Are you looking for a new way to introduce your letter of the week? One of my weekly routines, at the beginning of the school year, includes introducing a new alphabet poem. I will write the poem on chart paper, or use a pocket chart version that I created. On Monday of each week, I will introduce the poem, and we will use it throughout the entire week. We will chant the poem daily, and my kinders will echo me. Along with chanting the poem, I will let the kids help me highlight the poem's focus letter throughout the poem. They love to "share the pen" with me. In addition to chanting the poem, and highlighting the letter of the week, we will also focus on tracking print. I use a pointer, or my finger, to follow along each word as I read the poem to the kids. This is a perfect way to teach directionality, tracking print, and other pre-reading skills. Did I mention that these poems are also perfect for practicing rhyming!
After a few days of using the poem, we add other words that begin with the focus letter to the bottom of the anchor chart. The kids help me come up with the words, and I then draw and label them. We also go back and label the pictures throughout the anchor chart.
After using the poem throughout the week, I hang the poem in our classroom to display for future use. The kids may use the poem anchor chart for finding known words, sight word identification, and for their writing.
I also give my kinders a copy of the poem. We place these poems in our poetry notebook. The kids use their own copy as a familiar read after we have learned the poem whole group.
If you would like a copy of my alphabet poems for shared reading, you can click HERE to get them! They are in my TPT shop.
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