Age 4+ Focus on SPELLING
Learn to spell whole words
About this book My Second Alphabet Activity Book As children enjoy these entertaining activities in this book they will be developing valuable skills in reading, writing and spelling. For example, they will soon recognise consonant and vowel sounds at the beginnings, middles and ends of words. Gradually, they will also start to spot regular letter patterns in words, such as cat, mat and hat. Some suggestions to help you get the most from this book: • Read through the activities together and explaining what your child needs to do. • Always say the sound that a letter makes, not its name. To help you to get the sounds right use the Letterland Sounds Trick – the moment you and your child start to say a Letterland character’s name (e.g. the little whispered sound you naturally make as you start to say ‘Clever Cat’), you have made that letter’s correct sound.* • Go through all the Letterlanders on the inside back cover, using the Letterland Sounds Trick to work out each letter’s correct sound. You will discover that eight of them are ‘whispered’ sounds – ‘c…’, ‘fff…’, ‘hhh…’, ‘k…’, ‘p…’, ‘sss…’, ‘t…’ and ‘x…’. Recognising these voiceless sounds is important for young spellers. • Good listening skills are essential for successful reading and spelling, so encourage your child to listen closely. Help with identifying the separate sounds in words as he or she says them. • Where boxes are provided for writing their own words, encourage your child to plan ahead so that their writing fits within the box. If they can’t manage, don’t worry, but praise liberally when they do. Children are often only comfortable concentrating for 10-15 minutes at a time, so a little and often tends to work best. All children progress at different rates. So if your child finds a particular activity difficult, leave it for now and come back to it on another occasion. Your child may well find it a lot easier later on. Above all – enjoy the book together. Give plenty of encouragement and praise to help make it a rewarding experience for you both! * Except for x where the whispered little ‘ks’ sound is at the end of Fix-it Max’s name.
All about me My name is
I am
years old.
My favourite colour is‌ Colour in here.
My favourite Letterland friend is‌ Draw a picture here.
Go pra od ctic e
Here is a picture of me.
Use this page to give your child a sense of ownership of this book. Encourage him or her to add detail to their self-portrait (ears, eyebrows, etc.).
1
Recognising initial sounds Draw lines from the words starting with Clever Cat’s sound to the matching pictures. Which word begins with another sound?
cat bat cup
2
Sta rtin g
carrot Say the words for your child to match with their pictures. Say them again to help find the odd one out. Then sound them out to identify one or two of the words, or all four.
Now join each Letterlander to the object that starts with his or her letter sound.
hat tent dog
Sta rtin g
milk Together try to think of other things that start with any of these four Letterlanders’ sounds.
3
Recognising b and d Colour in the balloons that have my letter in them.
d
b d
b
b
Draw a circle round the words that start with my letter sound.
doll duck
Pre
4
con vent fus ion
bun
bell
Children often confuse the shapes of ‘b’ and ‘d’. Use the Letterland characters to help children learn which way the circular shapes face.