More on "Jumping to Letters"

Last year (on "Cyber Monday") I managed to acquire an alphabet carpet at a reasonable price.  This has been a wonderful addition to the classroom.  It's bright and colorful, it helps with classroom management ("sit on your letter", "sit on the blue line") and, most importantly, it adds a new element to our literacy curriculum.

When I pull reading groups during center time, I start with the group that is working on learning letters.  At the end of their session, I have them practice the letters they are learning by jumping back and forth to those letters.  This year, I quickly noticed that the other kids were jealous, even though they knew their letters, and some knew their letter sounds.  So for the past two weeks, we have had a "jump to letters" day.

When we jump to the letters, I try to match the task to the students skills.  Some students are challenged to jump to a limited number of letters (a-f on the back row), some to letters around the carpet, some to letter sounds, and some to "the begging letter of the word ____" or to the "middle sound of the word ______".  This seems to offer a wonderful combination of learning through the mind and learning through the body.

Finally a plug for the PTA here.  I was able to get this carpet thanks to generous parents who contributed to the PTA, the PTA then gives each classroom a budget for things like carpets, books, learning tools and more.