Write the First Letter (for Vocabulary)

(TESOL Ideas--Any Vocabulary Set)

Over the past year, I had been struggling with how to do writing activities with a kindergarten class (who didn't know how to read and write yet).

One idea my mentor suggested to me is instead of having the students write out the whole word (as I had done when I taught elementary school age children in Vietnam), I could have them just write out the first letter of the word.

Below is an example of how this would work.  It was designed for a kindergarten class who already had some exposure to letters and sounds (i.e. a kindergarten class in the spring term, not the fall term).  We did it as an all class activity.  I put the worksheet up on the projector, and elicited from the class what the names of the pictures were.  Then we sounded out the first letter of the word together.  Then the students told me what letter made that sound, and I wrote it down on my copy on the projector, and they also copied down the same letter on their paper.

This is an example for desert plants and animals: docs, pub

nake	izard
awk	abbit
ouse	actus