Small Wooden Movable Alphabet – Introduce Your Child to the Magic of Words

MATERIAL OVERVIEW:

The first movable alphabet comes with letters in two different colours.

The second alphabet contains letters in a single colour. These are two boxes holding the letters of the alphabet arranged in compartments.

PRESENTATION:

THE FIRST MOVABLE ALPHABET

1. invite the child to do the activity. “This morning, do you know what we are going to do? We are going to write!”
2. take a mat and unroll it on the floor
3. fetch the material from the shelf
4. settle down with the child near the mat
5. open the box, place the lid underneath and ask the child whether he recognises any letters. Take out all the ones the child recognises and place them on the mat.

Once they have all been named, put them back in place and tell the child that you are going to write a word. Ask him which word he wants to write. After he has chosen, ask him what sound he hears. Start with the first sound and continue to the end of the word. Each time, take out the letter matching the sound.

If the child has chosen a word containing a phoneme he does not know, for example the “an” in maman (mummy), show him how the sound “an” is written. (“What do you hear in maman? MM, do you remember what it looks like?” – the child takes it from the box and places it on the mat. And then, what sound do we hear? MA – A, the child takes the letter A, and so on).

For proper nouns keep the spelling; for other words choose the option that suits us best, either write phonetically or show the child the phonemes he does not yet know.

THE SECOND MOVABLE ALPHABET

When the child has seen all the Sandpaper Letters and is writing them, present the second movable alphabet. Ask him what he would like to write (words, a letter...). Proceed in the same way, each time asking the child what sound he hears.