How to Teach the Letter "B" to Kindergartners
- 1). Make learning the letter "B" a tactile experience. Create several different cutouts of the letter "B" using heavy cardboard. Give children the opportunity to cover these letters in a sensory-stimulating material such as sand, velvet fabric or rice. Provide glue and several types of substances to use to cover the letters. Allowing children to manipulate the covered letters will aid in learning the shape of the letter and later being able to write it.
- 2). Create a "B" museum. Ask each child to bring an object from home that begins with the letter "B." Tell the students that they will have to present their object to the class in a show-and-tell activity. They will then learn to write the name of their object on an index card to create a display. Invite other classes to tour your "B" museum.
- 3). Give children many chances to practice creating the shape of the letter "B." For example, place cafeteria trays with a thin layer of cornmeal on the bottom in your writing center. Allow children to use their finger or the end of a pencil to create the letter "B" in the cornmeal. Ask several students to work together to create the letter using their bodies. Outdoors, use sidewalk chalk or sticks in the sand to create the letter.
- 4). Make a "B" word cloud. As a large group activity, ask children to think of as many words as they can that begin with the "b" sound. Write these words on a large cloud-shaped posterboard and hang it in your classroom where all of the children can see it. This is an idea that can be used for all letters of the alphabet. When writing the letters of the words the children dictate, write the letter "B" in a different color than the rest of the word, such as red, in order for it to stand out.
