Alphabet Trees PreK-K
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Alphabet Trees PreK-K |
Alphabet Trees offers an engaging and fun way for kids to master alphabet recognition
and letter-sound associations. Knowledge of letters and their sounds is key to
learning to read and write. In his book Phonics From A to Z (Scholastic, 2006,
revised), reading specialist Wiley Blevins notes that the two best predictors of early reading
success are alphabet recognition and phonemic awareness (Adams, 1990; Stanovich, 1992;
Chall, 1996; Beck and Juel, 1995; Share, Jorm, Maclean, and Matthews, 1984). These two
skills—knowing the letters and the sounds they represent and being able to identify these
sounds with automaticity—are essential for early reading development.
The activities in this book give children lots of practice in writing uppercase and lowercase
letters and reading words that begin with each letter. Picture clues provide them with
support in identifying the words. In addition, the word spellings offer further opportunities
to develop letter-sound associations and phonemic awareness skills.
You can use the alphabet trees with the whole class or in small groups.
Or place them in a learning center for children to use independently or in pairs.
The activities are ideal for children of all learning styles, ELL students, and for RTI instruction. And best of all, the
alphabet trees take only a few minutes to complete, making them a quick way to integrate
letter learning into the school day.
How to Use the Alphabet Trees
Completing an alphabet tree is easy and fun. To begin,
distribute copies of the activity page for the letter you
want to teach. Point out the letter on the basket that’s
under the tree and name it. Then have children do
the following:
Trace the uppercase and lowercase letters on the
tree trunk. Then independently write the letter several more times on each line. Complete the word spelling on each apple by writing the lowercase letter on the line at the beginning of the word.
(Note that for the letter x on page 32, the blank line may appear at the beginning or end of the word stem on the apple.)
Read the word, using the picture clue as an aid in
identifying the word. After filling in all the apples, read aloud the words again, pointing to each word while saying it.