How To Teach The Alphabet and The Best Letter Sequence To Use

We’ve already discussed the two most powerful predictors of early reading success. These two powerhouses – letter recognition and phonemic awareness – provide the foundation for reading confidence, fluency, and speed. Now that we know the importance of these skills, its now time to consider how to teach the alphabet and which letter sequence we should use.

There are stages that all children will progress through in their quest to learning how to read. While we can provide opportunities and optimal environments to assist them during this journey, we know that all children will learn at different speeds.

Stage 1 of Learning to Read: The Emergent Pre-reader

This stage begins early at approximately 6 months, but it can continue until your learner is around 6 years of age.

How do children learn in this stage?

Through the use of their senses! By communicating their needs through sounds, babbles, and gestures, the youngest learner is developing their language skills. Even though they are listening to the words and sounds within their home language, they will be meaningless words at first. Eventually they will been to repeat and mimic the sounds and words that they have heard, and this will lead them to linking words to meaning. Language and labelling is so important within the first 5 years of life because this is the time when children create the most meaning.

Do you know a child who is a fluent speaker? I do. More than likely they have been surrounded by lots of language from birth. Because of this they are able to speak fluently without much effort.

Here are some interesting facts about this stage:

• At approximately 18 months, children will add new words to their vocabulary almost every 2 hours
• By the time they reach age 2, children already have an astonishing 1 – 2000 words, and can even combine two words to form simple sentences like, “All gone”, “All done”, “Go out”.
• Even at the tender age of 2 1/2 to 3 years of age, children will begin to understand the rules for numbers “One more”, and can even use words like “some”, and “who”.

Wow! Just these three facts alone should emphasize to you the importance of language development during the formative years, and its influence on early reading success.

But as we know children are incredible learners, and at the same time that they are developing their listening and speaking skills, they will begin to learn about reading and writing, leading them into the next stage.

Stage 2 of Learning to Read: The Novice Reader

Throughout their early years children will listen to their favourite books, stories, play with alphabet blocks, engage with alphabet activities, notice and point out media literacy like signs and logos. At childcare, school, or home they will draw pictures, scribble, watch adults read and write, and make even more connections of meanings to words.

Through all this, they are developing their language and skills, and making connections between direct letters, and sounds.

This is the stage where developing letter recognition skills is not only important but also the most impactful.

Why? Because young learners in this stage are developing the most skills within communication, language, and literacy, because of the experiences we just noted above. So the implementation of letter recognition activities will only make that much more of an influence.

What do children learn as novice readers?

Here are just some of the skills they are learning within the domains of communication, language:

• Vocabulary
  • Using new words in play
  • Asking questions to extend their understanding of words, and to add meaning
  • Linking new experiences with words they already know
• Using Descriptive Language to Explain, Explore, and Extend
  • Using sentences to describe objects and events
• Listening to others
  • Engaging in give and take when interacting with others

But most importantly the love of literacy can be nurtured in this stage with the development of the following skills:

• Enjoying Literacy
  • Choosing to spend time with books
  • Discussing and making connections between books, in play, and in their environment
  • Requesting specific stories, poems, or songs
  • Showing pleasure and enjoyment during activities that include language, music, and print materials
• Understanding the Power of Literacy
  • Beginning to express self in print – a child may draw a line or scribble and label it “me”, or someone close to them like “mommy”
  • Dictating stories
  • Referring to print in their physical environment
  • Understanding the functions of literature – observing an adult read a sign, menu, or book
• Retelling Stories
  • Retelling stories in pretend play and art activities
• Understanding of Orientation and Conventions of Print
  • Pretending to read
  • Using paper and pencil to scribble
  • Pretending to write, writing letters and words
  • Holding books correctly
  • Turning pages from front to back – even if they turn multiple pages at once
  • Understanding direction and moving from left to right

If you teach younger learners, you may feel as if the responsibility to nurture these skills is huge! I hear you… I used to feel the same.

But as we have discussed before, the importance of a literacy rich environment and purposeful, engaging activities, is your secret weapon! Remember, introducing your learners to the wonderful world of reading is one of the most important things you can do for them as this will set them up for more success in the future.

So teaching one of the most powerful skills for early reading success is vital. Letter recognition activities should be immersed within your early years and primary curriculums.

Read lots of ABC books, create a literacy rich environment, and as soon as possible begin teaching children about letters and the sounds they make, being careful to consider their interest and engagement.

While this journey may start with the learning of the simple tune of “A, B, C, D, E, F, G…” in stage one, in stage two you should start teaching letter names and sounds.

What letter sequence should you use to teach letter names and sounds?

Not ABCD.

Yikes! Yes, I did just tell you not to teach letters in the most conventional way.

