Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Literacy and Phonetics - Alphabet Shirts

Children learn in a variety of ways. It's a good idea to incorporate different activities when teaching reading. It helps to reinforce the text when there is an activity to connect the reading to, other than just what is visual on the page, or the sound of one's voice.

This fun activity involves the kids coloring in letters on a shirt that they can wear.


Of course, they don't have to color in the letters, they can just be fun to read and recite, to learn the order of the alphabet.

If you notice, the alphabet letters are shown in three different colors. The consonants are in red. The vowels are in blue. The crossover letters are in purple. Crossover letters are letters that sometimes act like a consonant, and sometimes like a vowel.

Most people are taught that the letter Y is sometimes a consonant and sometimes a vowel. Now Y has a pal; W.

W is also a crossover letter. The W acts like a consonant in the word - who. The W acts like a vowel, like a silent E in the word - flow.

Y can represent a variety of sounds. Y is a consonant in the word - yellow. Y acts like a long I in the word - fly, and like a long E in the word - baby.

A coloring alphabet shirt is a fun way to reinforce this concept. Teachers can wear alphabet shirts too.


Whether you're ordering a shirt for a teacher and/or student, I recommend acrylic paint markers for fabric. to color them in. The paint markers are quite permanent, and it's pretty simple to apply. Be sure to place a sheet of flat cardboard between the fabric layers before doing any coloring or painting on the shirts.

Happy reading; and coloring.

Cheryl Paton

Cheryl Paton earns income from qualified purchases made through the links on this page.

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