letters and sounds. Children must also be able to accurately name the letters and sounds automatically. This fluency with letters and sounds becomes very important as they decode words when reading connected text.
To help monitor their progress and practice these skills both at school with me and at home, I wanted to create something that would look and sound fun to the little ones. (And of course I am a sucker for cute clip art so I wanted something that looked cute!) I created
Teachers Notebook
Teachers Pay Teachers
This activity addresses the following Common Core Learning Standards:
K.RF.1.d-Recognize and name all upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet.
K.RF.3.a-Demonstrate basic knowledge of letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary or most frequent sound for each consonant.
It includes two forms for upper case letters and then two forms for lower case letters. The forms can be used to monitor letter identification or sound production.
It is pretty simple to use and is similar to other probes out there for the same skills where you simply set the timer for one minute and have the child name as many letters (or sounds) as they can until the timer goes off. BUT, to make it sound fun to the children, I ask them to BUZZ through their letters (or sounds). As they BUZZ along, I write a slash through or circle the incorrect responses. I then record the number of letters (or sounds) named on the bottom of the form and circle letters or sounds.
What fun and engaging activities do you do with your students to incorporate fluency into your instruction with letter identification and sound production?
