Age 3+
Shapes
Sounds
Learn alphabet shapes and sounds
Shapes and Sounds
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About Letterland Letterland is an imaginary place where letters come to life! The friendly Letterland characters help children to easily understand the sound and shape of letters – one of the key skills needed when learning to read and write. Simple stories about the Letterland characters explain letter sounds and shapes, so that confusion over similar looking letters is avoided and children are motivated to listen, think and learn. One of Letterland’s keys to success is its ‘Sound Trick’. By just starting to pronounce a character’s name, such as ‘a…’ (Annie Apple), ‘b...’ (Bouncy Ben), ‘c...’ (Clever Cat), a child automatically says the correct letter sound. It’s that simple! The combination of memorable characters and proven educational principles makes Letterland the ideal way to introduce your child to the alphabet.
Annie Apple
Bouncy Ben
Kicking King
Lucy Lamp Light
Uppy Umbrella
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Vicky Violet
Clever Cat
Munching Mike
Walter Walrus
Dippy Duck
Noisy Nick
Fix-it Max
Eddy Elephant
Oscar Orange
Yellow Yo-yo Man
Firefighter Fred
Peter Puppy
Golden Girl
Quarrelsome Queen
Harry Hat Man
Red Robot
Impy Ink
Sammy Snake
Jumping Jim
Talking Tess
For more information, including a pronunciation guide for all the letter sounds, see: www.letterland.com Zig Zag Zebra
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Introducing letter shapes My First Phonics Activity Book is divided into 2 sections – Shape and Sound. The first section of this book (pages 4-35) focuses on ‘shape’ and is a gentle introduction to reading and writing. When your child starts to take an interest in making marks that is the right time to introduce this book. Children move from practising basic pencil control through to forming complete letter shapes. Activities include tracing over lines with fingers, tracing curved, straight and zigzag lines to complete the simple letter-themed scenes on a trip to the funfair! There are also activities to encourage your child to look carefully at picture details and spot small differences, important skills your child will need to master the 56 letter shapes on the way to learning to read.
Useful tips Throughout this book there are useful notes at the bottom of the page to help you draw attention to both shapes and sounds and to get the most out of every activity. Use the illustrations below to make sure that the correct pencil grip becomes a habit from the start. A poor grip very quickly becomes a hard habit to change. Children learn a lot about muscle control directly through their hands, wrists and fingers, so let your child finger-trace the various activities first. Another time, provide 2 or 3 coloured pencils, and stay on hand to give encouragement as your child goes over the paths and lines with each colour. Little and often works best, so just do a few pages at a time. Above all, have fun! Remember to give lots of praise and encouragement to your child as you do the activities together.
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Left-hander
Right-hander
Finger tips 4cm from tip of pencil
Finger tips 2cm from tip of pencil
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Let’s go to the fair!
hape
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Fing e trac r ing
Finger-trace along the path to help the Letterlanders get to the fair.
Encourage your child to trace the route with his or her finger to get used to going from left to right and top to bottom. Talk about the scene. There’s Harry Hat Man hurrying to the fair. Find Clever Cat in her car and Annie Apple in her apple tree.
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Fairground food
hhaappee
Reading Direction
Firs sou t nds
Trace along the paths in the Reading Direction.
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The Letterlanders love to eat things that start with their sounds. Emphasise the sounds as your child traces each path from left to right, e.g. Clever Cat loves candyfloss. Dippy Duck loves delicious doughnuts. What might Munching Mike like?
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At the fair
hape
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Pen c con il trol
Colour the picture.
Colouring helps to practise pencil control. Which Letterlanders can your child spot? Fingertrace their letters and say their sounds.
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Race in space
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Pen c con il trol
Have a pencil race in space. Help Sammy Snake reach the six blue stars.
Encourage your child to use their fingers on the maze first, then use a pencil to develop pencil control. Is there more than one way through the maze?
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Trace the town
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Pen c con il trol
Trace your way around the town. Find two or more different ways for Oscar Orange to get to the docks.
Encourage your child to use their fingers on the maze first, then use a pencil to develop pencil control.
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Odd one out
appee hha
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You
26
r tu rn
Circle the odd one out in each line. What is missing?
Have some fun and ask your child to draw three similar pictures, two the same and one slightly different so you can try spotting the odd one out!
