Watch and Write: the Alphabet
Watch each letter being written, one stroke at a time, on the same four lines as a copy book. Then have a go yourself.
How to use the board
1. Watch. Press Watch and follow the pencil point. The numbers show where each stroke starts.
2. Say it. Say the letter's name, and the word, with the board.
3. Air-write. Draw the letter in the air with a finger, big, in the same order.
4. Your turn. Press Your turn and trace over the dotted letter. Then write it in a copy book.
Watch and write
- Aaapple
- Bbball
- Cccat
- Dddog
- Eeegg
- Fffish
- Gggoat
- Hhhat
- Iiinsect
- Jjjuice
- Kkkite
- Lllion
- Mmmango
- Nnnose
- Ooorange
- Ppparrot
- Qqqueen
- Rrrabbit
- Sssun
- Tttree
- Uuumbrella
- Vvvan
- Wwwater
- Xxfox
- Yyyellow
- Zzzebra
Why the starting point matters
A child who starts every letter in the right place and moves the pencil the right way will join letters easily later on. A child who starts at the bottom of an o, or draws a d as a stick and then a circle, has a habit that has to be unlearned - and unlearning is much slower than learning it right the first time.
That is why the board numbers every stroke and moves a pencil point along it. The finished shape matters less than the way it is made.
- Most letters start at the top. Straight lines usually go down, not up.
- Round letters start at the top right and go anticlockwise - c, a, d, g, o, q all begin the same way, so learn c first.
- Small letters sit on the red line. Their bodies reach the dashed middle line; tall letters like b, d, h, k, l go up to the top line, and tails on g, j, p, q, y drop to the bottom line.
A letter's name is not its sound
The board says each letter's name - bee for B - and a word that starts with it. It does not try to say the letter's sound on its own, because a computer voice cannot say a clean /b/ without adding a vowel to it, and a wrong sound is worse than none.
Say the sounds yourself, clipped and short. Alphabet Practice explains the difference and shows how to practise sounds. The word fox is used for X because very few everyday words start with the sound X makes.
Next
Alphabet Practice
Letter names, letter sounds, and the letters children mix up.
Sing and Learn: Songs for Grade 2
Five short songs to sing, with the words lighting up in time.
Grade 1
The 16 themes of Activity Based Oral English.