Lower Case Alphabet 3-Part Cards

I wanted a set of lower case alphabet 3-part cards for helping a very emergent reader practice seeing lower case letters in words, although she isn’t reading. I found some by the artist of this blog, Surfer Kids, on Teachers Pay Teachers. (non-affiliate, non-sponsored) We have worked with the letters in isolation and I wanted to introduce the fact that these letters help make words. We have made the sounds but it is good to introduce the fact that the sounds are in words, and not just in isolation. Of course we have practiced saying the first sound of people’s names and our own names and so on, and we have seen our names in print.

I wanted to extend this idea to words she knows without being able to read them other than by picture reading. Which is fine! All learning is approximation and when a child first learns to walk to talk, we are glad for any attempts. When it comes to academics, though, we sometimes expect perfection. The first tray set up was to help just find the initial letter, and we matched the 3 part cards with our movable alphabet. *Note: Please scroll down for information on freebies by Surfer Kids, also.

What I like is that the letter is under the picture for very new readers to see the letter and the picture when working with the sounds. The letters are right there and cannot be missed. Although the artist offers variations and possible ways to use the cards, I also tried a few ways. One was just to have a child pick from two quite different letters so to match to the letter as it will look in books. Just matching. This is not to make the child read the words but to provide some text experience.

Then, the artist suggested having the child pick the matching word from 3 provided. This has to be set up by the parent or teacher but will also provide support for success. You will have more ideas as well, I’m sure.