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Reading Direction
hape
Left to righ t
Trace the lines in the Reading Direction.
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Look out for the red Reading Direction arrows in this book! They show our eyes and hands the way they need to move when we read and write. Ask your child to point out the Reading Direction when you read other books together.
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All our letters start the same way.
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The letter family
appee hha
Reading Direction
down down
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Wri tin lett g ers
down
Before writing the letter, encourage your child to finger-trace over each one, starting at the top of the arrow. Remind your child to lift the pencil off before crossing the t (in the Reading Direction) and to go back and dot the i and j.
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The
letter family All our letters start the same way.
hape
Reading Direction
around
around
Wri tin lett g ers
around
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Finger-tracing in the correct sequence helps to develop good handwriting habits right from the beginning. Remind your child to lift the pencil off the paper before crossing the f with a stroke in the Reading Direction.
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Wri tin lett g ers
a g m s y
b h n t z
c i o u
d j p v
e k q w
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Let’s write all the letter shapes
appee hha
f l r x
Encourage your child to finger-trace the letter shapes first, then use a pencil. Remember to give lots of praise!
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hape
Reading Direction
Wri tin lett g ers
ABCD E F GH I J K L MNOPQR S T U VW X Y Z TE99_Text.indd 35
Encourage your child to finger-trace the letter shapes first, then use a pencil. Remember to give lots of praise!
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Introducing letter sounds
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ouon
My First Phonics Activity Book is divided into 2 sections – Shape and Sound. The second section of this book (pages 37-95) focuses on ‘sound’ and is a gentle introduction to reading and writing. This book will also help your child to start linking letter shapes to letter sounds - an important first skill when learning to read and spell. The trick below makes this often difficult sound/shape link easy. a...
The Letterland Sound Trick How to discover each letter sound: The first sound you make when you START to say any Letterlander’s name is exactly the sound that letter makes in most words!
Useful tips Include learning the Action Trick for each letter on pages 37 - 60 along with the letter’s sound. While the actions are fun, linking a body movement with each letter’s sound also strengthens children’s memory for the sounds they need to learn. You could also both say each letter’s sound to consolidate the shape/sound connection while your child finger traces its shape, or colours it in. As you read each letter’s coloured sentence, and point to the words, try exaggerating the featured letter’s sound (where possible). Say the sentence again together a few times, simply as a listening activity. Your aim right now is not to teach your child to read the words, but rather to develop their listening skills by helping them to identify those frequently repeated sounds at the start of the words. Later pages, beyond page 60, feature the important listening skill of identifying and playing with rhyming words.
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dd
oun
Annie Apple is in an apple tree.
Tick the boxes as you find each thing in the big picture.
apple
arrow
Annie Apple’s Action Trick: bite into an imaginary apple.
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ant 37
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dd
oun
Bouncy Ben can see a big, blue butterfly.
Tick the boxes as you find each thing in the big picture.
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butterfly
bird
ball
Bouncy Ben’s Action Trick: shoot your arms up for ears and wiggle them.
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dd
Blue balloons
oun
Colour blue all the things that begin with Bouncy Ben’s ‘b...’ sound.
Sou nd &s hap e
Finish colouring the picture.
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Emphasise Ben’s ‘b…’ sound as your child spots balloons, ball, bird and butterfly in the picture. Make a game of spotting Ben’s lowercase letter shape on products and signs when you are out together.
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Reading Direction
d
Peter’s picnic
oun
Join Peter Puppy to the food that begins with his ‘p’ sound.
strawberries
pizza pineapple
pear carrot
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Lett e sha r pes
banana
pie
apple
If your child confuses the p letter shape with b or d, tell him or her to notice how all three Letterlanders face in the Reading Direction. The one big difference is Peter Puppy’s ears. They always droop down.
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Same sounds
oun
Circle the object that starts with the Letterlander’s sound. t...
Talking Tess lll...
Lucy Lamp Light o...
Oscar Orange e...
Lett e sou r nds
Eddy Elephant
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Together make the sound at the start of the Letterlander’s name, e.g. ‘t…’, not ‘tuh’ or ‘tee’. Then say the name of each object, emphasising the first letter. For example, t…t…t, apple? No, that can’t be right, t…t…tree? Yes! Circle it.
