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  1. I teach 3 to 4 year olds and have been using letter of the week including the multisensory approach. I also ask my students to record videos whereby they show items in their homes that start with the particular letter. The students and their families really enjoy this. I also play them a fun letter sound video before so that they are exposed to all the letter sounds before focusing on the letter of the week. They also build their names using wooden letters. Some copy them and a few can build them from memory as they learn the different letter sounds from the song. We also go through the letter sounds of the different days of the week and the month. I just try to incoporate letter sounds every chance I get. For kindergarten, which I will be teaching next year, I think starting with “satipin” makes sense to me with regards to learning to read some cvc words. I do love incorporating different elements of what works or is effective. Thank you for sharing.

  2. I am wondering if anyone has bought this curriculum as a public school teacher and what they thought about it? I like the way the scope and sequence is set up and would love to try it but want to know what other people think. I am teaching four year old preschool this year and do not want to do letter of the week. I hope to hear back some great comments.

  3. I have taught a letter a week program for 23 years in my PreK class. The letters that month are reviewed the last week of the month. I also combine lowercase, uppercase, sound, activities daily, tracing, and concentrating on the letters in their name the first week. I think this makes them interested in learning more letters through the school year.
    I would consider doing it your way next year and evaluate at the end of the year, I do like the way that you teach them to form letters .

  4. what’s your reasoning in teach upper case letters first then lower case letters? lower case letters are more common then upper case letters in print. What about the argument of teaching letters in such an order to begin spelling and sounding out simiple cvc words? Example teach the letters s, a, t, i, p, n then kids can make word families sat, pat, nat, or pin, sin, tin etc

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      Great questions! Uppercase letters are easier for children to write. Lowercase letters are more common in print, but they are harder for children to write. I do think your idea to teach letters in a way to make CVC words is interesting. I haven’t done any research into this, so I am not sure if this would be effective or not.

  5. Lea Schumacher says:

    Now…I’m not sure if I do letter of the week on the sense discussed here. It’s more like….letter of the month? We do math activities, sensory, books, sensory writing in many different ways. And for a couple weeks to a month that is the letter we do the most. But we also consistently review, cycle, look at familiar letter pairings and the letters in our names….is this traditional LETW thinking? I’d like someone’s opinion. We also start with the first letters of our names, then the rest of our name letters (easiest to hardest) and THEN the rest of the alphabet. Our list for easiest to hardest is very similar to yours.

  6. This is great advice. I’ve been teaching for over 20 yrs. As a preschool teacher, I used the LOTW method but when I homeschooled, I stopped focusing on just one a week and made letters a part of everyday living. I saw much better results that way.

    You also made a great point about projects being cute but time-consuming. Somewhere along the way, I stumbled across the advice that a project shouldn’t take longer to prepare than it does for the child to actually do it. I’ve taken that to heart – lol.

    I’m anxious to read the book you suggested. Thanks for sharing.

    I love your site! I’ll be visiting again.

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      Thanks so much for your sweet words. I like the saying about the project shouldn’t take longer to prepare than for the actual activity!

  7. So, basically you do rounds of letters like Handwriting Without Tears and review with lots of hands-on activities. I think even adults would like this curriculum.

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      Yes! It is like that. Thank you!

    2. Angela Thayer says:

      Yes! That is right. Thank you!!

  8. Something cool to think about. Thanks!

  9. Brittaney P says:

    Love this method! This is a bit of what we’ve been doing so this makes me feel much better about my approach as a first time homeschooling mama. Thank you!

  10. Beth Mayson says:

    This is very informative, Thank You!

  11. I was a preschool teacher for two yests and have littles of my own. I always though letter of the week would be a great idea, but had not implemented it. Going to get the book now thank you.

  12. Denise Pruitt says:

    I definitely agree with the fact that they enjoy learning letters in their names! And I believe the “whole language” type learning of letters is more beneficial than a letter of the week curriculum. Thanks for your ideas & input on this!

  13. Lynette Teel says:

    Thanks for the info! I ran to Amazon to buy the book.

  14. Jennifer L. Kim says:

    I look forward to learning more with this curriculum. I have a degree in early childhood and have taught the last 6 years with early childhood kiddos and kindergarteners. I struggled to find all in one place resources and I would use this to strengthen my teaching and allow it to be a resource I can come to time and time again.

