Alphabet Song With Preschoo Children.

[Guest]

Hi I went on a training course about mark making in the EYFS it was very good. However there were a lot of reception teachers there. The trainer had some great abc songs to sing with the children. Does anybody do abc songs with their children. The music was great and there were some exercise movements to go with it. I would like to know if we can do this with the children.

Thanks Dorinda

[sunnyday]

Letter 'sounds' or letter 'names'?

[Inge]

we didn't..we were told that they are a song, same as any other you teach the children and had no meaning in relation to the letters, but that was a while ago now since I did my literacy training so may have changed again.

 

Inge

[Marion]

Learning to sing the alphabet song early doesn't cause any problems for children learning phonics as you are not matching the letter to the name go ahead if the songs are fun.

[sunnyday]

Learning to sing the alphabet song early doesn't cause any problems for children learning phonics as you are not matching the letter to the name go ahead if the songs are fun.

Of course.........I was thinking along the lines of......I have enough trouble getting parents to use 'sounds' instead of 'names' - so why would I want to teach the children any songs that use letter names - if you get my drift!

[Marion]

Singing the song helps with alphabetic order which will come in handy later but otherwise is just another song for most children.

[sunnyday]

Singing the song helps with alphabetic order which will come in handy later but otherwise is just another song for most children.

I take your point - thanks!

[Guest]

We sing it more as a song that the parents like!! the children like it because parents give them alot of praise "when they sing the alphabet" but it is just a song and not a learning tool for the alphabet, most children have no idea what they are singing except a song. they don't put the song together with the letter shapes. We use the phonic sounds for that.

if that makes sense :)

[finleysmaid]

the dyslexia institute would suggest that learning the alphabet song is not such a good idea as a learning tool, a bit like learning numbers by rote - has no real meaning

[Guest]

This reminds me of last year when my class knew the alphabet song from reception, but sang the middle "lellamenno" as if it was an actual word! Gave me a good laugh, but just went to show that the thing had absolutely no meaning to them!

[Guest]

many moons ago we did some training in a system called THRASS - didn't adopt it as a teaching tool except for the alphabet rap which we teach Year R as it helps them chunk the alphabet much later. It uses letter names throughout and goes:

a b a b c a b c d e f g

h i h i j h i j k l m n

o p o p q o p q r s t u

v w v w x v w x y zzz

 

the zzz is always greated with great gusto and children enjoy chanting this altogether, so a good year group bonding exercise if nothing else!

[HappyMaz]

Many moons ago when MrsWeasley was learning the alphabet song, she used to transpose the K and J, and also T and V. Younger son was listening intently and so when his turn came to learn the song, he sang the letters in the same order. Was quite endearing at the time, but it took ages for them both to get their letters the right way round!

 

Maz

[janebe]

many moons ago we did some training in a system called THRASS - didn't adopt it as a teaching tool except for the alphabet rap which we teach Year R as it helps them chunk the alphabet much later. It uses letter names throughout and goes:

a b a b c a b c d e f g

h i h i j h i j k l m n

o p o p q o p q r s t u

v w v w x v w x y zzz

 

the zzz is always greated with great gusto and children enjoy chanting this altogether, so a good year group bonding exercise if nothing else!

 

That's a nice one - thanks Mary.

[suebear]

Might be wrong as a long time since I did letter and sounds training but there is an alphabet song in there and it suggests teaching it at one of the later stages. I taught it at the beginning of year 1, separate to phonics (to teach alphabetical order) and sent it home to parents. It was the one

 

abcdefg all the letters came to tea,

hijklmn the food was quite delicious

opqrstu

v and w they came too

x and y ate all the pie

and z washed up dishes

 

All done with actions.

 

Now teaching preschool I think it depends on the ability of your children. This year's cohort are nowhere near ready for this, I'm doing basic number rhymes and action songs teaching parts of body etc. Whereas towards the end with last year's children it might have meant something x