How Can a Teacher Teach Phonics to Young Children?

Video Transcript

One of the largest tasks that kindergarten teacher has in the classroom is teaching phonics to young children. Now, phonics actually means the associating a letter sound with a letter. For example, M would say mmm, and C would say kuh. So you not only want to teach children not only to recognize the letter but to recognize the sound that the letter makes. I would say that the best ways to introduce phonics to young children would include introducing one to two letters per week. This way, they're not overwhelmed and they're able to grasp what the letter, as well as it's sound. I would also recommend not introducing the letters in the order of the alphabet because often, child will rely simply on their knowledge of the alphabet song to complete their letters. I would try to introduce it in a mixed up fashion. Another tip that I would have for you in introducing phonics to young children would be to teach the short vowel sounds first. Disperse the vowels in there so maybe introduce four or five consonant and then a vowel. And I would say after every eight to ten letters, take a couple, take a week or so to review those and recap before you move on. Repetition is thee best way to introduce letters to children. Show it to them in every way, shape and form. Surround this learning centers that you may have in this classroom with these letters, create letter collages, do some hands on activities. You can actually teach these letters to the kiddos using hands on materials such as play-dough, practicing writing the letters in sand, just so they understand and thee entire time you'll want to repeatedly tell them the sound a letter makes. After they've mastered each of the letter individual sounds, you can start working on blending them together.