Letter Stories

Music makes learning memorable and joyful. Start by playing the album in the background during free play. This builds familiarity. Then, when you sing during activities, children happily remember and are ready to participate.

Materials

• Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn music album

Activity

Choose a song and an activity to go with it. “Frog Jump Letters” Children stand up and finger trace the Frog Jump Capitals (p. 46) in the air. Let children jump around between the letter exercises. “Give It A Middle” This song helps children learn the middle position in letter formation as they finger trace or watch as you model letters on the board. “Give It A Top” Children learn about letters that have a top and can follow you as you model these letters on the board or in the air.

We also use music for lowercase letters. We even have a song to help children remember to leaves spaces when they write sentences. Try them all. Children will soon let you know their favorite.

Materials

• Rock, Rap, Tap & Learn music album

Activity

Choose a song and an activity to go with it. “Sentence Song”

Children learn to start with a capital, write a word, and leave a space.

Sung with the “Yankee Doodle” tune, sentences are such fun. “CAPITALS & lowercase”

This song teaches capital/lowercase letters: C c, O o, S s, V v, and W w. “Magic C Rap”

Magic c starts a, d, and g. This song teaches letters with the Magic c. “Descending Letters”

Singing about g, j, y, p, and q is fun: g and j go down and turn, y goes sliding down, p goes straight down, and q goes down with a U-turn.