A-Z Copymasters by Letterland

Lower & Uppercase

Supporting early learning i

A-Z Copymasters THE MATERIALS This book consists of 60 photocopiable pages presenting 26 pictograms for the lower case a–z, a long vowels scene, a b/d sheet, 26 sheets for the upper and lower case letter shapes together (Aa–Zz), 5 for the long vowels (Aa, Ee, Ii, Oo and Uu), and a sheet providing an alternative straight l, straight t and straight y.

TEACHING AIMS OF THE COPYMASTERS

• To encourage correct letter formation from the start. • To develop hand-eye coordination. • To develop phonemic awareness, linking sounds to letter shapes. • To nurture listening and speaking skills. • To foster the skills of observation and comparison. • To develop children's vocabulary, particularly for children learning English as an additional language.

SUGGESTIONS FOR USE Letter formation and hand-eye coordination Finger tracing Show the children how to finger trace the hollow letters on the lower case sheets. For a multi-sensory impact, combine this activity with reciting or singing the relevant handwriting verse. For example, for Annie Apple, the lower case a: At the leaf begin. Go round the apple this way. Then add a line down so Annie won’t roll away. These verses are set to music and animated on the Letterland Living ABC Software. The music is available without animation on the Handwriting Songs CD/Cassette. The words are also provided at the back of the Early Years Handbook. Colouring and rainbow writing Encourage each child to start colouring where the handwriting stroke begins and to continue filling in the colour progressively in the direction of the stroke. Let the child choose the colours, or be guided by the colouring in the Letterland ABC Book. No colour is wrong, but very dark colours are best avoided. Children can also try rainbow writing, forming the letter within the hollow letter shape in lots of different colours, as often as they like.

Linking sounds to letter shapes Encourage the children to chant each letter’s sound as they all finger trace, colour or do their rainbow writing within the hollow letter, strongly linking the letter’s sound to its shape. The effect in the room will be both fun and memorable. It will be especially interesting for the eight unvoiced sounds ‘c…’, ‘fff…’, ‘k…’, ‘p…’, ‘qu…’, ‘sss…’, ‘t…’ and ‘kss…’ (for x), which the children need to learn as ‘whispered sounds’. 2

Listening and speaking skills On the lower case sheets, children can describe the things they see (to you or to a parent or other helper). They will be effortlessly generating alliterative sentences in their replies, for example: Question: ‘What can you see around Bouncy Ben?’ Child’s answer: ‘I can see a book, a bed, a bike, a banana and a ball and they all begin with Bouncy Ben’s sound.’ Both helper and children can playfully exaggerate all the alliterative words to strengthen phonemic awareness as they repeat them and discuss the various objects.

Observation and comparison Many different observations and comparisons can be made by asking children to look at the objects on their lower case letter sheets alongside the Letterland ABC Book. This activity also works well comparing pictures in the First Picture Word Book. Opportunities arise naturally too, to include practice in handling concepts such as on, above, behind, below, next to, beside, opposite, the same, different, higher up, bigger, nearer, bigger than, etc. On the b/d sheet, use the children’s hands to create, compare and contrast the b and d shapes, their orientation in the Reading Direction and their handwriting strokes. You may like to display this sheet on a wall until the risk of b/d confusion is over. On the upper and lower case sheets, talk about the differences between the upper and lower case letter shapes. The explanations for these differences are provided in the LetterLand Early Years Handbook, and the LetterLand Teacher’s Guide as well as the Letterland Living ABC Software. For example, in the case of capital D, you can tell the children that the funny-shaped door with Dippy’s head poking out is Dippy Duck’s special duck door. When they see it at the beginning of a word, they should think of Dippy Duck saying ‘d…’ from just inside her door. Talk about the special times we use capital letters to begin a sentence or start a name. Encourage the children to look carefully at the capital letter shapes featured in the character name at the top of each sheet and to seek out these capital letters in their own reading books, in their friends’ names, on notices, etc.

English as an additional language

a p p le ca ke

ant

cup dog

As soon as the children have learnt at least three letters, d ru m their listening skills and vocabulary can be developed using a bingo-type r activity. This is particularly beneficial to children learning English as an dinosau additional language. After teaching the letters c, a and d, for example, you could hand out an equal number of c, a and d sheets. Put the word for each object shown on the sheets on a separate strip of paper and put all of the strips into a hat. Choose one strip at a time and call out the word. The child (or children) who have the sheet with that object on 3

puts a marker on it. Whoever covers all the objects on their page wins. (In a group of three children, each child would receive a different sheet and only one of them would win. In a larger group, several children would have the same sheet and they could all become winners together.) Each time you teach a new letter, you could add that letter’s lower case copymaster to the game. Alternatively, just use the sheets for letters you particularly want to focus on. For example, if children are having difficulty distinguishing a d sound from a j sound, use those sheets only, or you might focus particularly on the vowel sheets. Where possible, send home copies with the children. Ask their families to talk with them about the pictures to strengthen the connection between letter shapes and sounds.

Adapting the sheets Alternative l, t and y sheet

• For the letters l, t and y, alternative letter shapes have been provided (a straight l, a straight t and a straight y). These can be cut out and placed over the existing letter shapes before photocopying, if preferred.

All sheets

• By setting the photocopier at 141%, you can enlarge the sheets to twice the size (A3) or at 200% to fit on to two A3 sheets. These bigger versions can then become focal points for discussion or can be used as a centre-piece for a display area.

Lower case sheets

• The objects on the lower case sheets could be labelled for reading practice and, if appropriate, for overwriting or copying the words.

Upper and lower case sheets

• The children could use the empty spaces around the letters for • •

practising both upper and lower case letters. The children could draw objects beginning with the letter’s sound in the empty spaces around the sides of the sheet. You could cut these sheets in half to make a set of upper and lower case pictograms, cutting off the character names.

These separated letters and names can be used for reading and sorting activities as well as for the matching activity below.

bot Re d Ro D ip p y D u ck

• Using cut-up sheets from above, distribute the upper case pictograms among the children, then hold up, in turn, a series of lower case pictograms. The child holding the corresponding capital letter comes up to collect the lower case pictogram and displays both to the class. He or she could explain the change (e.g. ‘For her capital letter shape, Clever Cat is doing her "getting bigger" trick,’ or ‘Eddy Elephant is doing his "elephant on end" trick') and ask all the children to make his or her sound.

You could repeat this activity at different times to familiarise children with all the upper and lower case pairs. You may wish to extend this activity by using plain letter shapes.

C l e ve

r Ca t

Annie Apple

Name: A-Z Copymasters Published 2007 by Letterland International Ltd. ÂŠ Letterland International 2007

Bouncy Ben

Name: 6

A-Z Copymasters Published 2007 by Letterland International Ltd. ÂŠ Letterland International 2007

Annie Apple and her Applestand

A-Z Copymasters Published 2007 by Letterland International Ltd. ÂŠ Letterland International 2007

Bouncy Ben

A-Z Copymasters Published 2007 by Letterland International Ltd. ÂŠ Letterland International 2007

Clever Cat