- Between the Lions alphabet chart
- letter card “Ss”
- modeling clay
- pipe cleaners
- plastic straws cut into long and short pieces
- writing materials
- curved
- lowercase
- uppercase
MA Standards:
Foundational Skills/RF.PK.MA.1.d: Recognize and name some uppercase letters of the alphabet and the lowercase letters in one’s own name.
Head Start Outcomes:
Literacy Knowledge/Alphabet Knowledge: Recognizes that the letters of the alphabet are a special category of visual graphics that can be individually named.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 7: Develop familiarity with the forms of alphabet letters, awareness of print, and letter forms.
Letter Shaping (“Ss”)
© Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Department of Early Education and Care (Jennifer Waddell photographer). All rights reserved.
Skill Focus: Letter Formation, Letter Recognition
Display the letter card “Ss." Trace over both the lowercase "s" and the uppercase "S" starting at the top, to demonstrate how to form the letters. Say, First the letter curves this way and then it curves the opposite way.
Allow children time to trace the letter before using the materials.
Then guide children to use the materials to shape uppercase and lowercase letters.
Adaptation: if you have children in the group who quickly become comfortable shaping the letter "Ss," you may want to challenge them to shape other letters they have learned as well.
Adaptation: Adapt the materials used for shaping if younger children will be working individually. Use dough in place of modeling clay and large pieces of straws and craft sticks in place of pipe cleaners and short straws.
English Language Learners: If children are having trouble understanding what is meant by straight and curved lines, draw examples for them, or guide their fingers as they draw the lines themselves. Have children trace the drawn lines with their fingers as you have them say the words straight and curved.