Tuesday, August 18, 2026

SINGING LETTERS AND SOUNDS

Music is the most natural way to learn anything. Mary Ann Wolf (reading researcher) recommends singing alphabet songs with young children. She explains that songs act like an umbrella and “place holder” in the brain. When the letters and sounds make sense to the children, they have a “place” to go.

Hint!
There are many ways to introduce alphabet songs, but it might be helpful to introduce a new song each week. Sing it every morning to start your day, and then use it as a brain break during the day. The next week you can teach the children another song and then review the song you sang the previous week. Write the titles of the songs as you introduce them on a sentence strip and add a picture clue. That way you can let children choose different songs and repeat them.

Visual Connections
As you sing alphabet songs, it will be helpful to connect the visual with the auditory. You can use alphabet cards or point to the letters in your classroom.


LETTER TAILS (Tune: "Gilligan's Island")
This is one of my favorite alphabet books that Barb Smith created several years ago. It's good for letter recognition, phonics, and visual closure (recognizing the whole from the part).

This is a tale about the letter A.
It makes a special sound.
/a/ /a/ /a/ /a/ A!
Let’s learn another sound.

This is a tale about the letter B….

You can download the book here. If you’ll glue the cover to the front of a pocket folder and put the pages in clear sheet protectors the book will last for a long time.


Hint! This is a great book to put in your listening center with the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rEzOQn5ElM 


HAPPY BIRTHDAY LETTERS
Who doesn’t like birthdays? Children will love dancing and singing this song.

Happy Birthday Letters
Yo, A,
It’s your birthday.
Let’s all read
Like your birthday.
/a/ /a/ /a/ /a/ /a/ /a/
/a/ /a/ /a/ /a/ /a/ /a/
Yo, B…etc.

*Have children stand in a circle and act like rappers. When the letter that their name begins with comes up in the song they get to jump in the middle of the circle and dance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuyyoj_xvUE

Letter Birthday Hats
Let the children make birthday hats from sentence strips and wear them as you sing “Happy Birthday Letters.” (Our old stick pony is modeling the birthday hat for you.)

Birthday Cake
Draw a birthday cake on a magnetic board and sing the letters as you place them on the cake:

Yo, M, it’s your birthday.
Let’s all sing like your birthday
/m/ /m/ /m/ /m/ /m/ /m/
/m/ /m/ /m/ /m/ /m/ m/

Here’s a link so you can download the birthday cake.

https://drjeanandfriends.blogspot.com/search?q=letter+tails

Rapper Necklace
Cut letters out of heavy cardboard. Let children decorate them with fake jewels, glitter, or stickers. Punch holes in the letters and tie on string. Children can wear these as you sing this song.

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