My favorite thing about teaching kindergarten kids? Their pure joy and excitement when they realize they can read. Some of them look adorably shocked and amazed that they can actually figure out words, and they are just so proud of themselves! Seeing it happen year after year never gets old.
I love introducing a new letter sound, and the first one I usually teach is letter sound a. Short a is an important one because it’s in so many words students will see at this stage. I can think of at least 50 words off the top of my head. Helping students master this skill will take them far in their early reading journey!
How I’ve taught this letter sound has changed over the years, though, and I’m very happy how engaging and effective the simple steps below are. I’m excited to share them with you now!
Whereas I use to introduce this letter sound by saying:
“This is the letter a (showing the printed letter). A says /a/, like apple (showing a picture of an apple below the letter). Repeat after me, A, apple, /a/”.
Now, having made a few tweaks based on reading research, I follow the steps explained below. And I’ve seen amazing results!
I hope you find some new inspiration if you’re looking for the best way to introduce the letter sound for short a.
Routine for Introducing the Letter A and Its Short Sound
Start with speech.
Why?
Our brains are wired for speaking, not reading. Talking comes naturally; reading does not. I made the switch to start with speech, as opposed to print, for that reason. I’ve also noticed increased engagement this way. Starting my lesson with asking my kids to repeat words orally, and showing photographs of things beginning with the initial short a sound they can relate to like alligators and apples, is not only less intimidating to young children who have no idea how to read at this point, but it’s also more fun.
How?
Say 3-6 words that have the initial short a sound, such as alligator, Africa, astronaut, and apples. Ask children to repeat each word after you say it. Showing an image of each word helps add interest and can be especially helpful for students with limited English vocabulary and kids who struggle with attention. Tell students that all of these words begin with the sound /a/. Really stretch it out or even sing it if you want to!
Draw attention to what your mouth does when you make the /a/ sound.
Why?
Letters and sounds are pretty abstract when you think about it. Who decided that the sound /a/ should be represented by the letter a? Letters have no inherent meaning. We need to explicitly teach students to connect a letter to a sound and vice versa. Drawing our kids’ attention to how our mouths look and feel while producing the sound helps to make an abstract concept more concrete.
How?
Ask students to notice what their mouth is doing to make the sound /a/. If you are in small group, hold up a small mirror to let students look at their own mouth. Here’s where visuals come in handy again. Display a “mouth pic”/sound articulation card for students to see. For fun, I add a gesture as well. I pretend I’m opening my mouth wide to eat an apple as I say and stretch out the short a sound. Then I offer a bite to the students in front of me so they can do the same.
Introduce the printed letter with an EMBEDDED mnemonic.
Why?
Research going back decades revealed that using embedded images, keyword pictures displayed within the letter as opposed to showing a picture separate from the letter (beside, above, or below), resulted in students improving both the acquisition AND retention of letter-sound correspondences. In fact, it was more effective and efficient. Using pictures, especially ones of relatable objects, to help kids associate letter-sound relationships makes sense. But it was great to read several research studies to confirm this!
How?
Here is where you’ll first show your students the actual letter. But not just a plain letter, an embedded letter. The image of a keyword, such as an apple embedded in the letter, helps solidify the connection between letter and sound. The shape of the apple, corresponding to the shape of the lowercase letter a, will serve as a reminder of the letter-sound relationship. The image can (and should) be faded out as students master the letter sound.
Model and practice how to write the letter.
Why?
Reading and writing are interconnected. We teach letter sounds so that students may not only decode new words, but learn to write them as well. As an interventionist who works with students from kindergarten to 4th grade, I see how hard it is to undo inefficient letter formation habits. For the past few years, I’ve made it a point to prioritize letter formation as early as possible.
How?
Working with mostly students at high to moderate risk of reading struggles, I prefer to keep my letter formation language simple. You may have different wording from a program you’ve used, or you may wish to change up how you say this, but here’s what I say as I model how to write the lowercase letter a.
“Touch the middle line as you curve around. Touch it again and come straight back down.” I model with my hand in the air and/or show an animated slide on my computer (in small group) or smart TV (in whole group). Ask students to try to follow along with their fingers in the air. If children are seated at desks, I ask them to finger-write it on the desk.
If you are tutoring or have one-on-one instruction, you can also do this in a tray of sand or (less messy) beads. Shaving cream is also an option if you have a thick towel nearby to clean up the mess! None of those options are necessary though. Sky or desk writing is plenty effective!
I usually have students practice without a writing utensil at least a few times before I ask them to write with a dry-erase marker or pencil. This is just so I can make sure they’ve got the movements down before they put it on paper.
Research-Aligned Alphabet Resources
If you need easy-to-use resources to implement the steps above, here are my recommendations:
Initial Sound Slides: These no-prep slides introduce each letter sound in the most effective and efficient way. Start with images of interesting photographs containing the beginning sound. Show a photo of a real kid making the sound along with a keyword image. Show the letter with an embedded mnemonic image. Then show the animated letter formation (in uppercase and lowercase plain letters).
Mnemonic Alphabet Articulation Mouth Cards | Alphabet Posters with Real Pictures: These are printable, 1-page posters to show if you prefer a paper option or don’t have access to digital resources. It’s also a nice way to display the alphabet if you have classroom wall space.
Alphabet Picture Cards with Embedded Mnemonics: This set of printable pages comes with embedded letter cards in two sizes. Teach phonemes for 21 consonants, 5 short vowels, AND consonant digraphs WH, TH, SH, CH, and CK.
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What if you had everything you needed for your students to learn and practice letters, from digital slides to printable cards and games, all in one bundle? Well, now you can! And you can currently save nearly 50% off and have these resources forever, no subscription needed! Introducing our “everything bundle” of all 12 embedded letter resources! Feel free to check out the preview to see everything that’s included.
Sources:
Ehri, L. C., Deffner, N. D., & Wilce, L. S. (1984). Pictorial mnemonics for phonics. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(5), 880–893. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.76.5.880
Ehri, L. C. (2013). Orthographic Mapping in the Acquisition of Sight Word Reading, Spelling Memory, and Vocabulary Learning. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2013.819356
Ehri, L.C. (2022). What Teachers Need to Know and Do to Teach Letter–Sounds, Phonemic Awareness, Word Reading, and Phonics. The Reading Teacher, 76(1), 53-61. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.2095
McNamara, G. (2012). The effectiveness of embedded picture mnemonic alphabet cards on letter recognition and letter sound knowledge. Theses and Dissertations. 302. https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/302
Shmidman, A., & Ehri, L. (2010). Embedded Picture Mnemonics to Learn Letters. Scientific Studies of Reading, 14(2), 159–182. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888430903117492