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oun
d
I-spy
Tick the boxes as you find each thing in the big picture.
football
cup
hat
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Log
ic
frog Talk about the picture. The Letterlanders always love things that start with their sounds. Emphasize the first sound of each object in the side panels. Which Letterlander makes that sound? Look for each Letterlander and his or her object in the picture.
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d
Letter sounds
oun
Trace over the first letter in each big word.
Annie Apple says ‘a…’ in the word
ant
Bouncy Ben says ‘b…’ in the word
bus
Clever Cat whispers ‘c…’ in the word
cat
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Lett e sou r nds
Dippy Duck says ‘d…’ in the word
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dog
After you have read the sentence to your child, ask him or her to point to the letter in the word on the right that is making that Letterlander’s sound (e.g. ‘a…’ as in ‘ant’). The Letterlanders still make their sounds in these plain letters.
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d
oun
Reading Direction
Eddy Elephant says ‘e…’ in the word
egg
Firefighter Fred whispers ‘fff…’ in the word
frog
Golden Girl says ‘g…’ in the word
Act it out !
Harry Hat Man whispers ‘hhh…’ in the word
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green hat
Have some fun pretending to be a firefighter as you make Firefighter Fred’s ‘fff…’ sound together. Encourage your child to say, ‘fff… fff… fff…’.
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Yellow Yo-yo Man says ‘y…’ in the word
Zig Zag Zebra says ‘zzz…’ in the word
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Letter sounds
oun
yak zip
Write your name on the dotted line.
is now ready to read!
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We ll don e!
Well done!
When your child has finished this section, try going back over some of the activities he or she enjoyed most. You could also look at all the Letterlanders page 2 and say their sounds together.
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d
Build a word
oun
Finger-trace each big letter as you say its sound. c...
Clever Cat
a...
Annie Apple
t...
Talking Tess
Touch the red dot under each letter as you say each sound.
c
a
t
Blend the first two sounds together. Then add the third sound.
ca t Now say all three sounds together.
Blen d
cat TE99_Text.indd 73
Remember to only whisper Clever Cat and Talking Tess’s sounds. To blend ‘cat’ say the first two sounds together: ‘ca...’ . Say again and add t without a gap: ‘cat’.
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d
Rhyming words
oun
Write the first letter. Say its sound. Blend the sounds to read each word.
hat
mat
Say the rhyming words in the sentence below. Colour the picture.
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Rhy
me
Look at that fat cat in a hat on a mat ! Explain that words that sound the same at the end are words that rhyme. Hold your child’s hand and help him or her to point to each of the red rhyming words.
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Find the rhyming word
oun
Si sen lly ten ces
Look at the pictures below. Find the rhyming word and draw a circle around it.
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map
tap
bee
hen
pen
bed
top
jelly
mop
Make up silly sentences using the rhyming words on each line. E.g. “There’s a tap on that map”. Make up as many as you can - the sillier the better!
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Finish the rhyming pictures
oun
Complete the pictures that rhyme. Cross out the ones that don’t.
clock
fox
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Rhy
me
car
sock
box
cat
Follow up this activity by asking your child to think of a rhyming word for the words that they have crossed out.
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d
Match the rhyming words
oun
Draw lines between the words that rhyme.
peg
fox
box
spoon
List en
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Explain to your child that a ryhyme doesn’t always look the same at the end, but it does always sound the same.
egg 85
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d
oun
Match the rhyming words as before. Now, point to the Letterlander (above) that starts each word.
cake
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cup
snake
bat
pup
Rhy me
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hat
See if you child can think of a word the rhymes with each of the Letterlanders at the top of this page. E.g. Ben - pen; Cat - rat...
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oun
d
S
Well done!
hape
Now you know your letter shapes and sounds!
Pra
ise
Can you write your name here?
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When your child has finished this book, give him or her lots of praise. Look out for more books in the Letterland Activity Book series while your child is learning to read and write.
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Child-friendly phonics The Letterland system teaches all 44 sounds in the English language through stories rather than rules. There are resources to take children from the very ďŹ rst stages of learning to full literacy. ABC Trilogy
Getting Started
Handwriting Practice
Sticker & Activity Books
Picture Books
Games & Puzzles
See our full range at: www.letterland.com For product advice and support: info@letterland.com
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