4 year old Red Birds: Beginning Sounds

We all know that kids need to learn to relate a sound with a letter in order to read. The schools do this by giving the kids worksheets and having them color the picture of the word that begins with that sound ... easy right? Well, no! I have to admit that I have been having a hard time helping Galen (Kindergarten) with this very task. The pictures are not easily definable and it's BORING .... a new letter each week.

Many of our older kids know how to read and write their letters but are just learning to correlate a sound with the letter. On an on going quest to not only make learning fun but also practical the red birds have been doing a "game" where they take a letter card and go find an object in the room that begins with that sounds.

 It's much more meaningful to learn that C is for candle than "ceiling" or "canary"

Most of the 3 year old Red Birds are still mastering letter identification and that is not only OK but perfectly developmentally appropriate :) The next few weeks the kids will be making tactile letter boards to help with this process (Salt on the letter S and Yarn on Y).