    Thank you for sharing!

  15. Hi, As you said in the post I saw that letters of the week isn’t the most effective way to teach the alphabet, I like the letters cycle, but I wonder if we can teach sound and letter at the same time? Thanks for your answer 😉

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      Yes! You can definitely teach sounds and letters at the same time.

  16. Love this idea! Will be adapting it for the French alphabet. 🙂

  17. Wow! This is very informative and helpful for children, teachers, parents, and caregivers. The range of children I teach would benefit greatly from all of this. Thank you!
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  18. My son is 5 and I had him learning f his alphabets through fun hands on projects like turning cards over and matching them and also snapping letters into place where the picture had the word beginning with the letter.

    We’re starting a homeschool with a charter school for Kindergarten level but I may also have him work on some preK concepts, where we need to turn in something every 3 weeks. Does your curriculum include that?

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      Hi Michelle! That’s great that you’ve been doing fun hands-on activities with your son to learn the alphabet! I’m not exactly sure what you need to turn into the charter school, but the curriculum does have “worksheets” that you could turn in to show the work you are doing at home.

  19. Hello! Homeschooling mom here. You just opened my eyes!!!! I will definitely try this way of learning letters. Thank you!

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      Thank you! It opened my eyes as well when I researched about this method and I haven’t looked back!

  20. Joan Bontempo Aydelette says:

    Thank you for the encouragement to move in a different direction from Letter of the Week. I agree that starting with the letters in a child’s name is a very effective way to get them interested in the alphabet and once that happens the rest is magic!

  21. My youngest daughter is always wanting to do school with her siblings. She is only 2.5 now, but I think she would love to do this and learn as her siblings are.

  22. Would love this for my 2 little ones at home!

  23. Hello, I’m new here with a 3.5yo at home. How long is each cycle?

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      Welcome!! Each cycle is about 30 days long.

  24. Hello! I love the way you have organized the Alphabet portion of this curriculum. It makes so much sense to teach the letters and sounds in these intentional groupings/cycles! I will be teaching a preschool student, but only 2 days a week. Could we primarily use the alphabet portion of this curriculum and do the other activities as time allows? Is the alphabet portion able to be separated from the week easily or would we need to do all the activities to cover the letters/sounds for the week?

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      Yes! You could definitely do that. You can separate the alphabet portion from the other activities very easily.

  25. Is this curriculum appropriate for a 2.5 year old? I don’t expect him to be writing letters or anything at the end, but I’m looking for early learning exposure in an at-home setting. I started planning my own “letter of the week” curriculum before I came across your site and your philosophy/pedagogy really makes more sense to me!

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      I recommend my curriculum for ages 3.5-5. I would do play-based learning with a 2.5 year old or simple activities to expose him to letters and numbers. You can try my curriculum and do the parts that are developmentally appropriate for him. Hope that helps!

  26. Thank you for sharing. I am a teacher in Junior High, so I am not into this anymore, but I have a kindergartener at home. As a mom, I always love to see my kid writing but he experiences difficulty. Glad that I have come this page. I will use the cycle format that you have presented here.
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  27. Diana Macaluso says:

    Hi!
    My name is Diana Macaluso and I recently read this book and was so inspired to change up my alphabet curriculum. I am currently teaching 3’s and 4’s in Queens, NY and this will be my third year teaching.I am working on developing my own curriculum and love the way you set up your cycles as they just make a lot on sense. I am curious as to how you would implement your cycles though. For example, the first cycle is to recognize uppercase letter names in alphabetical order. Would you still move on to the next cycle if students have not fully mastered letter recognition? Also, as a teacher would you do a letter a day for each student depending on need or would you designate a day to one letter and only the students who need instruction with that letter would meet in small groups?

    Thanks for your article and your advice!
    Hope you and your family is doing well and is staying safe.
    Diana Macaluso

    1. Angela Thayer says:

      Hi Diana! Thanks for your comment. I’m glad you agree with teaching letters in cycles. There is review time built into this curriculum, so some days you review over letters a child is struggling with. I like your idea of teaching letters in small groups to those who need it. That’s one of the many challenges of teaching…kids are at different levels! So yes, I would meet in small groups. I truly believe kids need many multi-sensory activities to help them learn the alphabet.

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