Introducing Letter Squads!
Teacher friend, I am so so excited to share this new resource! I developed The Letter Squads, a curriculum for letter of the week instruction. If you need engaging activities in 15 minute lessons for letter instruction all ready to go, you’re in the right place.
It’s very adaptable to your kindergarten class and whatever point in time you find yourself, whether it’s the start of the year or somewhere in the middle. This 26 week program includes 5 days of instruction for each letter, and students will love this interactive program.
You can check it out HERE on Teachers Pay Teachers, or read more below. If you want to test drive it, you can even download a free week.
Find out why Dimitra M. graciously gave this product five stars and wrote, “Thank you for the wonderful resource :)”
The Short Version
Here’s what makes it effective for students:
- Engaging
- Reaches all learning styles
- Kinesthetic
- Game based
- Built in rewards
Here’s what makes it effective for you, their awesome teacher:
- Low-prep
- No more piecing together multiple resources
- Choose which level your students need
- Teach the letters in any order
- Your students want to master EVERY letter
- Daily lesson plans aligned in Foundational Skills
- Includes scaffolded, guided handwriting practice
Here’s what your students will learn:
- Word association
- Phoneme and syllable blending
- Rhyme recognition and production
- Beginning sound recognition
- Phoneme blending and segmenting
- Counting and segmenting syllables
- Ending sound recognition
- Phoneme manipulation
Want more detail? Read on, or head over to the TpT page HERE.
The Full Scoop on Letter Squads
If you secretly dread letter instruction because your students aren’t engaged or motivated, if you are tired of endless worksheets that don’t reach all your students, and if you wish your students could learn phonological awareness skills at the same time, this is your place!
Letter Squads is a 26 week curriculum that includes 5 days’ worth of lessons for each letter of the alphabet. Each lesson lasts about 15 minutes, so it’s not going to take your entire day, but they are highly effective. You can teach the letters in any order, so whatever method your school uses, these can work for you.
No more scrambling to piece together lessons, reviews, worksheets, games, and rewards. This curriculum has got you covered.
Each lesson is rich in phonological & phonemic awareness, visual and auditory cues, and student rewards. Lessons are available in PowerPoint (recommended) and Google Slides format!
Digital lessons include:
- Daily alphabet review
- Letter cheer
- Discussion questions for making connections
- Daily handwriting practice: guided, animated, and scaffolded
- Interactive games
- Student rewards
- A daily joke corresponding to the letter of the week
- A badge meter showing student progress
- Built in brain break with the letter of the week
Also included in this curriculum are student work mats, which can be printed in color or blackline. They align with the digital lesson and students interact with them during instruction.
Handwriting Practice
I structured handwriting practice in a way that ensures students get repeated guided practice that is heavily modeled. Animations in the PowerPoint files accomplish this perfectly! In the beginning, students only use their fingers and other kinesthetic means to practice the letter. Beginning on day 2, students write the letters using a dotted model and a designated starting point. By the end of the week, these supports are removed to allow students to practice the letter formation completely independently.
Reward System
In addition to the games and interactive style of the lessons, the badge reward system gives students a short and long term goal. Their short term goal is to complete all five lessons for a letter to earn that letter’s badge. Their long term goal is to fill the entire badge collection to earn a bigger reward which you choose.
The week of Aa is available to download for free if you want to test this resource out. Each letter can be bought individually, or the bundle is available for the entire curriculum at a significant discount.
Your year of engaging letter of the week instruction starts HERE!
XOXOXO
Toni