Searching for an easy and engaging strategy to teach the letter t sound?

There’s no one agreed-upon best sequence to introduce letters. Personally, I don’t go in order from a-z. I start with the most common letters (such as s, a, t, p, i, n, and m) that young readers will find in simple words. You may have a different sequence that you prefer. While I don’t have a strong opinion about the order in which letters are introduced, I do have an enthusiastic preference for HOW to introduce each sound and its related letter.

For instance, when teaching the letter sound t, a lot of programs will ask you to follow a script like this:

“This is the letter t (showing the printed letter). T says /t/, as in tent (showing a picture of a tent). Repeat after me, T, tent, /t/”.

That’s one way to do it. It’s how I taught letter sounds for many years.

However, after years of diving into research studies and professional books, as well as attending countless trainings in structured literacy, I’ve made simple changes to my instructional routine of teaching letter sounds and have seen great results.

I’m sharing what I do and why I do it below. I hope you get some inspiration for something new and easy to try!

Routine for Introducing the Letter T and Its Sound

Start with speech.

Why?

Children have a natural ability to process spoken language. Therefore, a speech sound is the most meaningful place to begin instruction. Focusing on the sound before introducing the printed letter makes the most sense and gives our children the greatest chance of success with mastering phoneme-grapheme relationships.

It’s also more fun for kids, especially when the speech is paired with photographs of turtles and tigers. 

How?

Say 3-6 words that begin with the /t/ sound such as turtle, tiger, tea, tortoise, tie, and tent. Ask students to repeat each word after you say it. Projecting a visual of each word helps add interest and can be especially helpful for students with limited English vocabulary or short attention spans. Tell children that all of these words begin with the sound /t/. If you don’t have pictures handy, that’s fine too! You can ask students to listen carefully and look closely at your mouth while you say each word. 

Draw attention to what your mouth does when you make the /t/ sound.

Why?

Helping our students observe how their mouths look and feel while producing a sound helps make an abstract concept a little more concrete. This also adds an extra multisensory component to our instruction, which is beneficial for many of our kids.

How?

Ask students to notice what their tongue needs to do to make the sound /t/. Draw attention to the fact that our mouth opens a bit and our tongue taps the roof of our mouth just behind our front teeth. This is an “unvoiced” sound, as opposed to the /d/ sound which is “voiced”.

To emphasize this distinction, put your hand up to feel the puff of air come out for the /t/ and put your hand on your throat to hear the buzzy vibration of the /d/.

You can also ask children to cover their ears to hear the difference between /t/ and /d/. The two sounds look the same on the mouth pic cards, but shouldn’t feel or sound the same! 

Introduce the printed letter with an EMBEDDED mnemonic.

Why?

The research on this is pretty clear. Studies going back decades showed that using embedded keyword images to teach letter-sound relationships was more effective for student acquisition AND retention of taught letter sounds than other methods. The other methods include what you’ll find in many reading programs today – a keyword pictured above, below, or beside the printed letter.

One study even found that using no picture (just a keyword) was more effective than having a picture next to (not embedded within) the letter! Having an embedded picture in the letter was the most effective method.

How?

Now is the time to show your students the printed letter. But not just a plain letter, an embedded letter. The image of a keyword such as a tent embedded around the letter t helps solidify the association between letter and sound.

I add a little saying for each mnemonic for extra connection. For t, we say “Turtle and tiger tuck inside their tent.” Here’s a little animated video to watch as you chant the alliterative phrase with your students.

Model and practice proper letter formation.

Why?

Reading and writing are the essential building blocks for strong communication and literacy skills. While our young students are far away from reading life-changing novels or writing powerful persuasive essays, it’s important for them to see early on how closely linked reading and writing are, even just at the letter-sound level. Plus, it’s easier to prevent inefficient letter formation now than to change ingrained habits later!

How?

I try to make my letter formation language easy to understand. 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 t.

“Start at the top. Straight line down. Pick it up. Cross at the middle line.” I also like to show an animated slide on my computer (in small group) or smart TV (in whole group). Ask students to follow along with their fingers in the air. If children are seated at desks, ask them to finger-write the letter t on the desk.

If you are tutoring or have one-on-one instruction, you can also do this in a tray of sand or 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 a few times before I ask them to write with a dry-erase marker or pencil. 

Research-Aligned Alphabet Resources

Do you need engaging and effective resources to implement the steps above?

Here are my recommendations for introducing the letter sound t and other letters to your preschool or kindergarten students:

Initial Sound Slides: These no-prep slides introduce each letter sound in the most effective and efficient way. With each click, you will show images of interesting photographs containing the beginning sound, a photo of a child making the sound along with a keyword image, the letter with an embedded mnemonic image, and lastly, an animated letter formation slide (one for uppercase and one for lowercase letters).

Mnemonic Alphabet Articulation Mouth Cards | Alphabet Posters with Real Pictures: If you prefer a paper option or don’t have access to digital resources, you may like these printable, 1-page posters of mouth pics along with the embedded mnemonic letters. 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.

Get a free set of small embedded letter cards when you join us in our newsletter community!

Looking for an “everything bundle” of embedded letter resources, including digital slides, letter cards, worksheets, games, and more? Save nearly 50% and get all 12 resources. Watch as your students quickly and effectively master letter sounds so they can begin the even more exciting process of learning how to read and write words!

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