Teaching the alphabet and sounds can be tricky in a second language. I’m going to share with you how I teach it in my Kindergarten classroom and what kinds of activities & centres I do in this post. I start my week by reading a sound story from the book Raconte-moi les sons. The stories can be a little complicated for French language learners, so I simplify the language a bit, and help them with picture cues. Are you looking for ways to teach French Counting in your classroom? Click here for the link to my number recognition blog post.
Each letter has an action and we practice it together, then we go over previous actions we’ve learned. I find these help a lot because most students already know their English letters/sounds and some of the French ones are very different (E, I are the worst for this!). I do the letters in the order found in the book. Vowels first, then consonants. This way we can start reading simple syllables during our circles and small group guided lessons.
After we read the story, we practice making the sound and then I show them how to form the letter. Students who want to come up to the board and try, get a turn and then we break out into our small group lessons. We have 4 tables going, one of which always has an activity on our letter of the week.
I mix up which activities I put out each week, but I always put out a Trace and Write page so that they can practice letter formation. Other paper based activities I put out are: Find and Colour the Letter (with bingo dabbers), Alphabet Maze and Trace it/Build it/Write it (with manipulatives).
I also put out various table top alphabet centres during open play. Activities such as Alphabet Puzzles (Self Correcting, Not Self Correcting), Letter Sorting, Name Building, Word Building, Find and Write sensory bins, etc. I use various manipulatives such as whiteboards, magnetic letters, wooden letters and playdough with these activities.
Throughout the week, we continue review our letter of the week during circle and continue practicing how to write it both in upper case and lower case. I will also write letters all over the board and the kids take turns finding the letter and circling it. I hope this helps you in your early literacy instructions. If you made it this far, follow this link for my alphabet stamping freebie!
