Mouprise.com

Teaching children the alphabet with kinesthetic cues

Are you looking for a new way to get children interested in learning the alphabet? Do your young students have energy to spare? Kinesthetic learning emphasizes movement. Heart-pounding, smiling faces. The Kinesthetic Alphabet pairs each letter with a memorable sound and gesture, a great way to help kids have fun while learning the alphabet.

quick preparation

You can make the reference cards as fancy or as simple as you like. The quickest way to tackle the supply situation is to make a card for each letter and draw a corresponding picture next to it. Draw an apple for A, a ball for B, etc. Each letter will have a corresponding movement: bite an apple for A while saying “a”, bounce a ball for B, “boo”. You may need to get creative for letters like X (the ax might work with a little explanation) and Q (quack, using your hands to imitate a duckbill).

Turn the flashcard-making process into a learning activity by gathering up old magazines and letting kids help you cut out the pictures that go with each letter. Food, animal, and toy magazines offer plenty of possibilities for kinesthetic cues. Pretending to have an elephant trunk is fun for E, and the kids love getting out of their seats to eat popcorn. She can choose the images and let the children cut them out with safety scissors while she explains why each image was chosen.

How to play

The game itself is simple. Hold up the reference card, say the letter together and imitate the movement as you say the phonetic pronunciation. Phonics helps children learn to combine their letters when it is time to start learning to read simple words. Be sure to engage with kinesthetic cues – children love to see their parents and teachers moving and having fun.

If your children already know the alphabet song, go through the letters in alphabetical order until each card is associated with the correct phonics and movement. If your kids don’t already know the alphabet song, feel free to do it in random order. Randomizing the order actually helps children learn the sounds and letters independently, a method used by many teachers. Begin to spell simple words of interest to children such as “mama” and “dada”. Their names are also always a good choice. Children love to spell their names and the names of pets.

Some children are natural kinesthetic learners and others simply love the thrill of physical activity. Some children love games and others are just excited to start reading and writing. Active games are healthy for the mind and body – the kinesthetic alphabet is worth a try!