I truly believe that there are many other ways to teach letters that will be more meaningful to children. Keeping in mind that the more that emotion is connected to learning, the more knowledge is created… hence why we always push for laughing and learning to occur simultaneously 🙂

The best letter sequence to use to teach the alphabet

I believe that Jolly Phonics has one of the most comprehensive curriculums for learning letters and sounds. In fact, this is how my middle child was able to read age-appropriate books fluently before he started kindergarten. The childcare in which he was registered used Jolly Phonics on a daily basis, and immersed the classrooms and activities with letters, sounds, and songs. In addition to that we read lots of books at home too.

Jolly Phonics has tons of resources to help teachers and parents here.

In order to form words quickly, Jolly Phonics implements a particular letter sequence:

• s, a, t, i, p, n
• c, k, e, h, r, m, d
• g, o, u, l, f, b
• j, z, w, v
• y, x, q

These letters are taught along with other sounds in the form of ‘digraphs’, but for our purpose I have only highlighted the letters.

Introduce the rows of letters every week. They are introduced in this order for a specific reason: to encourage the recognition and formation of words early. Let’s consider the first row:

s, a, t, i, p, n

Even in this row of 6 letters, children will be able to recognize words within the word families:

• -at
• -in
• -ip
• -in

And because you will also be teaching the sounds at the same time as the names (or right after), they will have an easier time to recognize, and read:

• sat
• at
• an
• tip
• tin
• pin

Boom! Imagine your little learners’ sense of pride and accomplishment when they are able to recognize these words within their favourite books, stories, poems, and songs! This is why I believe adapting this letter sequence is so impactful for early reading success.

But the most important thing to ensure is that you are implementing lots and lots of activities that reinforce the name and sound of each letter.

Because of this, you must be flexible. The worst thing you can do is to overwhelm your learners and stifle their love of learning. Even though we know that they are resilient, and are incredibly fast learners, pay close attention to their interest, engagement, and ability to grasp the concepts.

You might actually find that your learners are learning the letters within this sequence super quick. Great! Progress with them and their speed.

Regardless of the letter sequence you choose to use I always suggest teaching children the letters of their names first. While this may be ideal for a homeschool setting and more difficult for a classroom setting, it is still possible with a little extra effort. It’s my first suggestion because, the letters in a child’s name have special meaning to them. Its their name.

How to teach the alphabet

If you’re not interested in using Jolly Phonics or adapting their curriculum to your own, there are still many other ways to teach letter the alphabet through letter recognition. Here are some general tips to consider when teaching letters:

1. Teach uppercase letters first for preschoolers, and lowercase first for kindergarten to grade one. Kindergarteners and grade one students will encounter more examples of lowercase letters through print so it will be beneficial to teach these first. But if you find that your learners already have a solid understanding of letters and alphabet knowledge, then it will be best to teach upper and lowercase letters together.
2. Teach children the names of letters first. This is strategic in more than one way. First, many of the letter names are closely related to their sounds. The exceptions are h, q, w, y, g, and the short vowels. Your learner will also experience more success this way. Once they have mastered the letter names, it will be easier to learn the sounds. It will also help your learner to quickly understand the ‘alphabetic principle’ (that each letter stands for a sound).
3. Teach letter shapes and sounds together. At this stage in their development, children are visual and tactile learners. They depend on their senses to help them make meaning. Connecting the picture of the letter shape with the sound will help to solidify letter-sound relationships. Don’t forget to implement lots of hands on learning activities.
4. Point out similarities and differences between letters. Identifying similarities and differences among letters will give your learner more things to look for to determine a letter when it is out of sequence.
5. Avoid teaching these confusing letter pairs together:

As you can see by just quickly looking at them, these pairs are very similar. This can be super confusing and difficult for a child who is just learning their letters.

How to teach the alphabet and strengthen letter recognition

So there are four things you should do to be successful in teaching the alphabet and strengthening letter recognition skills in your learner:

1. Implement lots of engaging and hands-on alphabet activities
2. Create a literacy rich environment
3. Engage in the activities with your learner and teach names and sounds together
4. Read! Hands-on engagement with books will your learner make sense of their learning

These three things will help to ensure that your learner has the best chance at success. Download these free sets of alphabet mazes to get started today:

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There are two sets of the alphabet mazes included – upper and lowercase:

Depending on your learner’s needs, you may choose to alternate between the uppercase and lowercase sheets. Or you may choose to work on one set at a time.

The set also comes with an answer key for your reference.

I highly suggest that you sit with your learner and work through the maze together. Remember, teaching the letter names and sounds at the same time is most effective.

What letter sequence do you use to teach the alphabet to your learners?