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Letter of the week is one of my more popular features on No Time For Flash Cards, we have multiple uppercase crafts for each letter and most lowercase as well. I am often asked if you should follow an order when introducing letters to your child. Some will say yes, others will say no. I am sorta in the middle. Here is why… my goal with our letter of the week is to introduce the letter, that’s it. I don’t spend all week focusing only on it, it’s simply the focus of one craft every week. There have been debates and studies done about the ineffectiveness of focusing only on one letter the entire week so I choose to continue focusing on all letters, after the one craft. If you choose to follow up with crafts or activities with the letter focus, choose ones your child relates to so the connections come naturally.
Children learn in context, they learn by authentic experiences and if we single out only one letter the entire week not only is that a artificial environment we are probably missing out on some lessons about other letters that could be coming up throughout the week. This is also why I include books with my crafts so that your child can make connections from reading, listening and doing the crafts and other activities. Children learn in so many ways, if we offer diverse experiences they are more likely to not only hold onto the knowledge but also thirst for it.
Another question that is often asked is which do you start with first upper or lowercase letters?
When I was teaching we usually started with uppercase letters because I was teaching very young ( under 4) kids and only introducing them to the letters in a very casual way. I followed this with my son who picked up all the uppercase letters very quickly much earlier than I expected ( under 2) so followed his lead. He had no issues with the order.
That said if I was teaching in a classroom today or writing a curriculum I would do both at the same time. Children see so many uppercase letters in toys and books but they need lowercase knowledge to be strong before learning to read . This is how I have taught my daughter and it’s worked very naturally.
We also have our Letter of The Week theme posts . These bring together a number of activities and crafts for each letter.
I have all of these themes in one ULTIMATE LETTER OF THE WEEK RESOURCE PAGE newly created for 2015!
A Theme
B Theme
C Theme
D Theme
E Theme
F Theme
G Theme
H Theme
I Theme
J Theme
K Theme
L Theme
M Theme
N Theme *new*
O Theme
P Theme
Q Theme
Don’t miss out on our eBook Alphabet Crafts that brings together our best uppercase letter crafts, 5 exclusive letter crafts, and teaching tips to help novice or experienced teachers.